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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/food-processing-and-preservation-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Food Chemistry & ProcessingFood Processing and Preservation Patents: Who Files, What They Claim, and Where Filing Has Cooled
- Filing has pulled back from its peak. 2021 was the high point at 438 records; by 2024, the last complete year, filings had fallen to 357 — an 18% decline over that span.
- No single company dominates. The leader holds 533 records and the top 5 combined account for just 11.6% of all 11,176 records in scope — concentration is shallow even at the top.
- Foods and microorganism classes lead by a wide margin. A23L covers 34.6% of records, more than double the next largest class, C12N at 12.1% — most activity sits in formulation and ingredient claims, not process hardware.
11.2K
Published Records
12%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-18%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (438 records) with 2024 (357) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 11,176 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset spans 11,176 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine food processing or preservation terms with technical elements such as ingredient mixtures, microbial culture, processing temperature, product stability, thermal processing or microbial control. That combination captures a mix of formulation science, thermal and microbial process engineering, and enzyme or fermentation technology rather than a single discipline. The scope deliberately straddles food science and biochemistry: A23L (foods and non-alcoholic beverages) is the largest single class, but microorganism engineering, biocides and even medicinal preparation classes all appear at meaningful volume.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend understate real filing activity for those years — treat the most recent two years as still filling in rather than as evidence of a further slowdown.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 11,176-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend: a peak in 2021, then a pullback
Filings rose from 354 in 2017 to a peak of 438 in 2021, then declined to 357 by 2024 — the last year that can be treated as complete — an 18% drop over that three-year span. Readers should not extend that decline through 2025-2026; those years are still being backfilled by publication lag.
Technology composition across IPC subclasses
A23L (foods and non-alcoholic beverages) covers 34.6% of the 11,176 records, well ahead of C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) at 12.1%, A01N (biocides) at 11.8% and A61K (medicinal preparations) at 11.4%. Dairy (A23C, 8.2%), preservation-specific claims (A23B, 7.7%), water treatment (C02F, 6.7%) and fermentation/enzymatic synthesis (C12P, 6.5%) round out the picture. Records can carry multiple classes, so these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 11,176 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
US20120288610A1 — Method and apparatus for enhanced performance of a conventional continuous hydrostat
ICS SOLUTIONS B.V.
A method, apparatus and thermal processing medium for accelerated thermal processing, particularly the pasteurization and sterilization of foodstuffs, within a conventional food processing system comprising at least one processing chamber or tower, where the system requires no significant structural modification, no additional pressurization of product or apparatus, and no change of physical state of the thermal processing medium. The approach eliminates steam as the means of achieving the required thermal processing level, instead using the space previously occupied by steam.Filed by ICS Solutions B.V., dated 2012-11-15.
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4760025A | Modified enzymes and methods for making same | 1,805 |
| 2 | EP0130756A1 | Procaryotic carbonyl hydrolases, methods, DNA, vectors and transformed hosts for producing them, and detergen… | 942 |
| 3 | US5792931A | Fumonisin detoxification compositions and methods | 844 |
| 4 | US5700676A | Modified subtilisins having amino acid alterations | 702 |
| 5 | WO1995035026A1 | Novel plants and processes for obtaining them | 650 |
| 6 | US6231970B1 | Thermoplastic starch compositions incorporating a particulate filler component | 615 |
| 7 | US20060204738A1 | Medical device applications of nanostructured surfaces | 596 |
| 8 | US5264366A | Protease deficient bacillus | 551 |
| 9 | US5955340A | Modified subtilisins having amino acid alterations | 532 |
| 10 | US7121342B2 | Thermal processes for subsurface formations | 428 |
Citation counts favour older filings inside a searched corpus — they signal historical influence on later filings, not current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the concentration and citation data suggest
The ranking, the citation table and the filing curve each point to a field that is active but not dominated by any single player.
Concentration
11.6%
of all 11,176 records held by the top 5
A shallow top of the field
The leading assignee holds 533 records and the fifth-ranked holds 123, but the top 5 combined still account for only 11.6% of the 11,176 records in scope. That is a long tail rather than a controlled field — most of the corpus is held by single-digit filers.
Based on the 100-company assignee ranking returned by the dataset.
Momentum
438 → 357
peak-year filings vs. 2024
Growth has cooled from its 2021 peak
Filings peaked at 438 in 2021 and had fallen to 357 by 2024, an 18% decline over three years. Several previously active filers show no filings in the latest tracked year, though that pattern is also consistent with publication lag rather than exit.
2025-2026 figures are still incomplete and excluded from this comparison.
Influence
1,805 citations
on the single most-cited record
Old enzyme patents still anchor the field
The most-cited record in this corpus, US4760025A on modified enzymes, dates from well before the 2015 window but still accounts for the highest citation count in the table. Enzyme and subtilisin-modification patents dominate the most-cited list, reflecting how foundational biochemistry claims get cited by later formulation and process work.
Citation counts favour older filings and should be read as influence, not present-day importance.
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to food processing & preservation patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranking spans 100 companies across ingredient science, industrial food processing, enzyme and fermentation technology, and agrochemical-adjacent biocide work. No filer approaches a controlling share.
Leader
533 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
A single leader, but no lock on the field
The top-ranked assignee's 533 records are more than four times the fifth-place holder's 123, but even that lead translates to a small share of the 11,176-record total. Filing leadership here comes from breadth of formulation and processing claims rather than a blocking core.
Ranking covers 100 companies, not a top-10 or top-50 cut.
Long tail
16.8%
top 10 combined share of all records
Most volume sits outside the ranked leaders
The ten most active assignees together hold 16.8% of all 11,176 records, meaning over four-fifths of the corpus is filed by companies and institutions outside that group — universities, regional processors and single-patent entrants all contribute meaningfully.
Figures given against the full 11,176-record denominator, not the ranked subset.
Momentum
0 in latest year
for several previously active filers
Recent-year activity has thinned across known filers
Multiple assignees that appear high in the ranking show no filings in the most recent tracked year, including one filer at -100% year-on-year. Given publication lag, this is as likely to reflect filings still working through the pipeline as an actual pullback.
Momentum figures reflect the latest tracked year only.
Filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Frito-Lay North America, Inc. | 1 | — |
| Ecolab USA Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Nestec S.A. | 0 | — |
| Rohm and Haas Company (USA) | 0 | — |
| Unilever PLC | 0 | — |
| Ecolab Inc. | 0 | — |
| International N&H Denmark ApS | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as filed. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific competitors.
Map claim scope against your own process
IPC-level shares show where activity concentrates, but they cannot tell you whether a specific claim reads onto your process. Pull the full claim text for records in your target class before committing to a filing strategy.
Explore this landscape in EurekaTrack the filers with recent momentum
Year-on-year momentum data flags which assignees are still actively filing versus those that have gone quiet. Recent activity, not raw record count, is the better signal of who to watch next.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
The dataset's assignee ranking spans 100 companies, with the leading filer holding 533 records against 11,176 total records in scope. The top 5 combined account for only 11.6% of all records, and the top 10 for 16.8%, so leadership here is real but shallow — no single company or small group controls the field. Filers include large consumer food and ingredient companies alongside university and enzyme-technology assignees, reflecting the breadth of the underlying search scope.
Filings rose from 354 in 2017 to a peak of 438 in 2021, then fell to 357 by 2024, an 18% decline over that three-year span — 2024 is the most recent year with complete data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to call the trend a continued decline. The honest read is a cooling from a 2021 peak, not a collapse.
A23L, covering foods and non-alcoholic beverages, is the largest class at 34.6% of the 11,176 records, more than double the next largest, C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) at 12.1%. Biocide-related claims (A01N) and medicinal preparations (A61K) each sit near 11-12%, with dairy, preservation-specific, water treatment and fermentation classes filling out the remainder. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add to more than 100% and should not be read as mutually exclusive segments.
US20120288610A1, filed by ICS Solutions B.V., covers a method and apparatus for accelerated thermal processing of foodstuffs — specifically pasteurization and sterilization — inside a conventional processing chamber without requiring structural modification, added pressurization, or a change of physical state in the thermal medium. It notably claims eliminating steam as the mechanism for achieving thermal processing targets. Anyone designing steam-free continuous sterilization equipment for existing processing lines should review this claim scope directly rather than assume it is narrow, since its value lies precisely in avoiding structural changes to standard hydrostats.
The technology composition data shows heavy concentration in A23L (foods) and C12N (microorganisms), while narrower process-hardware and non-thermal control methods carry comparatively little claim density. Sub-areas such as non-thermal microbial control methods, steam-free continuous sterilization hardware and fermentation-derived stability agents show up as under-claimed relative to the field's core classes. That does not mean these areas are unpatented, but the claim space is less crowded and worth checking directly against the fuller record set before filing.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Food Processing & Preservation Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company's registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.