DuPont Nutrition & Health and Inbiose will jointly launch a new infant nutrition ingredients based on complex carbohydrates found in mother’s milk.
DuPont has entered into a joint development and licensing agreement with Belgium-based specialty carbohydrates producer for exclusive rights to certain fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), including 2’-fucosyllactose.
HMOs have been identified as key components of mother’s milk which help in the digestive, immune and cognitive development of infants.
DuPont Nutrition & Health Probiotics, Cultures, Food Protection and HMOs global business unit leader John Rea said: “This partnership is part of a new era in ingredients targeted for infant nutrition.
“With this development, we’re working toward fulfilling our corporate mission to help solve the world’s food challenges by providing innovative ingredients our customers can use to make healthy and nutritious products. Our investment here complements the broad capabilities DuPont has built in probiotics and understanding the human gut microbiome, as well as our technologies already targeting this area.”
Through the partnership, Inbiose specialty carbohydrates production platform will be combined with DuPont’s strength in large-scale fermentation, regulatory and health science expertise.
Inbiose executive chairman Prof. Wim Soetaert said: “Our collaboration with DuPont, a world-renown ingredient manufacturer, advances our technology and will accelerate the introduction of our first HMO to improve the health and well-being of infants.”
The two companies are looking to launch the new product in 2017 through an industrial-scale fermentation process and are currently said to be focusing on submission for regulatory approvals.
Earlier in the month, DuPont Nutrition & Health announced its plans for expanding its probiotics production capacity in the US by 70% with an additional investment of $100m.
