Submission from Lallemand

The innovation.

In 2023 Lallemand completed its acquisition of the Swiss company, Evolva. Evolva by Lallemand specialises in the research, development and commercialization of natural ingredients derived from yeast for applications across several industries. Evolva’s technology enables Lallemand to produce aroma ingredients for the flavours and fragrance industry through fermentation using metabolically engineered yeast. The unique technology allows the production of vanillin from sugar with a purity of more than 98%. Lallemand’s vanillin with its creamy, sweet and bourbon profile closely resembles vanillin extracted from vanilla beans. Through partnership with a close industry collaborator and since 2019, Evolva continues to enhance its production capabilities with the goal of bringing this vanillin (and similarly produced ingredients) to the food, flavours and fragrance market in 2025.

The benefits.

This 98% pure vanillin from Lallemand is unique as it is produced from sugar, meets the European standards for declaration as natural, while other biotech vanillin are manufactured from ingredients like ferulic acid (derived from rice), eugenol (derived from clove) or guaiacol (derived from pine trees). This unique production method allows Lallemand to offer a stable and sustainable supply for high quality natural vanillin to the market. The supply is less dependent on crops, weather conditions or political environment compared to natural vanillin extracted from beans. Lallemand’s technical know-how and global expertise on yeast research, development and production combined with the Evolva technology continues to transform the production of this and similar ingredients in a future-proof sustainable manner for the flavour and fragrance markets.