CORK-BASED APC Microbiome Ireland and the Kraft Heinz Company have announced a new collaboration to develop new natural cultures for food fermentations.

The new industry partnership between APC Microbiome Ireland and Kraft Heinz will develop novel bacterial cultures for food use. 

Fermented foods are created using controlled microbial growth, facilitated by microorganisms or microbial communities, usually in the form of starter cultures, adjuncts or probiotics.

This collaboration plans to focus on a variety of these bioactive end-products and their applications in food systems.

The APC-KHC collaborative project will initially run for 12 months.

APC Microbiome Ireland is a leading Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre based in UCC and Teagasc Food Research Centre. Four researchers led by APC Principal Investigators Professors Paul Ross, Colin Hill and Catherine Stanton will spearhead the project.

Professor Paul Ross, Director of APC Microbiome Ireland said research on fermented foods and culture metabolites forms part of the APC’s overall strategy to manipulate the microbiome of food for quality, safety and human health associated improvement. “APC’s research feeds into industries such as human health, animal welfare, nutrition, infectious disease, infant formula and sustainability.

“APC is currently working on research projects with more than 30 companies, from multinational food and nutrition corporations to indigenous SMEs,” he said.

Hennie Myburgh, Head of R&D, Global Growth & Technology at Kraft Heinz added: “This partnership... will further strengthen our research platforms, enabling the next generation of fermented products and ingredients.”