LCI and Novolyze to improve safety of flour products

Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI), a subsidiary of French cooperative group Limagrain, has partnered with the manufacturer of dry and ready-to-use surrogate microorganisms Novolyze to strengthen microbiological control of its heat process for flours Farigel.

For reinforcing Farigel process, LCI will make use of the harmless bacteria developed by Novolyze that mimic the behaviour of foodborne pathogens under a different kind of stress.

Novolyze business development vice-president Jena Roberts said: “We are honoured to partner with a prestigious company of Limagrain’s stature as they are the 4th largest seed company in the world.

“Limagrain is also a unique partner for Novolyze as they are vertically integrated from seed to flour to cereal ingredients to bakery products.

“We service the same product categories so this is a very synergistic partnership.”

According to LCI, pathogens have a small probability to grow in low-moisture foods like flour, but they have the ability to survive for many years due to the low water activity.

LCI’s Farigel process applies a thermal stress on flours as a preventive control for foodborne pathogens like Salmonella or Escherichia coli.

LCI quality manager Thierry Desgrousilliers said: “The Farigel process is the result of several years of internal development and optimisation.

“Consequently, it is very difficult to reproduce at a laboratory or pilot scale in order to carry out microbial tests.

“That is the reason why we decided to use Novolyze’s surrogate organisms.

“The use of Novolyze’s products allowed us to test the efficacy of our process directly in its specific industrial environment, make validation work extremely straightforward and simple.”

The validation project with surrogate microorganisms includes three major steps, the first step consists of the definition of a validation strategy, and in the second step, the resistance of the surrogate is verified at lab scale.

The third and final step includes validation trials on the Farigel process at factory scale, where the tested flour is then injected with the Novolyze surrogate and distributed in the Farigel process.