A mom with her child

Food Protection Ingredients

The Unseen Hero in the Food You Love

To help feed the world, we provide sustainable, people & planet-friendly food protection solutions for the food and beverage industry. Our versatile food protection ingredients not only help control microbial spoilage and delay oxidation to ensure product safety and quality, but they also elevate flavor profiles, optimize costs, enhance consumer loyalty, and reduce food waste.

*Sources: Upcycled Food Association: The Climate & Business Opportunity of Upcycled Food, 2023 and Global Shopping Report, HealthFocus® International

  • 1/3
    of the world’s food production is lost or wasted globally.*
  • 58%
    of global consumers say reducing food waste is highly important in their food purchasing decision-making.*
How Can We Help?
Different types of food

The Benefits of IFF Food Protection Ingredients

Learn more about our label-friendly sensory improvers and shelf-life extenders to help food and beverage manufacturers foster consumer loyalty and reach sustainability goals.

A young child eating

Improved Sensory Quality

IFF’s innovative solutions aim to improve and maintain the sensory properties of products, ensuring consistent quality throughout their shelf-life.

This reduces consumer complaints and returns and minimizes food waste, supporting sustainability efforts while maintaining the sensory experience.

1/3

of food is wasted globally, which equals 1.3 bn tons and $1 tr in cost.

Source: Upcycled Food Association: The Climate & Business Opportunity of Upcycled Food, 2023

A person getting food

Extended Shelf-Life

IFF’s methods of food protection help maintain product quality and safety by delaying quality deterioration caused by microbial spoilage and oxidation, extending product freshness and shelf-life.

This allows for a broader geographical reach and optimized distribution, reducing waste and supporting sustainable practices.

37%

of Americans pay more attention to shelf-life information and choose products with longer expiration dates as an action to reduce food waste. 

Source: International Food Information Council – IFIC

A baker holding dough

Maintained Consumer Safety

IFF’s antimicrobial solutions delay outgrowth of some common pathogenic microbes, helping manufacturers protect consumer well-being. By reducing the risk of food safety recalls and their financial and environmental impacts, these solutions also help safeguard brand integrity and sustainability.

The average cost

of a recall to a food company is $10M in direct costs, in addition to brand damage and lost sales.

Source: Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association

A young couple shopping for grocery

Friendly Labels

We offer our customers label-friendly alternatives to synthetic preservatives or antioxidants, aligning with the increasing demand for “No artificial additives/preservatives” claims. This access to the high-value clean label market attracts health and eco-conscious consumers willing to pay a premium for natural ingredients.

“No artificial preservatives”

is an important label statement for 67% of global consumers.

Source: 2023 Global Shopping Report, HealthFocus® International

Two IT employees

Technical Support

IFF Food Protection provide access to exceptional technical expertise and advanced capabilities, enabling quick identification of optimal solutions. This accelerates new product development and reduces time and costs associated with inadequate or overpriced alternatives.

Manufacturers

increasingly appreciate the technical assistance provided by ingredient suppliers, which helps them maintain product quality and innovate while navigating new trends and regulatory restrictions.

Source: Innova, 2024

Different types of dairy

Antimicrobials and Fermentates

To combat microbial spoilage, we offer a range of food protection ingredients, including naturally occurring antimicrobials and multifunctional fermented ingredients that also elevate the sensory qualities of food.

IFF Antimicrobials and Fermentates include NISAPLIN® (Naturally Occurring Antibacterials), NATAMAX® (Naturally Occurring Antifungals), BIOVIA® and NOVAGARD® (Antimicrobial Blends), and MICROGARD® (Multifunctional Fermented Ingredients).

FoodProtection_AntioxidantsFlavorings

Antioxidants and Flavorings

IFF Food Protection solutions go beyond traditional antioxidants, helping manufacturers refine and preserve product taste and freshness through the use of multifunctional plant extracts.

IFF GRINDOX® is Traditional Antioxidants brand, while IFF’s GUARDIAN® Plant Extract-Based Antioxidants & Flavorings include AQUAROX™, CHELOX, INOLENS, SYNEROX, VITAGREEN, ORIGANOX, VITAGREEN LOD, VIVOX, and TOCO ranges.

PET FOOD

Solutions for Petfood

Delay petfood quality degradation and spoilage while improving flavor with IFF’s PET GUARDIAN® and PET BIOVIA® brands.

Food Protection Ingredient Applications

Beverage

Beverage

Do you wish your favorite drinks could taste even more delicious and stay fresh longer? GUARDIAN® AQUAROX™ makes it possible.

These multifunctional natural flavors improve and extend the taste and freshness of beverages—like flavored waters, soft drinks, seltzers, beers, and vodkas —reducing product returns and minimizing waste.

Explore More Beverage Solutions
iff-food-protection-beverage

Dedicated to Sustainability

At IFF Food Ingredients, we are dedicated to helping the industry and consumers meet sustainability goals by reducing food loss and waste, all while maintaining a steadfast commitment to sustainable practices in everything we do.

iff-food-protection-VerticalIntegration

Responsible Sourcing/Vertical Integration

We source a significant portion of our rosemary leaves from our sites in Spain and Morocco, enabling us to vertically integrate our operations.

Utilizing digital tools, we optimize water and land use, reducing resource consumption and fertilizers.

This approach ensures a reliable supply, supports sustainable local development, provides safe working conditions for our farmers, and minimizes CO2 emissions by locating extraction sites close to raw material sources.

A bottle

Certifications

With sustainability and innovation at our core, IFF Food Ingredients developed GUARDIAN® AQUAROX™, an Upcycled certified product line using rosemary extraction by-products.

These multifunctional natural flavors enable beverage producers to meet consumer demand for fresh, flavor-rich products with clean labels.

This reduces consumer complaints, helps protect brand image, and minimizes product returns and waste, advancing a more sustainable future.

37%

of Americans pay more attention to shelf-life information and choose products with longer expiration dates as an action to reduce food waste. (Source: International Food Information Council – IFIC)

Meet Our Experts

At IFF, we are well-positioned to provide expert technical support to help with a wide range of requirements, different products, and processes, targeting various spoilage microorganisms.

Jerry Erdmann,
Principal Scientist II Food Protection
Read my story

At IFF, we recognize this complexity and support our customers in navigating this space.

Angela Lim,
Global Strategy & Innovation Lead Functional Ingredients; Global Regulatory Affairs
Read my story

At IFF, we have state-of-the-art equipment and years of experience, making us the partner of choice for food and beverage manufacturers.

Joseph Stanley,
Food Protection Technical Sales Lead
Read my story

We differentiate ourselves by being the primary producers, which allows us to guarantee impeccable product quality, sustainable sourcing, and production…

Caroline De Lamarlière,
Food Protection Segment Leader
Read my story

GUARDIAN® AQUAROX™

AQUAROX™ is an Upcycled Certified line of natural flavors, crafted to refine and maintain beverage taste, freshness, and color while extending shelf life and promoting sustainable packaging, storage, and distribution.

By utilizing rosmarinic acid from rosemary extraction side streams, these innovative solutions improve the flavor, reduce off-notes and delay the degradation of nutrients.

They also help beverage producers expand market reach and minimize waste by reducing product returns.

iff-food-protection-aquarox

The Frying Calculator

We developed the Frying Calculator to quantify the benefits of using IFF Food Protection technologies in frying processes, allowing producers to calculate and compare the efficiency of different solutions for improving fried foods sensory quality and extending frying oil durability.

By analyzing data from numerous tests and industrial trials, this tool estimates reductions in frying oil usage, costs, and CO2 emissions.

Ultimately, it helps fried food and snack manufacturers identify the best food protection solutions to optimize time, cost efficiency, and sustainability of their frying processes.

Discover More
iff-food-protection-frying-calculator

The Power of IFF’s Antimicrobials

Minimizing compromised food during manufacturing greatly reduces waste and ensures more food reaches consumers’ kitchens, contributing to a more sustainable consumption system.

IFF’s Food Protection solutions help retain consumer confidence and minimize environmental impact by safeguarding product quality throughout the shelf life, addressing challenges like spoilage and high distribution costs.

For example, IFF NATAMAX® antimicrobial can extend the shelf life of processed cheese spread by up to one year under recommended storage conditions, reducing waste and maintaining freshness.

iff-food-protection-natamax

Decades of protecting people and planet (with our antimicrobials and fermentates) 

Our food protection ingredients and technologies have been instrumental in helping the food industry overcome various challenges throughout history, and they continue to do so. Join us on a journey through the past as we explore the evolution of these technologies and their impact on the food industry.

1950s 

NISAPLIN®

When Elvis was turning the world into a rock stage, and first computers were invented, we launched NISAPLIN®, an innovative naturally occurring antimicrobial.

elvis-937614_1280_pixabay
1960s

NATAMAX®

When the first human orbited the Earth and walked on moon, and two simple letters, “lO,” pioneered internet’s first electronic message, we launched NATAMAX®, our first naturally occurring antifungal.

pexels-pixabay-41162
1980s

MICROGARD®

While the world witnessed the debut of the first commercially available PC, along with first CDs, Walkman’s, VCRs, and the first cell phone, the introduction of the first MICROGARD® from our range of multifunctional fermentates, revolutionized the food industry.

2007Computex_e21Forum-MartinCooper_Attribution – Rico Shen, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
PRESENT TIME

IFF FOOD PROTECTION

While we witness the evolution of artificial intelligence and innovations such as lab-grown and 3D-printed food dramatically transform our approach to nourishment, we continue our mission to nourish our People and our Planet

IFF.com_FoodProtection_hero
Different types of food

Transform Ideas into Market-Ready Innovations

Bring your vision to life with IFF’s expertise in food and beverage innovation. Together, we can turn bold ideas into groundbreaking food protection solutions.