Tate & Lyle strikes partnership agreement with enzyme technologists

Tate & Lyle and Zymtronix have announced a new partnership to help the global ingredients business scale up its production.

Zymtronix is a developer of enzyme immobilisation technologies.

The partnership includes an investment by Tate & Lyle in Zymtronix’s cutting edge enzyme immobilisation platform that helps to transform ingredient manufacturing by improving the productivity of biocatalysis. This is achieved through the immobilisation of enzymes onto magnetic metamaterials to increase the efficiency and sustainability of enzyme-based industrial processes.

The technology, originating from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), has broad applications in the food and beverage, flavour, chemical and agricultural industries.

Tate & Lyle’s investment in Zymtronix will enable the company to improve and innovate upon the technology, with the goal of scaling up their platform to support process scale production. Zymtronix is initially working with Tate & Lyle to improve the use of enzymes in the production of certain ingredients and improve costs.

The two companies were brought together at Rabobank’s TERRA Accelerator 2019 in San Francisco, US.

As part of the partnership, the retired chief technology officer of Tate & Lyle, Michael Harrison, will join the board of Zymtronix, aiding the company with his wealth of experience within the food and beverage ingredients market.

“Consumers worldwide are looking for healthier food and drink, and we are proud to have the ingredients to help deliver just that. Improving lives for generations is at the heart of what we do, so we are excited to harness the power of Zymtronix’s enzyme immobilisation platform, which will make our manufacturing processes more efficient. The platform also has the potential to accelerate our ability to make our ingredient solutions accessible to more consumers,” said Andrew Taylor, president of innovation and commercial development, Tate & Lyle.