Prevera: Antimicrobial proteins for food protection
At Prevera, said co-founder and CEO Gal Shamri, “With very small amounts of essential amino acids, and very short proteins, we have efficacy [against pathogens such as E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria], and when we eat foods [containing these anti-microbials] our digestive system just breaks the proteins back down, so it doesn’t affect our microbiome.”
As for efficacy, he said, “We are as good as or in some cases better than current solutions that are not clean label. And we are higher in efficacy than herbal extracts such as rosemary extracts and we don’t have the negative sensory impacts.”
He added: “The company was established two years ago, so the first year was about developing a proof of concept, the second year we developed a submission for the food market specifically, and now we are doing application tests with potential partners. Next year we aim to do scale up and regulatory and we plan to have the first products in 2024.”
How the anti-microbials would be labeled on food labels is not yet clear, he said: “My dream is that there will be a new category of food protection proteins, not ‘preservatives’ so this can support clean labels.”
