Beyond The Headlines: New CEO for Nestlé Health Science, Symrise opens pet food palatants production facility

22 Sep 2023 --- In industry news this week, Astanor secured €360 million (US$384 million) in funding to bolster sustainable agri-food technologies while Symrise inaugurated a pet food palatants production facility. Meanwhile, UK retailer Sainsbury’s launched an Aberdeen Angus range with a 25% lower carbon footprint, and Nestlé Health Science announced a new CEO.

In brief: Business Highlights
CEO of Nestlé Health Science, Greg Behar, will leave Nestlé as of December 31, 2023, to pursue new professional interests. Greg Behar helped establish Nestlé Health Science as a leader in nutritional health solutions, growing the company’s portfolio to capture attractive long-term trends and expanding into new geographic regions. He has been CEO for nine years. 

The Board of Directors of Nestlé S.A. has appointed Anna Mohl, currently Head of International Business at Nestlé Health Science, as CEO of Nestlé Health Science and as Executive Vice President and member of the Executive Board of Nestlé S.A., effective January 1, 2024.

Symrise inaugurated a pet food palatants production facility to align with the industry’s elevating standards in pet food quality and safety. Located in Chapéco, Santa Catarina, Brazil, the highly automated facility stands as a landmark for Symrise’s global pet food operations. Palatants serve as specialized ingredient systems, offering a unique blend of umami richness and targeted taste enhancements. They play a crucial role in masking the often unpleasant flavors of functional feed additives and veterinary medicines, stimulating the appetite of pets to encourage eating and satiety. The new Symrise facility will produce liquid and powder palatants for both domestic and international pet food markets. 

Anna Mohl, new CEO of Nestlé Health Science. (Image Credits: Nestlé). Astanor announced a €360 million (US$384 million) in final closing for its Second Venture Fund, bolstering commitment to sustainable agri-food technologies. This latest closing tops Astanor’s existing various funds and special purpose vehicles altogether amounting to approximately €800 million (US$853 million) assets under management.

The European Food Safety Authority’s new dashboard provides interactive online access to the results of its horizon scanning activities for plant pests that may pose a threat to European Union territory. It was launched earlier this week. 

In brief: Sustainability News
UK retailer Sainsbury’s is launching a new Taste the Difference Aberdeen Angus range, which could change how beef is produced in the UK. The range will offer a 25% lower carbon footprint compared to industry standard, making it the largest low-carbon beef range ever produced in the UK, says the supermarket. It has developed the range by bringing together its dairy and beef supply chains, reducing carbon through a combination of superior cattle breeding and animal management. 

In 2021, Heineken announced the ambition to become net-zero by 2040. Two years later, the beer giant’s net-zero and FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), making the company the first global brewer to pass this sustainability milestone.

Good Planet Foods has launched “the world’s first” olive oil cheese, with exceptional taste, meltability, and heart health benefits. The Olive Oil Cheeses can change the cheese category, notes the company. They are dairy-free and better for people and the planet. This first-of-its-kind product is poised to appeal to all, especially the growing number of US flexitarians.Angel’s R&D team regularly visited Tibet and collected over 100 samples of plateau probiotics. (Image Credits: Angel Group).

In brief: Other highlights 
Chinese scientists have elucidated the mechanism of fruit shape formation in tomatoes and have developed fresh tomatoes for mechanical harvesting. In the early 1960s, the fs8.1 mutation caused a shape change in tomato fruit from round to blocky, which greatly improved the stress tolerance of tomato fruit and brought about a major change in tomato processing from traditional manual harvesting to mechanized production. Since fs8.1 is located in a heterochromatic region, the underlying gene had not previously been identified. In this study, researchers led by Prof. LI Chuanyou from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the cloning, functional characterization, and breeding application of fs8.1. They demonstrated that the fs8.1 mutation has a stronger promoting effect on cell proliferation in the ovary wall than in the columella, resulting in an elongated fruit shape. They then identified the FS8.1 gene and found that it encodes a non-canonical GT-2 factor that lacks the characteristic trihelix DNA-binding domain.

Angel Group — a prominent company in the field of biotechnology, driving progress and innovation in sectors like bio-agriculture and bio-healthcare — has achieved large-scale production of the Dangxiong LB VIII probiotics strain, a significant breakthrough that marks a milestone in Angel’s strategic transformation from yeast toward biotechnology. The DB-8 hails from Dang Xiong, which is at an altitude of 4,500 meters, where there are towering snow mountains and vast grasslands. This edible probiotic strain belongs to Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Lactis, and at its core, Angel has brought its first self-developed yogurt starter culture, Yo-Fru1. Angel’s R&D team regularly visited Tibet and collected over 100 samples of plateau probiotics from more than 20 counties and townships across five cities and one district, and continually expands its Qinghai Tibet Plateau Probiotic Bank, which is the main driving force for tackling the bottleneck of plateau probiotics development.

By Gaynor Selby