| The world’s first commercially available hypoallergenic peanuts have officially emerged from the laboratory.
Alrgn Bio, exclusive licensee of the hypoallergenic process patented by North Carolina A&T State University, has opened an office in the Gateway University Research Park. Batches of peanuts are available to food processing companies for evaluation, Alrgn announced today.
“We have received tremendous interest from the food processing industry since we announced in June that the technology is available,” said Alrgn founder Johnny Rodrigues.
“We will work with them to deliver safer peanuts to consumers as quickly as possible.”
Alrgn is a spin-off of N.C. A&T and Xemerge, the Toronto-based technology development company that originally licensed the A&T peanut technology.
Rodrigues introduced the new company to the news media and food industry executives along with two members of his executive team: Dr. Jianmei Yu, Alrgn’s chief scientist, leader of the research team that developed the technology and research professor in the department of family and consumer sciences at A&T; and Ann Russell, Alrgn’s director of U.S. operations.
“It is very gratifying to see the results of our research being brought to the marketplace for the benefit of individuals and families whose lives are affected by peanut allergies,” Dr. Yu said.
The hypoallergenic peanut technology is one result of A&T’s strength in agriculture and particularly post-harvest technology. As a land-grant university, A&T has been a historic leader in agriculture research. Today, the university’s School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences has expertise in biotechnology, agricultural and biosystems engineering, natural resources management, waste management and food microbiology. It is the largest school of its kind at a historically black university. |
