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Acrylaway® makes food safer and healthier, reducing acrylamide by up to 80% in the production of French fries. |
“Whether our customers want to ensure safe and healthy food through reducing acrylamide, offer convenient, protein-fortified dietary supplements, or get more yield from mozzarella, Novozymes has an original and effective solution that combines profitability with meeting consumers’ preferences,” says Flemming Mark Christensen, Global Marketing Manager, Food & Nutrition at Novozymes.
Winning awards and loyal customers
Acrylaway®, Novozymes’ highly acclaimed asparaginase, has been stealing headlines for its effective reduction of acrylamide in dough-based products without changing the taste and appearance of the final product. Having been applied initially with commercial success across a broad range of foods such as biscuits, crackers, crispbreads, and snacks, acrylamide reductions of up to 80% have been proven possible in the production of French fries, with additional substantial reductions in acrylamide levels in the field of potato-based snacks.
“We see an increasing interest from the industry for reducing acrylamide in potato-based products,” says Emmanuel Michelot, Regional Marketing Manager in Novozymes’ Food & Nutrition department. “Testing or implementation is ongoing at several customer sites producing dehydrated potato snack ingredients, and we are currently enjoying our first sales to a European potato-based snack producer.”
On July 8, Novozymes was recognized at the 2008 Ringier Technology Innovation Awards for Food & Beverage Industries in China. Winning the prestigious Food and Beverage Ingredient Technology category for Acrylaway, it seems global success for this asparaginase is just beginning.
Creative collaboration
The dairy industry was energized by 2002’s ground-breaking alliance between Novozymes and natural ingredient producer Chr. Hansen. Managed from within the Food & Nutrition department, this unique relationship, combining Chr. Hansen’s highly specialized dairy market knowledge and Novozymes’ bioinnovative know-how, brought about YieldMAX® in 2005, an original solution that increases yield in the production of stretched-curd cheese such a mozzarella and provolone.
YieldMAX is added to milk as a pretreatment process to optimize coagulation, ultimately resulting in an increase in yield of up to 2%. Although this may not seem a significant amount to the noncheesemaker, it is estimated that the combined efforts of the entire dairy industry over the past decade increased cheese yield by just 1%. While dairy enzymes currently account for the largest segment of Europe’s EUR 200 billion food enzyme market, it remains an area of unfulfilled potential, and one of unlimited opportunity for this dream team.
“With our current alliance portfolio and a very strong project pipeline, we are in a strong position for growth throughout the coming years,” says Nis Peter Christensen, Strategic Account Manager at Novozymes. “This will cement the position of the alliance as ‘the leading provider of enzyme-based innovations to the dairy industry’.”
Get healthy on the go
Hectic lifestyles, health and diet awareness, and a growing aged population have encouraged an increase in the need for nutritious and convenient snacks. Protein-rich drinks are a popular product for this highly receptive market, and their production depends heavily on vegetable and dairy proteins as key ingredients. Use of pioneering proteases can greatly improve the production of these products by improving digestibility and providing readily absorbable and soluble proteins or peptides. The protease selection for treatment is critical as it ensures that the hydrolysates are not only soluble but also free from the bitter taste often associated with peptides.
Novozymes’ offers unique bioinnovation products: Alcalase® 2.4 L, Protamex®, Neutrase® 0.8 L, and Flavourzyme® 1000 L, which improve the heat stability of the peptides present in the hydrolysates, while also reducing the bitterness. Not only do the resulting products taste better and are more heat stable, but the higher amounts of soluble and heat-stable proteins and peptides produced result in a higher yield. So consumers enjoy a convenient, great tasting, easily absorbable protein drink, and manufacturers enjoy excellent process economy and loyal consumers.
GAG extraction gets greener
As reported in the last edition of BioTimes, the use of enzymes is changing the production of soy sauce by increasing yield, intensifying flavor, reducing fermentation, and producing a healthier product through the elimination of 3-MCPD (3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol). But this is not the only Food & Nutrition success story in Asia. The production of GAGs in China is turning to enzymes to establish a cleaner source product while getting sustainable.
GAGs, or glycosaminoglycans, are widely found in animal tissue, including lungs, intestinal mucosa, trachea, and rooster combs and skin, from which they can be extracted. Chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine are two GAGs that are key components in joint-targeted treatments, essential in keeping the growing elderly population mobile. Their complicated extraction involves the breakdown of the surrounding tissues and core proteins to which the GAGs are covalently linked. The process begins when the raw materials are cleaned by proteases to secure a meat protein-free and cleaner base from which to begin the GAG extraction process.
Although significantly cleaner GAGs is the primary benefit from using enzymes during the extraction process, manufacturers also relish in increased production yield and additional peace of mind in knowing the environmental advantages this method brings. Using enzymes during alkaline hydrolysis reduces some of the environmental drawbacks associated with this method, and in eco-friendly times as these, such benefits cannot be underestimated. Enzyme use in GAG production reduces both the solid waste produced and the amount of water required for downstream processing.
Innovation and experimentation
With exciting pipeline products and unique customer-focused projects, Novozymes’ Food & Nutrition department truly encapsulates the energy and creativity that is bioinnovation.