Preserving food, naturally

We want our food to stay fresh and delicious for consumers – which means finding ways to achieve broad spectrum anti-microbial stability. We'd like to achieve that naturally - specifically in the aqueous phase of water in oil spreads, oil in water emulsions, and intermediate moisture foods for savoury applications.

Solutions to this challenge could already exist or be in development – and we'd welcome the opportunity to collaborate with partners who have developed a new natural preservative, or a new process for enhancing existing preservatives. We'd also like to hear from potential partners who are working on new processing techniques which are mild and natural.

There are several areas we'd like to explore with potential new partners who are enthusiastic about open innovation:

• plant extracts or other natural ingredients, or new blends of them, which have anti-microbial properties

• traditional biocide products from other industries that are based on natural methods but have not yet been used in food

• technologies and processing techniques that have yet to reach the market

Any solution to this challenge must meet some basic criteria for us:

• any new compound must limit the growth of one or more bacillus, lactobacillus, yeast or mould

• it must be accepted as 'natural' by consumers

• new compounds must be stable

If you have a design or technical solution that could help us meet this challenge, we'd like to hear from you.