R&D News
R&D News
Autocrat, a family-owned
coffee roaster and coffee extract manufacturer based in Lincoln, R.I.,
announced the purchase of a custom state-of-the-art extraction system. The
system “substantially increases” Autocrat’s
coffee-extract volume capacity, allowing the company to meet the growing
demand for coffee extracts in ice cream, dairy beverages and other
products.
Chr. Hansen Inc.,
Milwaukee, and Noveon Hilton Davis Inc., Cincinnati, entered into a joint sales and marketing
agreement under which the companies will provide
“cost-effective” color solutions for custom applications in
beverages and other foods. According to the companies, the cooperation will
allow Chr. Hansen to provide U.S. and Canadian customers with an expanded
line of color systems, including synthetic colors, color blends and natural
colors from Noveon Hilton Davis.
Danisco’s flavor
division, Danisco Flavours, recently moved its global headquarters from the United Kingdom
to Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The central European location “will
further strengthen the supply chain management capabilities” of the
division’s global operations and “leverage existing corporate
assets,” says Danisco. Jos Kleppers, former president of flavours and
fragrances worldwide for Sensient, recently was appointed president of the Danisco Flavours
Group.
FiberGel Technologies Inc.,
Mundelein, Ill., signed an agreement to supply the Z-Trim zero-calorie fat
substitute to Nestlé on a long-term basis. Developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the
Z-Trim product is a multi-functional fiber food ingredient that can reduce
the fat and calories in cheese and dairy dips/spreads, dressings, baked
goods and many other foods “without affecting taste or
texture.” FiberGel Technologies owns the worldwide rights to Z-Trim
for all fields of use.
Paris-based Rhodia completed the first phase of its improvement
plan by concluding an agreement for debt refinancing with its 23 creditor banks.
The agreement, says the company, maintains existing lines of credit and establishes
a new “medium-term” credit line secured by group assets.
Dr. Phil Tong, a professor at California Polytechnic State University’s
Dairy Products Technology Center, was awarded more than $500,000 for two projects
designed to develop new knowledge and applications for dairy ingredients. According
to the university, Dairy Management Inc., Rosemont, Ill., granted the funding
through resources administered by the California Dairy Research Foundation.
A portion of the money will be used for a pilot ultra-high-temperature processing
system to enable research and development related to extended shelf-life dairy
products.
Bellevue, Wash.-based SCOLR
Inc. entered into an asset purchase
agreement to sells its probiotics development and manufacturing business to
a company formed by Steven Moger, SCOLR’s vice president of
operations, chief financial officer and general manager of the probiotics
division. Moger will resign from his position as an officer of SCOLR in
connection with the closing.
Researchers at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison say they have adapted
a technique primarily used in laser eye surgery to cleanly slice cheddar
cheese into very thin, but nicely shaped slices. Xiaochun Li, a mechanical
engineering professor at the university, and graduate student Hongseok Choi
used a new class of lasers that emit light in the ultraviolet range. Such
lasers cut through a process called photoablation, which occurs when a
laser produces photons with energies that exceed the energies of the bonds
holding molecules together.
Cargill Inc., Minneapolis,
completed its acquisition of The Duckwork Group (TDG), based in Manchester, England. TDG, a flavor company
that supplies the food and beverage industries in the United Kingdom and
the rest of Western Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East, will become
part of Cargill’s Food System Design (FSD) platform. Meanwhile, Cargill
Food & Pharma Specialties, also part
Cargill Inc.’s FSD platform, announced the commissioning of North
America’s first erythritol manufacturing plant. The $60 million
facility, located in Blair, Neb., produces the Eridex brand of
erythritol, “an all-natural non-caloric bulk sweetener with a taste
similar to sugar.”
Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), announced the retirement of Joseph A. Levitt Esq. as director of the
agency’s Center for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition (FSAN). Robert E.
Brackett, Ph.D., a microbiologist who has been with the FDA since 2000, was
named as Levitt’s successor.
Rainer K. Grimm was appointed interim chief financial
officer of Holzminden, Germany-based Symrise
GmbH & Co KG. Grimm, formerly chief
financial officer with several other German companies, replaces Karl-Heinz
Barz, who left the flavor and fragrance company for personal reasons on
Dec. 31, 2003. The global company’s U.S. arm, Symrise Inc., is headquartered
in Teterboro, N.J.
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