The mechanism
Ultrasonic energy cold-forms the matrix. No heat. No shear.
Conventional food manufacturing for bar and snack formats relies on three input types that are hostile to fragile actives:
- Thermal energy (baking, drying, hot extrusion) degrades heat-labile actives through cumulative heat load. Curcuminoids lose up to 84% during single-pass extrusion of oat-fiber snacks, with additional 4–44% loss during downstream drying (Lu et al., J. Food Sci. 2019). B-vitamins, adaptogens, and encapsulated marine oils show comparable sensitivity above ~60 °C.
- Mechanical shear (twin-screw extrusion, high-speed compounding) damages protein quality and viable-cell counts. Up to 40% of available lysine is lost during extrusion of cereal-flour protein mixtures (Noguchi et al.); probiotic viability drops several log CFU/g across extruded matrices vs. sheeted matrices under identical formulations (Foods 2025).
- Water activity (Aw) drives the intramolecular cyclization of creatine to inert creatinine — water-catalyzed, temperature-accelerated, and pH-sensitive. Probiotics require Aw and pH windows most bar matrices sit outside, and marine oils oxidize measurably in humid or high-Aw environments (GOED Best Practices, 2017).
SOUND's ultrasonic cold-form process — ultrasonic agglomeration in the food-science literature — substitutes high-frequency mechanical energy in a low kHz range for the thermal and shear loads a conventional line depends on. The matrix binds at near-ambient bulk temperature with negligible shear on the loaded active. Water activity is controlled at the formulation step, not compensated for downstream with humectants or preservatives.
