Over the last many decades, DuPont Nutrition & Health has been a global leader in the science, research and the production of food ingredients, probiotics and prebiotics. Last year,DuPont Nutrition & Health strengthened their commitment to the probiotics industry by investing $100 million to increase probiotics production, while also continuing to invest in the high potency, stability and efficacy of their products. In addition they also announced a joint development to commercialize human milk oligosaccharides, which is believed to be a very exciting new space in infant nutrition.

FoodIngredientsFirst caught up with Dr Angela Naef, Vice President, Global Technology & Innovation, DuPont Nutrition & Health. Her focus is on accelerating innovation in the area of food ingredients and nutrition science. Dr Naef said: “There are a couple of important themes that we believe are helping drive the food and dietary supplements space and it’s predominantly around how we approach health and wellness in both established and emerging markets. Consumers are seeking choice and we must make sure that we offer worthy choices.”

“Both established and emerging markets equally are key areas for us as we continue to help support different areas of the globe to ensure locally relevant solutions for our customers and consumers,” she continues. “There are several macro trends that are relative to population growth and socioeconomics  that  I think fundamentally from a health and wellness and food perspective, people are more interested in now more than ever over what they put in their bodies -  for us, this creates more diversity from a science perspective and for the consumer base.”

“There are certain things that are central to the food industry in certain parts of the world, so in emerging markets there is a significant area of growth in terms of industrialized food,” Dr Naef emphasizes. “Having a good supply chain and technology expertise allows consumers to have access to food that they didn’t have access to only a few years ago. That’s a real key part for us at DuPont in terms of enablement of these foods to be robust and also be locally relevant. From an innovation perspective that gives us a lot of opportunity to optimize and create new things,” she claims. 

Clean label is, as well, a big area for DuPont Health and Nutrition. “Consumer knowledge is always increasing and we have several programs focused in on the areas of sugar and fat reduction, Dr Naef explains. “There are an alarming number of adult and childhood obesity cases and our customers are constantly asking questions around what kind of technology solutions we have to make sure we are providing healthy eating options. We appreciate that we are an eating culture, we work hard to make sure that the foods that we support are tasty, healthy and nutritious and that they deliver what families want,” she states.

“Sustainability is another area that has been on our radar from a strategic footprint perspective and we have got this at our core,” Dr Naef notes. “We recently announced moving to 100% certified sustainable palm oil sourcing. This is the kind of thing that we believe will really help move the needle and it’s not an insignificant undertaking.” She adds: “It is ultimately about working with our customers making sure that we understand their needs and provide choices for solutions. Sufficient education is necessary so that consumers and the broader public can understand what those benefits truly are and hopefully help drive their own decision making.”

As a technology and innovation company, DuPont Health and Nutrition are always looking forward at market trends to outline what consumers will be looking for in the future. “There’s a big area that we have launched and made significant investments within,” she continues, “and that is in the area of probiotics and microbiome platforms.”

“It’s about what health benefits, new products, prebiotics and probiotics and others, that can actually offer health & wellness solutions into the rapidly evolving microbiome space. We see this as a great time of expansion in the science of the human microbiome. From a totality of innovation perspective, this area we believe offers quite a bit of diversity for consumers, ways to impart positive health outcomes, things that really are central to each individual on the planet,” Dr Naef explains. 

Back in November last year, DuPont Nutrition & Health announced a joint development and licensing agreement for exclusive rights to seleced fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), including 2’-fucosyllactose, with Inbiose, a Belgium-based producer of specialty carbohydrates. Dr Naef said: “The announcement that we made for infant nutrition is a good example of microbiome focused solutions that we will be able to deliver.  The field is rapidly growing and as we look ahead, we believe that with collaborations and focused research we will be able to create solutions utilizing our collective foundations, not only on probiotics and prebiotics but even beyond that,” she explains. 

“If you look at that whole space and opportunity in the area of microbiome related scientific fields, there is an influx in interest and investments, from both scientific and market perspectives.” Dr Naef concludes, “This offers the industry and us the headroom to be able to develop and advance solutions into the future for the human microbiome.”