Tate & Lyle dives deeper into sodium reduction with new deal
The latest licence agreement with Eminate – a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Nottingham in the UK – gives Tate & Lyle exclusive rights to develop its sodium bicarbonate reduction technologies and manufacture and commercialize ingredients from it.
Back in 2011, the ingredients major signed an agreement with the UK firm that granted it exclusive global rights on its sodium chloride reduction technology, Soda-Lo. With this second deal, it now has exclusive global rights on Eminate’s entire set of sodium reduction technologies.
“Soda-Lo and the bicarb technologies are similar, but separate technologies protected by separate patents and patent applications,” said John Stewart, director of open innovation at Tate & Lyle.
“This newly-licensed technology relates to sodium bicarbonate reduction, whereas Soda-Lo achieves sodium chloride reduction. The underlying hollow microspheres technology is similar,” Stewart told this site.
Bakery bicarbonate reductions
Stewart said bakery will be a target sector for the sodium bicarbonate reduction technologies.
“In the bakery sector, for recipes where the majority of sodium is present due to sodium bicarbonate (as opposed to sodium chloride) this creates additional challenges of product rising and quality,” he said.
“Solutions that enable a significant reduction in sodium without compromising taste and food quality are a particular challenge,” he added.
Technology still at development stage
The hollow microsphere technology designed to reduce sodium bicarbonate in baked goods remains at an early development stage, although Tate & Lyle said results so far have been promising.
The technology should eventually enable up to 50% reduction of sodium in baked good applications where sodium bicarbonate can be a greater overall contributor to sodium content than salt, it said.
