ICL Invests in Novel Ingredient Development
ICL Food Specialties has joined forces with Protera Biosciences, an AI-driven startup, which designs and develops new proteins, in order to develop novel, sustainable and highly functional protein-based ingredients for food manufacturers. This partnership follows ICL’s 2021 investment into Protera via ICL Planet Startup Hub, which ICL uses to invest in, and collaborate with, innovative companies in foodTech and agriTech.
Through this partnership, ICL and Protera will develop and commercialize novel protein-based ingredients via precision fermentation. These ingredients will be natural, sustainable, and functional and will address current market needs, by serving as a replacement for chemical additives or less appealing food ingredients. They will also improve sensory properties in plant-based food applications, allowing food producers to meet consumer demand while positively impacting the world’s food security challenges.
“Thanks to this collaboration, we will be able to offer ingredients via a breakthrough technology, which is not currently available,” says Hadar Sutovsky, ICL vice president of External Innovation and general manager of ICL Planet. “It will enable food manufacturers to speed up the development of clean-label and sustainable plant-based products, once these functional ingredients are launched.”
“In the near future, we’ll be providing market access for these ingredients to key food producers globally, in a sustainable manner,” says Rado Sporka, vice president of the Food Specialties Commercial business for ICL. “This will further diversify and strengthen ICL’s engagement and offerings in the alternative proteins space and accelerate impactful solutions for global sustainability challenges.”
“We are excited about this collaboration with ICL Food Specialties to bring new proteins to the market. Combining the forces of our two companies will dramatically accelerate our vision of using biology to create protein-based ingredients,” said Leonardo Alvarez, the founder & CEO of Protera Biosciences. “We are already validating functional targets in the lab with unprecedented speed and accuracy.”
The research teams for the two companies are actively working on the development of these innovative protein-based ingredients and, through this partnership, will be able to scale up production, once the ingredients are ready for commercialization.
About ICL Food Specialties
ICL Food Specialties is a member of ICL Group, a leading global specialty minerals company. The company creates impactful solutions for humanity’s sustainability challenges in global food, agriculture, and industrial markets. ICL leverages its unique bromine, potash and phosphate resources, its passionate team of talented employees, and its strong focus on R&D and technological innovation to drive growth across its end markets. ICL shares are dually listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (NYSE and TASE: ICL). The company employs more than 12,000 people worldwide, and its 2021 revenues totaled approximately $7.0 billion.
For more information, visit ICL Group or ICL Food Specialties.
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About Protera Biosciences
Protera Biosciences is advancing the science of protein engineering to address some of the most critical problems and opportunities in food, agriculture, the environment and human health. The company streamlines protein design and development with madi™, its proprietary deep learning algorithm, to predict high value protein products and enzymes with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
