The partnership gives Coca-Cola the exclusive worldwide rights to use all the resulting flavors, sweeteners and sweetness enhancers in all non-alcoholic ready to drink categories. New Jersey’s Chromocell will receive research funding and royalty payments based on sales of products that contain technologies discovered during the collaboration.
"Throughout our history we have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of beverage innovation, something we've been able to achieve by listening to our consumers and customers and pursuing the right choices with the very latest proprietary knowledge and technology to drive our research and development," said Bilal Kaafarani, senior VP of global research and innovation for Coca-Cola.
"This collaboration with Chromocell will help us build a robust pipeline of innovation across categories and sweetness options so we can deliver to our consumers a variety of great-tasting beverages."
Coca-Cola had a similar collaborative deal with California-based flavor firm Senomyx over an eight year period for the discovery, development and commercialization of new flavor ingredients resulting from its sweet taste technology. However, the two companies failed to reach an agreement on the terms of a proposed new contract in June and have since stopped working together.
Senomyx and PepsiCo subsequently penned a deal giving PepsiCo exclusive rights to Senomyx’s sweet flavor ingredients developed under the collaboration for use in soft drinks.
The new agreement with Chromocell was heralded as central to Coca-Cola’s commitment to deliver great-tasting beverages in line with the growing and changing needs of consumers.
"Chromocell is excited to collaborate with Coca-Cola on the development of great-tasting zero and reduced calorie beverages," said Christian Kopfli, CEO, Chromocell. "Our proprietary technology, using naturally-occurring systems, is key to helping The Coca-Cola Company deliver great-tasting beverages. This technology allows us to test extracts and ingredients from fruits, herbs and vegetables for unique ingredients with desired taste qualities.
“We're proud of this exclusive partnership, which expands our collaborations with industry leaders into the beverage space and capitalizes on our Chromovert technology to develop innovative sweet enhancers and natural sweeteners to the benefit of consumers,” added Kopfli.