R&D News
August 1, 2004
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R&D News
Food giant Nestlé agreed to sell its cocoa bean processing facilities in
York, England and Hamburg, Germany to Minnesota-based Cargill. Nestlé said the move
was part of its strategy to focus on branded value-added products. As part
of the deal, Cargill entered a long-term agreement with Nestlé to
supply cocoa products to certain Nestlé European confectionery
businesses.
Denmark-based Chr. Hansen
A/S and Canada’s Urex Biotech Inc. formed a
strategic alliance to market therapeutic solutions for women’s
health. Both companies will use their expertise in probiotics to formulate
products for specific female health issues. Probiotics are beneficial
bacteria that help to strengthen the body’s natural intestinal
balance and immunity.
Aloecorp, Broomfield,
Colo., was granted USDA Organic Certification for its Certified Plus and
Active Aloe brands of aloe vera ingredients, which are also kosher. Active
Aloe is standardized to guarantee 10 percent polysaccharides by weight.
Fortitech Asia Pacific,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, received ISO 9001 registration from National
Quality Assurance USA. Fortitech’s quality system applies to
nutritional formulations developed by its manufacturing facilities in Kuala
Lumpur, Schenectady, N.Y., and Campinas, Brazil, for food, beverage and
pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
Comax Flavors, Melville,
N.Y., enhanced its flavor team with several promotions. Agneta Weisz was named vice president
of flavors & technology; Gladys Slovis was promoted to senior food scientist and Ari Gastman was moved to junior
flavor chemist.
Takasago International Corp. (USA) Flavor Division, Rockleigh, N.J., appointed Kathleen
Connely as senior flavorist, Erin Hartigan as senior food
technologist, and Hitesh Patel as flavorist trainee.
Univera Inc. announced the
appointment of John Rhees, president and chief executive
officer of its Aloecorp, to its board of directors. Also noteworthy, the company will
relocate in September to Lacey, Wash., at the southern end of Puget Sound.
Chr. Hansen shared its
technical expertise with attendees at the annual IFT meeting in Las Vegas
last month. The company presented “Fighting Listeria with the
bioprotective culture B-SF-43” during the
New Products and Technologies: Innovation in Food Safety session of the
technical program. B-SF-43, or more commonly Bactoferm, is a bioprotective
culture that significantly prevents growth of L. monocytogenes as a natural and often more efficient alternative to
chemical additives.
Bactoferm is a single strain culture of the lactic
acid bacteria Leuconostoc carnosum 4010, which was isolated from a vacuum-packed meat product.
The product has been shown to stabilize or reduce the growth of several
different L. monocytogenes strains in numerous vacuum- and modified-atmosphere-packed
meat products due to competitive exclusion and bacteriocin production. For
more information, call 800/548-0802 or visit chr-hansen.com.
A.M. Todd Co. welcomed John W. Finley as its chief
technical officer. Finley will spearhead the company’s push to
develop new mint and other naturally derived flavor and functional
ingredients, as well as new processes for integrating them into products
manufactured by its customers in the confections, chewing gum, oral care
and pharmaceuticals markets.
Unigen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a leading research and development facility and supplier of
proprietary, biologically active plant-derived ingredients, entered into a
collaboration agreement for plant collection and product development with Inca Health, an agro-industrial
company in Lima, Peru. The two companies will work closely with indigenous
tribes to collect native plants from the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest and Andes Mountains.
