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A low salt ingredient, developed by a University of Nottingham subsidiary company and which is now marketed by Tate and Lyle, has won a prestigious international award.
Tate & Lyle’s SODA-LO™ Salt Microspheres won the “Most Innovative Health Ingredient of the Year” at the NuW Excellence Awards 2012 which were held at Health Ingredients Europe in Frankfurt recently.
SODA-LO™ was developed by The University of Nottingham’s Eminate business. Eminate works alongside the University’s Technology Transfer Office to take applied research from University academics and develop commercially viable products and services.
Global agreement with Tate & Lyle
In October 2011, Eminate signed a worldwide license agreement with Tate & Lyle which gave the latter responsibility for commercialising the SODA-LO™ salt reduction technology on a global basis, including manufacturing, product development, sales and marketing.
The SODA-LO™ Salt Microspheres have been created using a technology that turns standard salt crystals into free-flowing crystalline microspheres. These smaller, lower-density crystals efficiently deliver salty taste by maximising surface area relative to volume, this enables salt content to be reduced in food without loss of flavour or structure.
Salt reduced by up to 50%
In 2009, the East Midlands Food and Drink iNet (innovation network) provided a grant to Eminate which enabled it to test the effectiveness of SODA-LO™ in baked bread. This led to interest from many major food manufacturers.
Further tests have demonstrated that the use of SODA-LO™ enables salt levels to be reduced by up to 30 per cent in foods such as bread, pizza bases, pastry, savoury pie fillings, cheese and baked snacks, without loss of flavour or structure. It also reduces salt levels by 25 to 50 percent in various applications including baked goods and salty snacks.
David Park, Managing Director of Eminate, said: “It is great news that Tate and Lyle have won this international award for SODA-LO™. When we created SODA-LO™, we always knew that it had huge potential across the food sector. Food manufacturers are queuing up to use SODA-LO™ to reduce the salt content in food products, helping to improve the health of consumers around the world.”
Many technology licensing opportunities
Susan Huxtable, Director of Technology Transfer at The University of Nottingham, said: “The success of SODA-LO™ is a great example of way that businesses can benefit from licensing and commercialising University technologies.
“We have a large portfolio of technologies at The University of Nottingham, developing a diverse range of innovations in areas ranging fromnano-particles to drug delivery, sustainable construction to food flavouring and more. I would strongly encourage any businesses that are interested in finding out about the technologies and licensing opportunities that we can offer, to contact us to see how we can work together.”
For more information about licensing opportunities and The University of Nottingham’s range of services for business, visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/servicesforbusiness, or telephone 0115 748 4555.
For details about Eminate, visit www.eminate.co.uk