Stepan to Launch New MCT/Keto Product at Las Vegas Trade Show

Stepan Lipid Nutrition joins the MCT/keto trend with the launch of its new product called NEOBEE ProKeto at its booth at the SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada next month, NutraIngredients reported on October 16.  The product is a micro-encapsulated C8 MCT oil sprayed onto a pea protein support to create a free flowing powder for food and supplement applications.  

Bob Peacock, vice president and general manager of Stepan’s Specialty Products Business, said coconut and palm oil are the two most common sources of MCT ingredients, both the 8-carbon and 10-carbon variety.  But coconut at the moment has fewer drawbacks, with the concerns raised in international environmental circles about palm oil production and its effect on remaining stands of virgin rainforest.  The company is currently using the coconut stream. Peacock said once the MCT fractions are refined out, there is no difference in their performance as ingredients whether they were sourced from palm or from coconut.  

MCT ingredients fit well into the ketogenic diet craze.  But unlike some other ingredients whose sudden popularity was based on hype, he said MCT oil has solid science behind it that is driving the increasing demand, Peacock said. “In the past year and a half to two years there has been a lot of positive press on the cognitive benefits of MCT oils,” he said, adding there is a lot of good science behind the ingredient.