OFI expands licence agreement with Canada’s Renaissance Bioscience

Orkla Food Ingredients (OFI) has expanded its licence agreement with Vancouver’s yeast-based technology solutions provider Renaissance BioScience.

Under the agreement, Orkla will have exclusive manufacturing and retailing rights of Renaissance’s acrylamide-reducing yeast called Acrylow.

Acrylow will be retailed to food manufacturers as well as other market segments in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Orkla Food Ingredients senior vice-president Thore Svensson said: “Since we finalised our agreement with Renaissance last year we have conducted several commercial trials, all of which have shown excellent results and successfully launched the product for sale in the Nordic markets.

“As the European regulatory structure governing the acrylamide content of many food products and coffee comes into force within a few months, Orkla is pleased to expand its agreement with Renaissance to include Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in order to make Acrylow available to food manufacturers in those countries.”

The new agreement builds on the initial agreement signed between the two companies in the third quarter of last year, which covered the Nordic and Baltic regional markets in Europe.

Renaissance BioScience chief business development officer Cormac O’Cleirigh said: “It’s gratifying to see that Orkla and its food manufacturer customers have found our acrylamide-reducing yeast to be effective and easy to use in trials with no sensory impact on the finished product.

“Orkla is a leader in food quality and safety, and Renaissance is pleased to be partnering with the company to bring Acrylow not only to the already licensed Nordic and Baltic markets but also to these new central European markets.”