TekCapital Regulatory News (TEK)

27 January 2015 

Tekcapital Plc

("Tekcapital", "the Company" or "the Group")

Technology acquisition

- Tekcapital acquires exclusive license to University of Arkansas developed technology -

- Patent pending coating for baked products to impart the attributes of fried foods -

Tekcapital plc (AIM: TEK), an international provider of technology and intellectual property services, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the exclusive worldwide license from the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture for a new, patent pending coating for baked products that imparts the attributes of fried foods. The invention is an improved composition and process to bring liquid oil into a powdered or wet batter coating for food products. This reduces the fat content in the finished product by approximately 60%, thus enabling baked products to successfully substitute for higher fat content fried foods.

This process can be incorporated into existing coating lines without modification and uses all commercially available products. Initial tests have shown that coated products, when baked, have the taste, texture and appearance of fried products. These results were recently published in the Journal of Food Science (Enzyme-Modified Starch as an Oil Delivery System for Bake-Only Chicken Nuggets, Sarah Purcell, Ya-Jane Wang* and Han-Seok Seo, Journal of Food Science, Volume 79, Issue 5, pages C802-C809, May 2014).

The Directors believe that this technology represents an important IP opportunity with the potential for mass market adoption via out-licensing.

Industry potential

According to the World Health Organization "Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Overweight and obesity are leading risks for global deaths. Around 3.4 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. In addition, 44% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity. More than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these overweight adults, over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. Overall, more than 10% of the world's adult population is obese. The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Globally, there has been: an increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat; and an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization."

The Directors believe that the new technology has the potential to enable consumers who enjoy fried foods to benefit from a food that has the taste, texture and appearance of fried food, but has a much lower fat concentration, thereby facilitating a healthier diet which is believed to protect against obesity and obesity related diseases.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Clifford M. Gross, Executive Chairman of Tekcapital plc, said:

"We are excited to have agreed to acquire this exclusive license from the University of Arkansas and look forward to commercializing this technology with leading, forward thinking food companies that can benefit from improving the nutritional content of their product offerings."

Dr. Wang, the co-inventor of the technology, added: 

"We developed this new food coating to provide a healthier alternative to fried foods that retains the taste and appeal of these popular products. Initial studies have found that there is no significant difference in the taste of the baked food using the coating and fried food, which clearly has a much higher fat content. We are very excited about the potential for this new coating to improve health." 

Tekcapital will issue 65,732 ordinary shares to the University of Arkansas for the acquisition of the exclusive license.

For further information please contact:

Tekcapital plc - The World's Largest University Network for Open Innovation

Tekcapital helps clients profit from new, university-developed intellectual properties. With our proprietary discovery search engine, linked to 3,700+ universities in 160 countries, coupled with expert scientific review, we provide a turn-key service to make it easy for clients to find and acquire the IP they need to create a competitive advantage. Tekcapital plc is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: symbol TEK) and is headquartered in Oxford, in the UK. For more information, please visit www.tekcapital.com