Insempra has launched its first functional ingredient, a biotechnologically produced, 100% natural alpha-Ionone flavour and fragrance ingredient for food and beauty market applications.

Insempra has partnered with leading natural aroma ingredients manufacturer and distributor Axxence Aromatic GmbH to market the product to food and beauty manufacturers globally. Under the terms of the agreement, Axxence has been distributing the product to customers since the beginning of 2023.

Alpha-Ionone is an aroma compound found in a variety of essential oils, mainly derived from natural sources such as raspberries, almonds, and blackberries. In contrast to chemically manufactured, racemic alpha-Ionone aromas, Insempra’s natural product has a more defined and purer aroma achieved by selectively producing only the desired enantiomer, (R)-alpha-Ionone, resulting in a uniquely superior, deep and fresh violet and raspberry aroma which can be applied as a high-quality flavour and fragrance to a variety of consumer products.

Insempra’s fermentation-based alpha-Ionone, initially developed by Phytowelt Green Technologies GmbH, is an EU-natural certified, vegan, food-grade ingredient. Insempra’s biotechnology platform capabilities combined with Axxence’s market access ensures consistently high product quality for flavour and fragrance manufacturers.

With consumer demand rising for products with 100% natural ingredients that are healthy for humans as well as the planet, Insempra’s mission is to collaborate with nature to develop sustainable and scalable ingredient solutions for broad market applications. The production of raspberry aroma by farming would require more than a hundred tonnes of raspberries, which translates to approximately 40 football fields of cultivated acreage – a highly unsustainable use of land that is equally disproportionate in its output.

The alternatives to naturally derived alpha-Ionone are chemically manufactured aroma replicas which are currently broadly used in consumer goods. The trend towards natural ingredients is driving the biotechnological production of aromas which in this example could be done with just one production run on a small-scale fermenter compared to the exorbitant land use if extracted from nature.

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