Novolyze to Expand Development of Surrogate Microorganisms in U.S., Europe, Asia

Novolyze has raised nearly $2.7 million to lower the risk of foodborne illnesses by further boosting its international expansion. The primary goal is to speed up the pace of the commercial development of its Surronov range of surrogate microorganisms in the U.S., Europe and Asia. More than half of tje funding was from private investors, family offices and business angels, with the rest from public research programs and grants, including the French government’s Investissement d’Avenir fund.

Novolyze has offices in Europe and the United States and currently generates 97% of its revenue outside France. Since the Food Safety Modernization Act came into force in late 2016, the United States has contributed to 60% of company revenue. 

The Surronov range of surrogate microorganisms is non-pathogenic (similar to probiotics) and ready-to-use so they can be manufactured in industrial quantities in dry form, providing a number of benefits including:

• The adaptability of the surrogate microorganism ranges to a wide variety of food products.
• A simplified preparation with dry-form surrogate microorganisms that can be used directly in factories from time to time to test or enhance manufacturing processes.
• Thermal resistances closely matching those of the pathogens being mimicked.
• An optimum shelf life, with the product remaining stable for several months.

“We are delighted to announce today further investment from our historical shareholders and by new investors, who have seen our innovative approach and our growth potential in our target markets,” said Novolyze Founder and CEO Karim-Franck Khinouche. “Our ready-to-use products represent a major competitive advantage as we are able to offer effective control systems tailored to upstream risk processes in the agrifood industry and to enhance consumer protection even further, against the backdrop of the current focus on food safety.”

 Against the backdrop of a steady increase in foodborne illnesses, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting more than 600 million cases worldwide that kill 420,000 people every year, and increasingly tight regulations, food safety is now a major public health challenge. To enable food companies, laboratories and equipment suppliers to keep the lid firmly on the risks of microbiological contamination of their products and to offer consumers greater protection against the risk of foodborne illnesses, Novolyze has developed innovative products and services for the evaluation and validation of food safety control processes, the company said.

Novolyze’s ready-to-use ranges of surrogate microorganisms geared to a wide variety of food products (milk powder, flour, meat, fish, pastries, juice, etc.) are non-pathogenic microorganisms that mimic the behavior of food pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli. They can test simply and effectively the safety of a food product after the decontamination processes used in the agrifood sector, such as cooking, roasting, sterilization, pasteurization and disinfection.