Our Origins as Biotech Trailblazers and Beyond
The first story in a new series exploring IFF's biotech origins and innovations in Home and Personal Care
Find out moreBiotech Innovation
Biotechnology to build our modern world
The 20th century was the age of the fossil-based economy. Petroleum overtook coal and we built factories to manufacture the things we needed to modernize our world. But today, our global dependence on petroleum for everything from fuel to plastics to everyday household goods is unsustainable.
So we have turned to biotechnology—the use of living systems and organisms to make products—to convert renewable raw materials into the energy and products needed for society to thrive.
what we do
Enzyme Innovation
At IFF, we rapidly engineer proteins and microbial metabolic pathways to economically produce enzyme, proteins, and other bio-molecules at industrial scale.
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Find out moreInnovation talk
How to build a better enzyme
Dr. Sharief Barends, Health & Biosciences Senior Staff Scientist, shares a glimpse into the skilled and creative discoveries his team uses to improve enzymes for use in industrial applications. In this Innovation Talk, he delves into the process of designing, building, and testing formulating innovative enzymes for our customers in the Home & Personal Care, Grain Processing, Food Enzymes and Animal Nutrition markets.
Designing Enzymes for Industrial Applications
HOW IT WORKS
The Cell Factory
A traditional factory requires energy—usually in the form of fossil-based fuel such as oil or coal—to manufacture products. Single-celled microorganisms, or microbes, also need energy, such as renewable sugars from plant sources. By altering the chemical reactions that take place inside of microbes—or their metabolic pathways—we are able to program them to produce a variety of different products.
This ability to engineer proteins and microbes, then produce them at industrial scale and economics, is the cornerstone of industrial biotechnology.
Applying Science to Your Business
When it comes to product development, our cycle of scientific innovation starts and ends with our industry applications expertise, and a deep understanding of the markets we serve. This enables us to work closely with our customers to identify their needs, then interpret those needs on both a business and technical level.
In practice, applied sciences are involved throughout the product development process, validating product performance and then working closely with both customers and colleagues to develop model systems and perform scale-up testing, before going into production.
Some examples of applications innovation:
Animal Nutrition & Health
Through substantive scientific investment and innovation, IFF has built a unique "farm to fork" understanding of the food value chain to address the increasing demand for animal nutrition and health solutions, that enable antibiotic-free and sustainable livestock production. This holistic approach includes:
- In-field analysis and applied research
- Microbiological Innovation Centers
- World-class microbial genomics capability and microbiome research
- In-vitro gut simulators and formulation expertise
Laundry and Dish Applications
To ensure detergent testing in the lab reflects real-life consumer stain problems, IFF places consumer research at the heart of our innovation. We look directly at real-world data to help our customers – the detergent producers – select existing stains that represent real consumer needs.
We focus our global technology development by examining commonalities between countries and regions to identify those stains that are most relevant to consumers in all parts of the world. However, while technology is global, consumers – and their stains – are always local. So we also look closely at regional differences, to spot emerging global trends or local needs that are important to understand for our customer to be successful in a specific market.
Grain Processing Expertise
Leveraging our heritage of world-class science, engineering and technology, combined with a deep understanding of commercial value chains and market knowledge, we help our customers in the fuel ethanol and carbohydrate processing industries fuel their business forward.
Our industry applications expertise enables services such as enzyme and process optimization, on-site enzyme training, and fermentation analysis. With laboratories around the world, we continue to invest in products and applications to enhance liquefaction and SSF.
CHEESE CULTURES
Applied science: pizza cheese browning control
Learn from IFF Cheese Application specialist how a new, natural solution for pizza cheese browning control,has been designed to assist cheesemakers in delivering additional value in cooking pizza around the world.
