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.