Looking to a future where it is likely that many foods will be more valued for their specific health benefits, Fonterra and VitaKey Inc. announced today a transformative dairy science collaboration to further unlock the benefits of Fonterra’s probiotic strains.

VitaKey specialises in precision delivery of nutrition – an emerging area of research that seeks to deliver the right nutrients, in the right amount, to the right part of the body at the right time.

Co-founded by Dr. Robert Langer, the VitaKey delivery technology platform for nutrients is based on technology licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and developed at the Langer Lab, the largest academic biomedical engineering lab in the world.

“Our Co-op has a long and proud heritage of dairy innovation, pioneering many world firsts and, increasingly, new solutions which aim to help people live healthier and longer lives.

“Home to one of the largest dairy culture libraries in the world, our Research and Development Centre contains more than 40,000 strains. Two of these strains, LactoB 001 and BifidoB 019, address key health concerns such as digestive issues and immunity and are recognised as being in the top five global probiotics.

“By partnering with VitaKey, we aim to ‘make nature better’ by combining the goodness of our New Zealand milk with VitaKey’s technology. In this way, we can really drive our Active Living business by appealing to the growing health and wellness consumer segment that desire the maximum functional benefits from food and are motivated by scientific credibility.

“Because the nutrients are encapsulated and highly targeted, it also means we can use less milk in our production, making our milk go further while reducing food waste,” says Ms. Swales.

The first step in the collaboration aims to stabilise probiotics and deliver them to the digestive tract. This will leverage related MIT technology developed in the Langer Lab that NASA may use to deliver probiotics to astronauts in their planned mission to Mars.

VitaKey’s founder, Dr. Robert Langer, has extensive experience in commercialising science, resulting in more than 40 biotech companies with an estimated market value of $250 billion. The VitaKey delivery platform has already been shown to preserve and enhance 11 different micronutrients, including Vitamin D, A, B12, and C as well as iron, zinc, niacin, and folic acid. Fonterra intends to leverage the VitaKey technology across a range of micronutrients, such as Vitamin D, and introduce them into its products.

Dr. Robert Langer, who oversees more than 150 researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that the technology can be customised for every link of the food supply chain

Dr. Robert Langer’s vision for Fonterra and VitaKey working together is “to do something that really can change the world, rather than something incremental.” He is excited to collaborate with Fonterra to help further unlock dairy’s nutrition.

“The Covid pandemic has underscored the need for solutions to enhance health and wellness and boost the immunity of men, women and children at every stage of life. We believe that good nutritious food can help people of all ages lead healthier lives,” says Dr. Langer.

About VitaKey Inc.

VitaKey is a privately-held firm pioneering a new era for precision delivery of nutrition. The VitaKey customised platform technology stabilizes and delivers nutrients, vitamins, probiotics, antioxidants, proteins, and flavors to ensure increased bioavailability with targeted and controlled release within the digestive tract. The technology can be customised across the entire food supply chain from agriculture to animal feed, pet food, infant formula to senior nutrition, and food and beverages. 

including The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, a global prize for engineering and innovation. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 400 firms. More than 40 biotech companies are a result of his research, with a combined market capitalization over $250 billion.

Photos: Hi-res images available here