New Mexico Patent of the Month – May 2021
Nevada Naturals Inc., based in New Mexico, develops green and natural bioactive ingredients for use in food, health, and beauty products. Recently, they have been working on a food coating that will help limit bacterial growth in pet food, including salmonella. Pet foods are made with animal fats and by-products which can be subject to contamination during the butchering process. During the pet food production process, there is a step where liquid flavors are added, coating the kibbles to make them tastier for pets. This liquid flavor is often water-based and can further introduce bacteria into the food. Nevada Naturals has developed an emulsifier to penetrate animal fat used in foods and limit pathogen growth.
These emulsifiers are made with sucrose monoesters such as lecithin. This emulsifier is combined with preservatives and a surfactant to help it reach the bacteria within the food. Typical methods at this process fail, since the kibble is so low in moisture that the bacteria goes dormant and does not metabolize the pathogen killer. So Nevada Naturals introduced the surfactants to introduce a small amount of moisture to activate the kill step. Their experiments with this pathogen killer shows a 99% reduction in Salmonella presence. This reduction is effective for 60 days post coating and can also be incorporated into early food prep to reduce pathogen presence from the start.
Are you developing new technology for an existing application? Did you know your development work could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and you can receive up to 14% back on your expenses? Even if your development isn’t successful your work may still qualify for R&D credits (i.e. you don’t need to have a patent to qualify). To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today or check out our free online eligibility test.
Who We Are:
Swanson Reed is one of the U.S.’ largest Specialist R&D tax advisory firms. We manage all facets of the R&D tax credit program, from claim preparation and audit compliance to claim disputes.
Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE and CPE credits for CPAs. For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.