CSM Ingredients is partnering with Allozymes, a start-up ‘revolutionizing the way that industries manufacture complex natural products’ through rapid novel enzyme development. The multi-year agreement provides CSM Ingredients with a platform to collaborate closely with Allozymes to design and develop custom enzymes for improved and sustainable processing of natural, clean label, functional, ingredients.
“Enzyme technology is able to be cross-functional and add value to our broad suite of offerings,” CSM CEO Aldo Uva told FoodNavigator. “Our collaboration will enable us to work hand-in-hand with this pioneering partner to uncover innovative and impactful enzyme technology solutions,” he predicted.
Developing new ‘natural and high-performing’ ingredients
CSM Ingredients’ investment in enzyme discovery aims to elevate the group’s scientific know-how and sensorial level understanding of how translate this intellectual capital into the creation of final products.
The collaboration will focus on unlocking new opportunities to develop natural and high-performing food ingredients, such as ancient grains, flours, specialty oils and fats, plant fibres, proteins and more, the company revealed. The company also stressed it wants to advanced biotechnology to develop ‘fresh-keeping tech’ and food waste reduction.
“Our multi-year collaboration will initially focus on enzyme and other functional protein ingredients. Some examples of focus projects we aim to develop together offerings include: first, finding was to enable us to further develop our ancient cereals portfolio in order to drive biodiversity and agricultural diversification, and, secondly projects focused on upcycling and food waste reduction,” Uva detailed.
The novel ingredients produced will comply with clean label and natural consumer trends. “As we target enzyme and other functional proteins as key solutions, the declaration will contain no E-numbers. And, as such, this follows our clean label strategy with the use of naturally-derived ingredients instead of additives,” Uva said.
“More specifically, through a combination of enzyme and fermentation science, bio-technology, and our application experience we will be able to deliver a unique market proposition which capitalizes on clean label opportunities and scalability.”
Biotech building a net positive future
Earlier this year, CSM set out its ambition to be ‘net positive’, an aim it is embedding across all business functions, from customer sales to R&D. This latest move demonstrates the role that collaboration will play in CSM’s sustainability efforts.
“As we work towards our vision to become a ‘net positive’ food ingredient tech platform, it is a strategic priority for us to identify and invest in partnerships that will help meet that ambitious objective; one that ultimately looks to lead industry change through innovation and quality solutions that are good for both people and the planet. Pioneering start-ups like Allozymes are an essential part of this journey, and partnerships such as ours help optimize synergies thanks in part to our global, collaborative resources and expertise,” the group’s chief executive revealed.
Peyman Salehain, Allozymes' cheif executive, agreed that CSM’s scale and expertise makes the collaboration the ‘perfect synergic match’.
“We are excited to enter a strategic partnership with CSM Ingredients. Leveraging our ultra high-throughput biotechnology platform for custom enzyme discovery and development combined with CSM’s core expertise in sourcing, processing, distribution and sales in the business-to-business food industry is a perfect, synergic match for the development of functional ingredients,” he suggested.
While the tie-up is targeting impact at scale, Uva nevertheless said that the groups would take a ‘calculated approach’ to their rollout plans. Outlining the timeframe the companies are working to, he told us: “By the end of this year our collaboration will be focused on enzyme screening and development, followed by process developments and product application trials in 2023, with the objective for pilots and commercial roll outs in 2024. For us, clearly our objective is to leverage the solutions globally, but our first focus will be in Europe.”