Vitafoods Europe 2024 live: Novonesis spotlights innovative human health biosolutions
15 May 2024 | Novonesis
At Vitafoods Europe in Geneva, Switzerland, we talk with Linda Neckmar, SVP of human health biosolutions at Novonesis and its VP of human health biosolutions, Jakob Rasmussen, to explore what the company is featuring at its first trade show since its merger with Chr. Hansen and glimpse what we can expect to see in the coming years. Novonesis is featuring its nutrition solutions at booth #H99, giving presentations at booth #B110 and conducting two symposiums at booth #K232 on the morning and afternoon of May 15.
Hello everybody, this is William Bradford Nichols, the editor for Nutrition Insight, and I am here today with Vita Foods Europe 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland with Linda Neckmar, the senior vice president for human health biosolutions at Nouveniis.
Hello Linda, how are you today?
Hi, I'm fine, thanks a lot for having us here.
Thank you.
We're excited to speak to you, and we also have Jakov Rasmussen, the vice president of.
Human Health Biosolutions and Novannis.
Hello Jacob, how are you today?
Hello William.
I'm doing great.
Great to be back in Geneva.
We have a lot of questions since this is Novannis' first Vitafood as the brand new minted company.
Can you tell us a little bit, Jacob, about what is Novannis?
What can we expect from you guys, and what all do you have your hands in at this moment?
I would love to do that.
So first of all, we're extremely happy to be back here at Vita Foods Europe here in Geneva as Novanesses, as you said, William, for the first time.
Combining our two companies of Novozymes and Christian Hansen and all that we have to offer across our vast portfolio, so we're really going to be showcasing our broad portfolio, all the health areas that we operate in, and across the different life stages that we offer solutions for our customers for.
So that's going to be the big focus we have actually.
Two booths this year.
We've got our booth right down the aisle here and then we've got where we're standing right now, our Novonesses Theater where you can come and learn more about the different solutions that we offer, and the products that we have within our range.
So it's going to be an exciting show for us and we can't wait to meet a lot of partners and customers along the way.
That is wonderful.
Linda, can you tell me a little bit about, we would love to know what we can expect from Novenis coming up here in the future, and if you could tell us about sort of your main focuses and the impact that Novaesis will have on human health.
Wow, that is a big question.
Novanessesis, we innovate biosolutions.
So we use nature's own components to reduce the energy, the use of energy, to reduce the use of chemicals and water.
We also use biosolutions to develop new products within food, beverage and human life.
And we are focusing on nutrition, on extended shelf life and health benefits, and this is all to enable people to live longer and healthier lives.
And we are using the broad portfolio of Navaneis, so both enzymes and bacterial technologies, and combined with research in-house and in-house manufacturing capabilities at the highest quality, we can then also use this in order to innovate biosolutions for the future.
So.
And in the dietary supplement space, we see a lot of interest around the microbiome, these days, and the knowledge about microbiome is increasing by the day.
And our microbiome solutions are targeting across health areas and across the lifespan.
So we see new solutions coming up in the infant area.
We see new solutions coming up in women's health.
We see it in mental health, and all this will be our focus going forward.
Wow, that is a lot of impacts.
It is.
How does the merger of these two companies sort of uniquely position you into this area or into these different areas of biosolutions?
So the uniqueness is what we spoke about before, you know, the combination of the enzyme technologies and the bacteria technologies, our in-house research and manufacturing network, our global span.
We are a truly global company, and everything we do starts with the consumer insights.
So we have people around the world getting strong knowledge about consumer needs and consumer insights on the ground.
And where everything we do starts with that consumer insight, we translate it into research that is relevant for the consumer.
And then we'll take it to market through high quality manufacturing excellence throughout the value chain.
And sort of speaking about taking these things to market, what are some of the next big advancements you think we're going to be able to see in the future from?
It's across the life stages.
You will find advancements in the need from an infant perspective, but also from the pregnant mother.
For the female health, women's health throughout life stages, mental health is something that we read and hear and live through every single day in our lives.
That is a big area of ours.
And the last pillar I want to raise is the healthy aging of the population.
So healthy aging is a key area that we are looking into.
And Jacob, speaking of these biosolutions and emerging trends, can you tell us about Some of the actual solutions and as Linda mentioned, so it's backed by science and of course tapping into the underlying consumer needs or the emerging consumer needs.
We have a number of solutions within the very established categories, as Linda mentioned, within infant health, within women's health, within gastrointestinal, but what we've seen over the last few years are a couple of pretty unique emerging health areas.
Cognition is a very, very prominent one today.
Not necessarily 2 years ago and along that path, Novozymes, so now Novonesses of course, but Novozymes has been investing in what we call as a solution for bioBrain, so looking at providing a solution within that unique space of cognition and mental wellness, which is an area that just continues to gain.
Momentum and awareness as more and more people realize that the balance between mental health and physical health is what leads to a happy life, if you can call it that.
So that's one of the areas that you can come and learn more about tomorrow at Arnold Vanessa's Theater, symbiotics, the combination of prebiotics and.
Probiotics in our case where we very prominently position our HMO solutions together with probiotics for specific health benefits and we're just on the verge actually while we're here launching a new synbiotic solution within infant health, so tapping in, as Linda said, to what we do within the infant space where we have a number of solutions.
As Linda mentioned, other emerging categories that we are either looking at or providing solutions pretty soon to are really around weight management, meta metabolic health, as as, healthy aging, realizing that we are a population which is, which is growing older, let's call it that, right?
And, and, yes.
So, that's what you can learn more about while here at Vita Foods from Novo Nesses.
I would really encourage anyone to come and join us at one of our stands, meet one of our team members, because we do offer a very broad complementary portfolio across both very established health areas as as tapping into new emerging health areas, and we'd love to figure out.
You know how we can help partner with our customers or other partners from a science perspective as as tapping in, as Linda said, into these underlying consumer needs, right?
That's amazing stuff.
We're really excited to to talk to you guys today.
Thank you so much for talking to us and you not only have this great theater where you're going to be giving.
Talks throughout the next we will do, but you also have two symposiums that you're going to be speaking at, correct?
Can you tell us anything about those?
We're going to be one is on the on the gastrointestinal area, so on our gut solutions, and I would encourage anyone to come listen to us, which I believe is tomorrow.
Which is tomorrow afternoon.
Perfect.
There will also be a general presentation if anyone wants to learn more about Novanesses and our health, and that will take place here at the Novanesses Theater.
Amazing.
And actually it's actually my colleague here who will be presenting, so she's pitching herself, which I love.
But come and learn more about who we are and the heritage that we also bring with us from our two legacy companies into our noblenesses for the future.
And Jacob, I understand you also are doing some symposium presentations as.
Could you tell us about those?
You bet I can, William.
So like I.
Before we've got a lot going on here at the theater.
I would encourage anyone to come and hear the different talks that we're having at the symposium.
We've got two talks tomorrow, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The morning session is around our gastrointestinal health area, so around gut discomfort.
And the impact psychologically on that and the second talk is around children's health with some of our key scientists and category leaders within the health areas.
So I would encourage anyone to come in here nobosses in the symposiums.
But I think it's amazing that you guys are hitting on some of the major trends we've seen, which is children's health, mental health, women's health, especially.
Before we sign off, Linda, is there anything else you would like to say regarding Novaessis' future in the nutrition space?
We are only a few months into the journey of Novanesses, but I already see a very strong foundation being set with a clear focus on biosolutions, and we will continue to invest in science and in the health of the consumers.
And I am convinced that we have a very bright future ahead of us, both for us as an industry, but also for the consumer out in the market.
That is great.
Thank you both so much for talking to us.
We're excited to be here with Novanni.
This is your first Vita Foods, and I hope you have a great experience.
Thank you, William.
Thank you.
