Italian food preservation technology bought up by US company
owner of proprietary rights to a food processing technology
developed by Modofood of Brescia, Italy.
BioGentec has completed a definitiveagreement to acquire InnoFood, owner of proprietary rights to a food processing technology developed by Modofood of Brescia, Italy.
The agreement provides BioGentec manufacturing and distributionrights of Modofood's proprietary food sterilisation and preservationtechnology for North America, Central America, South America and Japan, aswell as the exclusive rights to negotiate on behalf of Modofood forSoutheast Asia, including Taiwan, China and Indonesia.
"This acquisition supports BioGentec's strategic initiative to develop andcommercialise existing technologies for new purposes that are practical,have real value for the consumer and build value for our investors," saidChaslav Radovich, president of BioGentec. "The proprietary process offerssignificant market opportunities and benefits for restaurants, hotels,airlines, armed forces, ready-to-eat food retailers and major foodprocessing companies, as well as enabling InnoFood to create a new consumerbrand."
BioGentec anticipates the InnoFood acquisition to be accretive to earningsbeginning in FY2004.
Food put through this process is said to be sterilised and sealed in a methodthat provides a minimum of nine months of shelf life, with no refrigeration.
Due to the design of this technology, over 90 per cent of thenutritional value is maintained and the organoleptic qualities (taste,texture, colour and aroma) are also said to be completely preserved. No refrigeration isneeded in the transportation or storage of the final packaged food product.
The application works for prepared foods, fresh fruit, milk, raw fish orbeef and virtually any food or beverage. Contrary to most other foodsterilisation and/or preservation processes available today, this technologyachieves breakthrough standards without altering the food or recipe.
"The Modofood process is the only food sterilisation and preservationprocedure that extends shelf life, eliminates the need for refrigeration andoffers the convenience of ready to eat food, while maintaining theintegrity, taste and aroma of the recipe," said Renato Giordano, president &CEO of Innofood. "I am excited to be working with BioGentec and itsexperienced management team for the commercialisation of this breakthroughtechnology in the Americas and Japan, as well as other Asian countries."
The process begins with the preparation of fresh recipe ingredients, whichare then mixed and loaded into the portioning line. From that point, theentire process is automated. The ingredients are released into containers, as specified by the recipe. Thecontainers are then hermetically sealed while exchanging inert nitrogen foroxygen. Following the sealing and gas exchange, the containers pass through"the tunnel" in which a patented, electromagnetic microwave processeliminates all bacteria in the food, making it sterile, yet notaffecting taste or nutritional content, the company claims. Since the oxygen has been removed,and replaced with nitrogen, the possibility of food degradation is virtuallyeliminated. The next stage of the process cools the containers and, afterexiting "the tunnel," each container is stored for 15 days, to ensuresterility.
This technology is already fully operational with 17 manufacturing lines that havebeen deployed or are in the process of being manufactured by Modofood, ortheir licensees, in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Iran, Egypt,Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Italy.Approximately half of these lines are now operating.
InnoFood is in the process of finalising a long-term lease for its firstfood processing plant in North America, to be located in California. Thefirst two food production lines will be received from Italy this Autumn andare expected to be fully operational and revenue producing as of January2004. The company intends to provide contract manufacturing and/ormanufacture turnkey food processing and sterilization lines in early 2004,initially focusing on restaurant chains, hotel chains, grocery chains,government agencies and other high-volume food producing organisations.
InnoFood has been assigned the patents for the Americas by Modofood, forfood and beverage products. InnoFood has applied for worldwide patents onthis technology for use in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
Headquarters in the US, BioGentecdevelops, commercialises, markets and distributes existingtechnologies for new purposes in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumerproducts.
