Chr. Hansen develops Listeria battler

B-LC-20 is developed to meet the specific demands of the industry. It is easy to use and does not change the taste or smell of the fermented sausages.

Chr. Hansen has developed and claimed patent protection for B-LC-20 - a natural solution for the meat and prepared foods industry that fights the listeria food bug with lactic acid bacteria. The new ingredient is especially useful for salami and other dried fermented sausages.

While the company says that infections caused by Listeria are not as common as for example salmonella infections, they can be very serious. The bug can cause anything from diarrhoea to blood poisoning or meningitis, just as the bacterium can lead to miscarriages or cause disease in foetuses and newborns. Meanwhile mortality in high risk groups - for example immuno-depressed persons, diabetes patients, elderly or pregnant - is estimated by authorities to be as high as 50 per cent.

“From our daily contacts with the meat and prepared foods industry we realized that Listeria was an increasingly critical issue. A problem many producers have been seeking new solutions against. Now, I am happy to say that we have something exciting to offer”, says Chr. Hansen’s Eva Stenby.

“B-LC-20 is developed to meet the specific demands of the industry. It is easy to use and does not change the taste or smell of the fermented sausages. The producer will usually not need to make any changes in his sausage recipe,” Mrs. Stenby explains.

This makes B-LC-20 a very attractive alternative to the options currently available. These include heat treatment, additives likes potato starch, and increasing fat content or salt levels.

Chr. Hansen’s calculations show that the price of using B-LC-20 amounts to less than half a percent of the sausage sales price. Marketing Manager Eva Stenby says: “Less than half a percent is peanuts compared to the cost producers will incur if forced to destroy a weeks production or even worse make a total recall from the market. Not to mention the catastrophic effects a food scandal can have on the company’s image and consumer confidence.”

“We expect bio-protection with B-LC-20 to be particularly popular among producers of high quality products with recognized brand names. A brand you have invested time, money and effort in, is a brand definitely worth protecting,” the Marketing Manager says.

Chr. Hansen has claimed patent protection for B-LC-20 that is part of the company’s SafePro range of bio-protective cultures for meat. The product has been tested by the independent Spanish Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology (IRTA).

www.chr-hansen.com