PANVEGA AG

Birmensdorferstrasse 123

8003 Zürich

Switzerland

Phone: +41(0)76.690-1964

Fax: +41(0)76.690-1964

www.panvega.ch

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Hall 4A / 4A-100

BIOFACH 2020

Other exhibitors (19)

Products of PANVEGA AG (4)

LOGO_BIO Vegetable Broth with vitamin B12

LOGO_Falafel (organic) -- ready-mix with vitamin B12

LOGO_veg'N patties (organic) with vitamin B12

LOGO_vitamiN' co powder with GMO-free, organic-conform vitamin B12

Exhibitor Profile

Products (4)

Floor Plan

Press Infos (1)

PANVEGA AG and vitamiN’ co

PANVEGA AG is a Zurich startup (est. 2016) that is dedicated to the development and marketing of vegan-organic food products. It answers the global demand for vegan and organic food products – a demand that has a double-digit growth rate and that is driven mainly by flexitarians.

Andreas Schenzle (Ph.D) is PANVEGA’s founder, board president, and CEO. The startup is financed exclusively by private investors, and the shareholders have many years of experience in technical and scientific fields (microbiology, biotechnology, food technology, pharmaceuticals, and chemistry) and in entrepreneurship (company foundation, financing, and leadership, project and service-provider management, customer- and partner-relationship building and retention, sales and marketing).

PANVEGA‘s main product is vitamiN’ co, the first vitamin B₁₂ in the world to be allowed in organic food products. Because plants cannot produce the vitamin, people who have a mainly or fully plant-based diet run the risk of developping a B12 deficiency, which can lead to serious illnesses. With vitamiN’ co, our startup makes a vegan-organic diet possible without a B12 supplement.

PANVEGA offers food manufacturers vitamiN’ co to enrich their vegan-organic products, and supports them through technical expertise and experience in the use of its B₁₂. A key step toward production of vitamiN’ co is a complex fermentation for the cultivation of non-GMO B₁₂-producing bacteria, a process that was developped at a university over a two-year period. vitamiN’ co is available as a powder that‘s easy to dose and is, amongst other things, storable and thermally stable.

PANVEGA has the first-mover advantage for a vegan-organic B₁₂ and plans to use it to conquer the global market. For more information, please see www.panvega.ch.

BIO Vegetable Broth with vitamin B12

Falafel (organic) -- ready-mix with vitamin B12

veg'N patties (organic) with vitamin B12

vitamiN' co powder with GMO-free, organic-conform vitamin B12

Animals, including humans, require vitamin B₁₂ for their metabolism; plants do not. Neither animals nor plants can produce the vitamin; only special bacteria can. Animals absorb B₁₂ in one of two ways: from bacteria living in their digestive system (like ruminants do, for instance), or via their food chain (like omnivores do, for instance). Although humans‘ large intestine is colonized by B₁₂-producing bacteria, humans are not able to absorb the vitamin there; in humans, active B₁₂ absorption happens in the small intestine alone.

A maximum of 2 µg of B₁₂ can be actively absorbed by the human ileum per meal, and 2 µg is also the approximate daily required amount to maintain one’s B₁₂ at a healthy level in the long run. Since a B₁₂ deficiency can lead to serious health problems – especially, megaloblastic anemia and neurological dysfunction – EU legislation recommends a daily dose of 2.5 µg of the vitamin for adults.

Animal-based food is traditionally the major natural source of B₁₂ for humans; more and more people, however, are reducing their consumption of animal-based products for health, ethical, and/or ecological reasons. Because of humans‘ unique absorption system and the lack of the vitamin in plant-based food, this reduced consumption of animal-based products is putting more and more people (not just vegans, but also vegetarians, and even flexitarians) at risk of developing a B₁₂ deficiency.

There are two problems that face many vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians who wish to consume the recommended daily dose of B₁₂:

The majority of consumers prefer natural vitamin sources to pills, so the idea of taking a B₁₂ supplements is not very appealing to them.
Conventional B₁₂ is not allowed in organic-certified food products, because its production includes the use of harmful chemicals, and the use of genetically modified bacteria, which is not in compliance with organic-food legislation. This makes it unappealing to consumers who wish to eat organic.