Canola Protein GRAS Notification Received

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA Burcon NutraScience Corporation has announced that the Division of Biotechnology and GRAS Notice Review of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the FDA has formally acknowledged receipt of Burcons GRAS notification for its canola protein ingredients.  Burcon filed GRAS notification in Jan. 2010 and, in response to FDA comments, modified the notification and resubmitted it in Feb.  2010.  In a letter dated Apr. 1, 2010 the FDA has formally acknowledged receipt of the GRAS notification.

The company expects that this will pave the way to increased product-development activity with canola protein. Burcon extracts and purifies two types of canola protein isolate from canola meal, a co-product of the canola seed crushing industry and  markets the protein isolates under the trade names Puratein® and Supertein.

Burcon also reports that five previously announced notices of allowance received with respect to its U.S. patent applications have now proceeded to grant as United States patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The company now holds a total of 17 U.S. patents over its protein extraction technology and protein product uses, bringing the total to 120 issued patents in various countries, and more than 225 additional pending patent applications, 70 of which are U.S. patent applications.