June 18/Morristown, N.J./PRNewswire -- P.L. Thomas & Co Inc. has launched a line of ingredients that offer a fruit and vegetable "food replacement" experience in consumer food and beverage products. Called Vivid Harvest Whole Food Powders, the line features a patented new technology that gently evaporates water molecules in foods without disturbing the active enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals or other phytonutrients -- preserving the flavor, aroma, color and nutritional quality of the original materials in a manner that enhances the consumer experience.

At the same time, Vivid Harvest Whole Food Powders offer food and beverage manufacturers a number of processing advantages over raw foods and other fruit and vegetable inclusion processes, including a longer shelflife, better flowability with less dusting, enhanced solubility and dispersibility,  a better particle shape with greater density, and a lack of solvents or other adulterating processing aids. In this initial launch, PL Thomas will offer than 25 different fruit-based products and 16 vegetable-based products drawn from what the industry is asking for and the hottest trends in the consumer food and beverage market. Depending upon the consumer product application, starting materials for the Vivid Harvest process can be whole fruits and vegetables or all-natural juices and purees. From this initial lineup of market offerings, PL Thomas expects to expand into new fruits and vegetables, with the potential to create whole food powders out of non-traditional ingredients, like salmon.