Dive Brief:

• DuPont Nutrition & Health recently announced a joint licensing and development agreement with Inbiose, a Belgian specialty carbohydrate producer, for rights to select fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), according to a Danisco statement. The partner companies aim to develop the ingredients by using an industrial-scale fermentation process and have them market-ready by 2017.

• HMOs are unique complex carbohydrates that are found in mothers' milk, but not cows', that help build infants' gut biomes, supporting immune, digestive and cognitive development. 2’-fucosyllactose (2'-fl) is the most abundant HMO.

• “We are excited to collaborate with Inbiose and bring the science of HMOs to market,” Martin Kullen, global R&D leader for Probiotics, Cultures, Food Protection and HMOs, said. “HMOs are key in helping our customers move another step closer to matching the composition of human milk with their infant nutrition products.”

Dive Insight:

Consumers interest in probiotics is at an all-time high, and infant formula is the latest segment to begin including the ingredient in its products. Probiotics exist naturally in breast milk, but because growing numbers of babies are being raised on formula, researchers and manufacturers like Gerber have searched for ways to meet consumer demand and improve the segment's nutritional value.

Scientific research indicates that when given to babies and young children, probiotics the healthy that would normally be ingested after birth. Probiotics can reduce eczema, colic and gastrointestinal issues in babies, promoting immune health.

DuPont's new venture with Inbiose capitalizes on and further improves the probiotics trend. The joint venture's commercialization of HMOs should bolster infant formula's health benefits by supporting cognitive development in infants and making the unique ingredient more available.