Transforming food preservation from a surprising source

Chinova Bioworks is turning fruit byproducts into powerful, natural preservatives — giving food and beverage makers a clean label solution that works without compromising effectiveness, quality, safety, or shelf life.

The Opportunity

Consumers today want food and beverage products that are free from synthetic preservatives — in fact, artificial preservatives are one of the top three most avoided ingredients. Yet for manufacturers, preservatives are critical to ensure food safety, reduce spoilage, and prevent waste. Until now, clean label alternatives have been either too expensive, too limited in application, or too weak in performance. Chinova Bioworks saw an opportunity to solve this with a natural ingredient derived from an abundant, overlooked source: cranberry pomace, the byproduct of juice production.

The Challenge

Chinova had already proven itself with Chiber™, a patented mushroom-derived preservative. But not all food products could adopt Chiber™ due to chemical incompatibilities, including a key product line at a major multinational. To expand their market reach, Chinova developed a new natural preservative from cranberry extract. Early research showed outstanding promise — extending shelf life in yogurt, cream cheese and in white bread. However, to get to market, Chinova needed to scale up the production process, validate the ingredient across categories, and pursue regulatory approvals. That’s where NPC came in.

NPC’s Solution

NPC provided support through the Proof of Concept program to help Chinova transition their cranberry extract innovation from lab bench to commercial pilot scale. With NPC’s financial help, Chinova is scaling extraction processes, conducting rigorous customer trials, and preparing regulatory submissions across multiple global markets. The resulting ingredient offers food and beverage companies an affordable, effective, and truly natural preservative that maintains the look, taste, and shelf life of products.