Insem­pra announces first fer­ment­a­tion-based func­tion­al ingredi­ent for con­sumer goods

Insem­pra, a bio­logy-powered com­pany enabling busi­nesses to make super­i­or products with nature, today announces that it has launched its first func­tion­al ingredi­ent, a bio­tech­no­lo­gic­ally pro­duced, 100% nat­ur­al alpha-Ionone fla­vour and fra­grance ingredi­ent for food and beauty mar­ket applications.

Insem­pra has partnered with lead­ing nat­ur­al aroma ingredi­ents man­u­fac­turer and dis­trib­ut­or Axxence Aro­mat­ic GmbH to mar­ket the product to food and beauty man­u­fac­tur­ers glob­ally. Under the terms of the agree­ment, Axxence has been dis­trib­ut­ing the product to cus­tom­ers since the begin­ning of 2023.

Alpha-Ionone is an aroma com­pound found in a vari­ety of essen­tial oils, mainly derived from nat­ur­al sources such as rasp­ber­ries, almonds, and black­ber­ries. In con­trast to chem­ic­ally man­u­fac­tured, racem­ic alpha-Ionone aromas, Insempra’s nat­ur­al product has a more defined and purer aroma achieved by select­ively pro­du­cing only the desired enan­tiomer, ®-alpha-Ionone, res­ult­ing in a uniquely super­i­or, deep and fresh viol­et and rasp­berry aroma which can be applied as a high-qual­ity fla­vour and fra­grance to a vari­ety of con­sumer products.

Insempra’s fer­ment­a­tion-based alpha-Ionone, ini­tially developed by Phytow­elt Green Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH, is an EU-nat­ur­al cer­ti­fied, vegan, food-grade ingredi­ent. Insempra’s bio­tech­no­logy plat­form cap­ab­il­it­ies com­bined with Axxence’s mar­ket access ensures con­sist­ently high product qual­ity for fla­vour and fra­grance manufacturers.

“With the launch of this super­i­or alpha-Ionone aroma, Insem­pra is demon­strat­ing its unique approach to tech­no­logy onboard­ing, scal­ing and rap­id go-to-mar­ket cap­ab­il­it­ies in the deliv­ery of the next gen­er­a­tion of sus­tain­able, bio-tech­no­lo­gic­ally pro­duced func­tion­al ingredi­ents.” says CEO and founder Jens Klein. ​“By identi­fy­ing a mar­ket-driv­en need for a more sus­tain­able ingredi­ent solu­tion and find­ing the right part­ners, we are able to deliv­er a 100% nat­ur­al, fer­ment­a­tion-based func­tion­al ingredi­ent for food and beauty applic­a­tions that is truly super­i­or to nat­ur­al or syn­thet­ic alternatives.”

“We are delighted with our cooper­a­tion with Insem­pra.” adds Ron Hon­ing, CEO of Axxence ​“We have suc­cess­fully intro­duced ®-alpha-Ionone to the mar­ket. Now with the sup­port of Insem­pra we will enter a new aven­ue that will improve the speed to mar­ket and a bal­anced cost in use. Togeth­er we will explore the path­way of Nat­ur­al aroma ingredi­ents and will bring more sus­tain­able ingredi­ent solu­tions that clearly deserve the EU Nat­ur­al label.”

With con­sumer demand rising for products with 100% nat­ur­al ingredi­ents that are healthy for humans as well as the plan­et, Insempra’s mis­sion is to col­lab­or­ate with nature to devel­op sus­tain­able and scal­able ingredi­ent solu­tions for broad mar­ket applic­a­tions. The pro­duc­tion of rasp­berry aroma by farm­ing would require more than a hun­dred tonnes of rasp­ber­ries, which trans­lates to approx­im­ately 40 foot­ball fields of cul­tiv­ated acre­age – a highly unsus­tain­able use of land that is equally dis­pro­por­tion­ate in its output.

The altern­at­ives to nat­ur­ally derived alpha-Ionone are chem­ic­ally man­u­fac­tured aroma rep­licas which are cur­rently broadly used in con­sumer goods. The trend towards nat­ur­al ingredi­ents is driv­ing the bio­tech­no­lo­gic­al pro­duc­tion of aromas which in this example could be done with just one pro­duc­tion run on a small-scale fer­menter com­pared to the exor­bit­ant land use if extrac­ted from nature.