BioVeritas, LLC, a clean label ingredients company pioneering a proprietary upcycling process, announced the positive results of a recent head-to-head study against petrochemical calcium propionate, the incumbent mold inhibitor in the bakery industry.

The study showed that BioVeritas delivers equivalent efficacy as a 1:1 replacement for calcium propionate. BioVeritas’ product is created by upcycling excess biomass through a fermentation process. It not only delivers the same efficacy as the petrochemical incumbent, but it also delivers the same taste consumers already love and the sustainability our planet needs, the company said.

BioVeritas contracted a leading third-party lab with expertise in the food industry, and baking in particular, to perform a small-scale study to determine the dose of BioVeritas’ product required to achieve equivalent efficacy to calcium propionate. The results showed that at the standard inclusion rate, bread baked with BioVeritas’ product achieved the same shelf life as bread baked with calcium propionate. 

Coupling these and previous results, BioVeritas has proven success in effectively matching calcium propionate, with the added benefits of bio-based sourcing and a clean label.

“One of the greatest hurdles faced by food manufacturers for moving to a clean label is the complexity of re-formulating their long-standing recipes to maintain the qualities of the incumbent,” stated Pareen Shah, chief commercial officer of BioVeritas. “With our cultured mold inhibitor, it’s just a simple switch. Take, for example, bread baked with 0.5% calcium propionate; a baker could substitute with 0.5% BioVeritas’ product and be confident in maintaining the same shelf life and the sensory profile of their tried-and-true bread. And they’re able to do all this while delivering to consumers a non-petrochemical, clean label experience. It’s literally a win-win for manufacturers and the end customer.” 

BioVeritas is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity firm that is decarbonizing the industrial economy.