USA – DuPont, the Delaware based innovator in health and nutrition has received a patent certification on its POWERMill, a wheat processing enzyme developed to enhance efficiency and productivity of flour mills.

The enzyme which allows millers improve quality of flour, reduce costs and achieve profit received an invention classification that is, a product given the ‘newly designed’ status.

This global patent confers DuPont with the right to selling the invention in 75 countries.

Registration of the patent comes after a vital period of research led by the Brazilian development team who tested the product on wheat grains all over the world and all types of wheat used in making wheat flour for a range of foods including bakeries, pastas, pastries, snacks and confectionery.

“For the first time, at DuPont N&H, a patent was led by a Brazilian research team,” said Eduardo Pimentel, DuPont Nutrition and Health’s innovation leader who was responsible for the enzyme’s development.

“The process for registering a global patent requires extensive research work, which also involved the global team of scientists.

This project began in 2008, when an idea arose from the team at DuPont N&H Brazil to work on a real mill problem,” added Eduardo.

The test was carried on ‘soft’, ‘hard’ and ‘semi-hard’ wheat types taking into consideration the local water quality, an important condition that also may affects the result and is essential to define the exact dosages to obtain the best result in each region.

Use of the POWERMill enzyme enables the millers to save on energy and investments in silos and at the same time reducing the rest time of wheat of wheat dropped before the milling process.

It also allows for better extraction rates due to an easier separation of the endosperm from the aleurone layer.

Higher production of wheat flour and a lower quantity of pigments produced depicts the enzyme as an ideal ingredient in bakery applications.

In addition to enhancing efficiency and production, POWERMill allows reduced tempering time by 30% – 50%, homogenous process for blend of grains, improvement on Semolina flours and uniform bran quality.

For flour millers, it reduces storage space and faster time of response for customer demands.

POWERMill enzyme boasts of innovation, contributing to the progress and creating spectacular benefits for both the processor and consumer.

This prompted it to be recognized as the most innovative food ingredient category in Brazil at the Food Ingredients Innovation Award 2017.