featured in this issue - NZIFST - The New Zealand Institute of Food ...

Trade waste biosensor research at
Lincoln
$1.3 million capital has been raised to commercialise a biosensor
developed at Lincoln University subsidiary Lincoln Ventures
Ltd.
SciTOX Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Wattinger, said “the
bio-sensor, which uses micro-organisms to measure the toxicity
of trade-waste, will enable waste-water treatment plants to
charge fees for the treatment of effluent according to the nature
and level of pollutants.
“A key feature of the instrument is that it will enable municipalities
to more accurately measure the pollutants in trade waste
produced by manufacturers and others,” Mr Wattinger said.
“SciTOX is also reliable and simple to control via a touch
screen and produces results in 15 minutes which is much faster
than alternative toxicity-testing devices,” he said. “Instead of
oxygen, which the bacteria ‘breathe’, SciTOX uses a synthetic
chemical which can be made to generate an electrical signal.
The more bacteria die, the lower the signal. In this way, the
instrument measures the effect of a toxic chemical on bacteria,”
Mr Robertson said.
“While the instrument will be marketed to waste-water treatment
plants initially, the technology also has the potential to be
applied in the dairy, medical, chemical, pharmaceutical, food
and drinking-water industries,” he said.
In-Brief
Frutoria Flavours travel the world
A new manufacturer of flavours has landed in New
Zealand. Frutoria Flavours is a well established and independent
flavour manufacturer from the Netherlands
which established Frutoria New Zealand earlier this year.
“It has always been my aim to spread the spirit of
Frutoria to other countries”, says managing director and
owner of the Frutoria Group, Berry Honing.
Frutoria has been active in the Netherlands for over
30 years. It survived by staying small. By working on a
low cost level, it could maintain a reasonable price level,
while working on expanding its database of flavour recipes.
‘We now have about 3,500 different flavour recipes,
in which a lot of knowledge has been gathered’, Honing
says. Clients include industrial bakeries, candy manufacturers,
coffee and tea processors, soft drink manufacturers,
distilleries, meat canners and the snack industry. With
most of the customers, Frutoria has a long established
relationship, working with short communication lines,
short lead times and assistance on new developments.
Frutoria has its production facility in Huizen, 25 kilometres
from Amsterdam with a BRC-certified A-Level
quality assurance programme.
When looking for internationalisation options, the
first possibility Honing found was New Zealand. A friend
of the family, Robert Hehewerth, is a Franklin resident
and has been appointed General Manager. In the short
term, development will continue in The Netherlands,
but samples can be on the desk of prospective customers
within days. The same applies to the flavours: these
will be produced in Huizen and flown to New Zealand.
Frutoria aims to establish production somewhere in the
Auckland area.
Frutoria wants to share the taste of success with New
Zealand manufacturers.
February/March 2009