Naturex Investigates Innovative Sourcing Options via Plant Cell Technology

17 Nov 2016 --- In March 2016, Naturex, launched Ingenium, an Open Innovation Program aiming to advance technological breakthroughs by supporting innovative ideas and disruptive technologies. Among the avenues being explored, are plant cell technology processes and bioreactor cultivation practices, alternative ways to grow plant raw materials with full traceability, while preserving natural resources.

In vitro Plant-tech is a research derived company, specializing in plant cell culture development and production. This technology enables production of uniform, high quality plant material, free from pesticides, heavy metals and adulteration. As part of the agreement, IVPT shall use its patented processes to develop and produce unique and exclusive plant cell lines for Naturex.

“Plant Cell Technology is in its infancy today,” Marc Roller (pictured), Chief Scientific Officer tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “Our project with In Vitro Plant-tech is an exploratory initiative part of our Ingenium program. Plant Cell technology will only become mainstream if the business model works from a scalability and cost perspective.”

The obtained material is identical to the plants and its components can be used as ingredients in functional foods, dietary supplements or cosmetic applications.

“Naturex is always looking for unique sourcing solutions,” says Roller. “In addition to plant cell technology, agricultural technologies, such as the use of bioreactors or hydroponic cultures, is an area of investigation for us. Naturex will always remain at the fore front of these new innovations, and whether they have a real impact on the food industry is yet to be determined.”

Roller adds: “These types of technologies are very promising in term of traceability and sustainability. In term of traceability, there is a full control of the source and the growing process. These technologies are also very earth friendly.”

Collaboration with Belgium-based Green2Chem
Founded in 2011, Green2Chem’s ambition is to develop and operate bioreactors to cultivate any type of plant roots, with applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics markets. As humanity faces major challenges in healthcare, it may be necessary to accelerate production of plant roots through technological innovations in order to make their health benefits available to all. Naturex and Green2chem are collaborating on high value plant roots, thus helping to unlock a plant’s full potential.

“As the world leader in specialty plant-based technology, Naturex must anticipate the market’s future needs,” says Roller. “Today Naturex’s business model is exclusively based on sustainably sourced plant-based extracts but we know that we must remain open to new sustainably obtained natural raw materials. The Ingenium Program helps us identify promising paths and potentially strategic lines of inquiry. Plant-cell technology and bioreactor cultivation may be two of them.”

In 2016, Agroparc, French pole of excellence in Food Intelligence, based in Avignon (France) and UBM, join forces to launch the Start-Up Innovation Challenge. This Challenge aims at promoting international innovative projects on ingredients during this years HiE in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Start-Up Innovation Challenge aims at rewarding ingredient innovative projects, carried out by start-ups that have brought something completely new and unexpected to the food and health markets.

The Challenge rewards the best Ingredients projects, carried out by less than 3 year old start-ups or by still developing companies.

A “Natural Ingredients” special prize will be given by Naturex, partner of the event, for innovative projects promoting new extraction methods (green tech), new plant extracts and new ingredient concepts.

Earlier this month, Naturex reported that sales were up from €94m ($104m) to €98m ($108m) in Q3, helped by an increasing number of customers shifting to natural ingredients.

by Elizabeth Kenward