23 Feb 2010 --- Capacity expansion for cultures at Dangé-Saint-Romain, France, in response to the demand for ripening and protective cultures.

Danisco announces it doubled the freeze-drying capacity of its Dangé-Saint-Romain French site to support the growth of the global market for ripening and protective Direct Vat Inoculants (DVI). The new state-of-the-art set-up is today fully operational and using best-in-class food safety standards. The investment comes in addition to the recently announced EUR 60 million that will be invested by Danisco to expand its cultures capacity worldwide.

The expansion is primarily focused at serving the dairy and meat markets with CHOOZIT cheese ripening cultures, TEXEL maturation and surface cultures for meat and HOLDBAC protective cultures for fresh fermented dairy products.

’The Dangé-Saint-Romain site is perfectly adapted to the production of these specialist cultures and with this investment we strengthen further our abilities to serve these markets,’ comments John Rea, Vice President, Starters & Ripening SBU.

Danisco has traditionally enjoyed a clear market leadership position in surface ripened cheeses with the most extensive product portfolio and application knowledge. In addition, Danisco recently introduced innovative cultures such as TEXEL NatuRed, a natural meat curing solution or HOLDBAC patented protective cultures to control yeast and mould growth in fresh fermented products.

’Thanks to this range of cultures, we contribute to optimising our customers’ production processes, protecting the good taste of food and maintaining biodiversity for our future generations,’ commented Doug Willrett, Executive Vice President, Cultures Division.

Danisco is one of the world leaders in cultures and currently has industrial operations in Germany, France, Poland, the US and China.