This week in industry news, nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','339413','https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/profile-directory/azelis.html', 'article','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation');return no_reload();">Azelis announced a new distribution agreement with nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','339413','https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/profile-directory/oterra.html', 'article','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation');return no_reload();">Oterra, a provider of natural food colors. This partnership allows nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation','339413','https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/profile-directory/azelis.html', 'article','Beyond The Headlines: Azelis and Oterra’s new distribution deal, Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation');return no_reload();">Azelis to serve customers in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czechia, North Macedonia and Hungary. Vivici unveiled its whey protein from fermentation (beta-lactoglobulin) for customers, with self-affirmed US GRAS.

Business moves
Azelis announced a new distribution agreement with Oterra, a major provider of natural food colors. The partnership allows Azelis to serve its customers in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czechia, North Macedonia and Hungary. Azelis says this agreement underscores its commitment to innovation, offering customers a wide range of high-quality and sustainable solutions. It allows the group to extend its lateral value chain, adding a new product line to its portfolio.

DKSH’s Business Unit Performance Materials, a distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients, plans to provide business development, marketing, sales, logistics and distribution services for Aromatech’s range of flavor solutions in the four Nordic markets: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The flavor solutions include a variety of floral and botanical flavors, such as spices, herbs, flowers and other plant-based ingredients, along with a complete range of natural and conventional sweet enhancers that reduce the sugar content in food and beverage products while preserving the sweet taste.

Vivici’s whey protein from fermentation (beta-lactoglobulin) is now commercially available for customers, with self-affirmed GRAS in the US. This marks a significant milestone in Vivici’s strategy to bring superior proteins to the market with significantly less impact on the planet. The company’s beta-lactoglobulin is a pure dairy whey protein equivalent to nature’s version. It contains all essential amino acids, is abundant in leucine and branched-chain amino acids and is rapidly absorbed in the blood plasma. The product is also free from lactose, cholesterol, hormones and antibiotics.

Sustainability highlights
DuPont Water Solutions has launched the new FilmTec Hypershell NF245XD range of nanofiltration elements for use in the dairy industry. The durable elements are purpose-designed for use in long-lasting and efficient solutions for the separation and demineralization of milk and whey streams.

dsm-firmenich and Donau Soja have teamed up to highlight the environmental footprint of animal feeds and feed ingredients using Sustell, a platform for the animal protein value chain. The partnership will help empower businesses along the value chain to both improve and communicate the sustainability of their operations. Using Sustell will allow Donau Soja members to do more science-based calculations and bring greater transparency to the feed and food industry, say both companies.

Nordzucker reported the 2023/2024 campaign, which ended on February 14 with the processing of the last sugar beet at the Schladen plant. Nordzucker has produced sugar, animal feed, fertilizer and energy from sugar beet and sugar cane in 16 plants in seven European countries and Australia. A lot of rain in Europe meant that the beets grew strongly again in late summer and autumn, which resulted in exceptionally high beet yields in many growing regions. On average, yields in the seven European countries were 75 tons per hectare.

BioConsortia, an agricultural technology company that discovers, designs and licenses advanced microbial products to reduce the ecological impacts of agriculture while ensuring crop productivity, announced developments in its nitrogen-fixing products in row crops. This has been demonstrated through hundreds of field trials conducted in 2023, wher the products effectively displace meaningful levels of nitrogen fertilizer and deliver yield gains. The field trial results have confirmed that levels of nitrogen replacement from BioConsortia’s seed treatment products met or exceeded performance expectations when evaluated in row crops like corn, wheat, and rice.

Kinzie Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Arctic Industries, a national manufacturer and distributor of temperature control and cold storage solutions.

Other highlights
Botanical ingredients supplier Nektium and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have carried out a review of studies on Rhodiola rosea and Ashwagandha. It found that both are effective in combating stress but revealed Rhodiola rosea has more of an energizing effect while Ashwagandha has sleep-promoting effects.

Germany’s Catholic and Protestant churches are being called upon to procure more plant-based foods and reduce their meat consumption. Food awareness organization ProVeg International is supporting a new initiative in Germany that calls upon the country’s churches to ensure that their communities procure more plant-based food in their institutions and when holding events. The “Church Animal Welfare Label” initiative is led by Will-Kirche-Tierschutz, a newly formed organization born from ProVeg’s Kickstarting for Good program, which helps launch new non-profits. The initiative aims to ensure that the two leading German church organizations procure less food from factory farms and offer more plant-based meals.