After months of research, the biotech company Enzicas has developed natural ingredients that allow the agri-food industry to reduce the curing time of cheeses and sausages.

Laboratory work does not always give the expected result, which does not mean that the final product is worse than the initial one. Brandán Gómez wanted to develop a project to produce vegan products and asked Víctor Lama for help. But as they tested vegetable drinks, Lama’s curiosity grew in a fungus and in the nuts used in the fermentation process. Thus, a different business model emerged: the development of a chestnut-based ingredient to accelerate the maturation of cheeses and sausages: “We would manage to reduce production costs in the meat and dairy industries, as well as improve the rotation of assets”, he explains two years later, the time that Enzicas, a company that has already developed two patents for the meat, dairy and bakery industries, has.

They proposed their idea to the Business Factory Food accelerator, managed by GAIN and Clusaga, and Enzicas was selected in 2022 in the acceleration phase and was mentored by Casa Grande de Xanceda, Quescrem and Torre de Núñez. A year later, they were selected again in the consolidation phase and carried out the first product tests. It is still a fledgling company and they hope to start hiring at the end of this year, but they are already working with pioneering agri-food research centres at a national level, such as the CNTA in Navarra: “They act as our R&D department, although we are also accompanied by two Galician centres specialising in cheese and sausages, the Aula de Productos Lácteos and the Centro Tecnolóxico da Carne”. They are also members of the Clúster Tecnolóxico Empresarial das Ciencias da Vida (Bioga), have a technical advisor and work with a legal office.

At the core of their business are enzymes and chestnuts, hence the name they chose for this company, which its founders define as “innovative, sustainable and radically transformative”. The production process has been the result of months of research and investment that today is materialised in a functional ingredient of natural origin, innovative and patented. “We allow meat and dairy industries to optimise their production costs by reducing the maturing and curing times of sausages and cheeses; we also improve the nutritional profile of these products, eliminating harmful additives of chemical origin, such as nitrate salts, thanks to our ingredient”. And they underline that their product “awakens deeper flavours in cheeses and sausages while improving the texture of these foods.

The first ingredient is at an advanced stage and they are already carrying out tests with Duroc and Iberian pork sausages and cheeses, such as Idiazábal, Torta del Casar or blue cheese from Jersey cows: “The idea is to launch them on the market at the beginning of 2025, after the construction of our production plant at the end of 2024”.

Enzicas was selected to participate in the Food Tech Challengers programme of the National Centre for Food Technology and Safety, and proposed to develop a second ingredient based on beer bagasse, with which they seek to extend the shelf life of breads and other products in the confectionery industry, while increasing their protein content as an added value. “We use beer bagasse because we remain committed to the circular economy as a pillar of our projects,” they explain. Bagasse is a waste product inherent to the beer production process and, according to data from the Agrupación Cerveceros de España, more than seven million tonnes are produced annually in Europe. In Spain, the annual volume reaches 600,000 tonnes. “So the objective is twofold: to offer an improver for the bakery and confectionery industries and to biovalue a waste product such as beer bagasse,” they stress.

This ingredient increases the protein load and improves the bioavailability of essential minerals, providing baked goods with enzymes that optimise texture and freshness. “The results are breads and doughs with increased volume and extended shelf life. It aims to conduct the first product trials in the last quarter of this year to bring it to market by mid-2025.

Original news: Madurar a base de enzimas y castañas – lavozdegalicia.es (02/09/2024).

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