HPMC capsules first hit the main-stream supplement market in the mid-’90s.

　　Capsule filling operations at the time were attuned to running gelatin capsules at maximum machine speeds, with high quality finished products. In the beginning, and even a little bit now, these capsules were called “veggies”. HPMC capsules (often termed “veggie”) were plant-based, different from the animal-based gelatins to which everyone was accustomed.

　　Immediately noticeable upon inspection was the difference in appearance. Operators compared both capsules side-by-side and the difference was night and day.

　　Even when empty, veggie-caps did not have the crystal-clear, highly-polished look gelatin capsules had; instead, they looked cloudy and dull, and even had a rough exterior texture that could be felt by hand, distinguishable with the eyes closed.As the industry began running the “veggie-caps”, there were immediate challenges.

　　The capsule wall was significantly softer than the gelatin capsule, which resulted in a greater tendency to have dented-end defects. Additionally, they were slightly smaller than standard capsule sizes, and therefore loose in the filling machine tooling.

　　The capsule’s loose fit eventually led to the design of special veggie segments which had to be purchased and installed on the machinery when running these capsules. Even with custom segments, a higher rate of defects was expected when running the veggie-type capsules.