Beyond The Headlines: Extending fresh produce shelf life, Umiami rebrand targets global expansion

This week in industry news, Janssen PMP and Fresh Inset partnered to commercialize the Vidre+ technology that extends fruit and vegetable shelf life and plant-based meat company Umiami renamed itself Swap to expand its international presence. Meanwhile, agri-food stakeholders gathered at the FAO’s World Food Forum in Italy and Ohly announced an upcoming fermentation facility in Germany.

Business highlights

Belgium-based Janssen PMP and Fresh Inset joined forces to commercialize Fresh Inset’s Vidre+ technology in Europe exclusively. The technology consists of a range of new applications of the 1-MCP molecule for extending the post-harvest shelf life of fruits and vegetables and is available in the form of Vidre+ stickers and pads. It helps growers, packers, distributors and retailers preserve produce quality during storage, transportation and retail display. It also enables retailers to increase their revenue and consumer satisfaction by maintaining freshness and minimizing food losses.

French clean label meat replacement company Umiami renamed itself to Swap to focus on international expansion since “swap” is a universal word. The move aims to encourage consumers to improve their eating habits by swapping traditional meat filets for plant-based alternatives. The versatility of the name allows the company to expand beyond plant-based chicken filets, potentially covering all types of meat and fish. 

Ohly’s new fermentation plant increases its production capacity by 50% (Image credit: Ohly).Yeast derivatives supplier Ohly announced plans to open a new spray drying tower and fermentation facility in Hamburg, Germany, next year, focusing on decarbonization. The fermentation plant is expected to increase production capacity by up to 50% while simultaneously reducing specific energy consumption. The site will use more efficient cooling towers and lower freshwater levels to reduce water consumption and target packaging waste reduction.

Agriculture highlights

The fourth edition of the World Food Forum flagship event, the largest annual gathering of agri-food systems stakeholders globally, kicked off on October 14 at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, inaugurated the event. This year’s theme is “Good food for all, for today and tomorrow.” The forum will include sessions focused on youth, science and innovation, and targeted investments, which the FAO director general considers as the key elements for transformational change.

At the same event, the FAO’s Investment Centre celebrated 60 years of providing agri-food investment support. The center collaborates with countries and financing institutions to design investment strategies, policies and projects to support agri-food systems. The organization’s future work targets sustainable value chain development, decarbonization, digital agriculture and innovative finance, among many other areas.

Nigerian ministers with state representatives and other stakeholders discussed the SAPZ program in Nigeria (Image credit: African Development Bank Group).The African Development Bank Group reached an agreement with participating Nigerian state governments to speed up the implementation of the Nigeria Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) program to develop eight new agro-industrial zones in the country. The program aims to create new hubs that integrate the production, processing, and distribution of targeted crops and livestock to achieve food security. The program has mobilized US$538 million in co-financing from the African Development Bank Group, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Research and innovation

Research by an international team of scientists found that nutrients on the nanometer scale can reduce some of the worst effects of heavy metal and metalloid contamination, and increase crop yields by 22.8% and nutrient content by 30%. The findings are published in Nature Food and the study was led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US, Guangdong University of Technology and Central South University of Forestry and Technology in China.