Culture competencies

Danisco's culture development philosophy is:

• to have a close dialogue with our customers to apply our know-how in the development of healthy, safe and tasty fermented foods and probiotics
• to develop, for the food markets, starters offering appropriate functional properties, industrial productivity and reproducibility to meet the present and future demands of our customers 
• to improve efficiency by integrating and developing new scientific competencies in microbiology and in biotechnology
• to set up efficient manufacturing processes for food microorganism production
• to design new microorganism associations to fit customer requests
• to provide the customers with technical assistance
• to continue our extensive in-house research and development in co-operation with external partners
• to propose innovating solutions to improve safety and organoleptic properties of fermented products for meat, dairy markets and fish products

Expertise

Danisco has over 100 years of experience and know-how in cultures. More than 110 scientists (PhDs), engineers and technicians with the highest international standards of educational background are working in the laboratories and pilot plants in Europe, North and South America and Asia.

Skills

Danisco's competencies within cultures include:

• microbiology
• biochemistry
• molecular biology
• immunology
• taxonomy
• microbial physiology
• food bioprotection
• fermentation processes
• cellular concentration (biomass)
• freeze-dried microorganisms
• frozen microorganisms 
• characterisation of functional properties of microorganisms (acidification, phages resistance, texturising, flavouring, colouring, health, inhibiting activities)
• modelisation of cheese, meat  and fresh dairy technologies sensory analysis

A very large collection of microorganisms and bacteriophages, key tools in culture development, is maintained in the laboratories.

Acquisition and storage of all types of biological data use sophisticated software allowing analysis and comparison of large amounts of information and an efficient and protected database sharing between innovation laboratories and business and production sites.

Science

The laboratories have the most advanced equipment to study and characterise microorganisms.

Danisco's culture development benefits from natural biodiversity collected around the world. To reach high productivity, high biodiversity and deep characterisation, the laboratories manage new high throughput screening methods based on the most advanced knowledge in microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

We perform advanced DNA sequencing and fingerprinting technology to ensure authenticity of our unique cultures, traceability of strains from plant to consumer, IPR protection with ID fingerprints for all strains and consistent quality and high product safety.

Outstanding pilot plant facilities allow the development of efficient fermentation and cell preservation processes and a thorough testing of processes and culture products in applications.

Quality

Danisco's culture development laboratories in Dangé-Saint-Romain, France, and Niebull, Germany, are certified ISO 9001 (version 2000).

Network

We are working closely with external research departments and universities around the world. Examples include:

• our customers' research departments 
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
• National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), France
• Pasteur Institute of Lille, France
• University of Poitiers, France
• University of Nijmegen, Holland
• Lund University, Sweden
• North Carolina State University, USA
• Technische Universität München, German
• The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark
• Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Holland
• University of Guelph, Canada
• University of Reading, UK
• Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Finland
• Universities of Turku and Kuopio, Finland
• Massey University, New Zealand
• Hospitals to carry out human clinical trials for probiotics