Shifting oral care formulation away from petrochemical feedstocks, Holiferm utilizes proprietary fermentation routes to synthesize sophorolipids. Application testing demonstrated that these biosurfactants serve multifunctional roles within oral suspensions:
Providing anti-biofilm properties that mitigate bacterial adhesion on enamel,
Solubilizing hydrophobic flavor actives, including natural peppermint essential oils,
Delivering target foaming profiles without compromising mildness.
Dispersing Silica and Eliminating Aeration
Toothpaste production involves processing rheologically complex, high-solid suspensions. During liquid-powder integration, dissolving humectants such as sorbitol and xylitol constitutes the initial processing step, followed by the dispersion of polishing silica.
Standard low-shear impellers frequently allow abrasive silica to agglomerate into persistent lumps rather than de-aggregating them. The high mechanical shear generated within the Silverson rotor/stator workhead draws the slurry inward, fractures silica aggregates, and yields a uniform, smooth paste without extended residence times.
Clarissa Clark (Application Scientist, Holiferm):
I love the Silverson for this application because, as always, it’s saving me a whole bunch of time. Silica generally stays in these clumps in the formulation, but on the Silverson, it sends it right through, smooths it out, and the toothpaste is ready to go so much quicker.
Furthermore, because air entrapment in high-viscosity pastes disrupts packaging line dosing and paste integrity, the mixer’s bottom-up intake geometry prevented vortex-induced air entrainment from the surface, achieving a deaerated suspension.
James Cardus (Technical Sales Engineer, Silverson):
It’s amazing, there’s no aeration at all, really... formulations like that that are very viscous would hold on to a lot of air, and it’s just part of how that mixer picks up from the bottom of the container and avoids pulling in huge amounts of air from the surface.
