"This new addition will remove existing bottlenecks and significantly expand our culture capacity at the Madison facility, allowing us to meet the demands of the dairy industry for starter cultures and the rapid growth in probiotics," said Rod Dahlen, manager of the Madison plant.
Most foods containing probiotics, bacteria found in the gut that are understood to have health benefits, are found in the refrigerated section of supermarkets, as the bacteria are destroyed by heat and other processing conditions.
This has given the dairy sector, already used to handling live bacteria for the manufacture of yoghurt, a major advantage in probiotic foods - probiotic drinking yoghurts are currently the fastest growing dairy product in Europe.
The estimated total value of the global market for probiotic functional food is some $13.5 billion, with an annual growth rate of over 19 per cent in recent years.
The new 19,200-square-foot facility expansion "Danisco's recent move into new administrative offices and laboratories directly adjacent to the plant, along with this current expansion and future corporate-approved projects, reflects a strong commitment to Madison by Danisco," said Doug Willrett, vice president, new market development and Madison site manager.
Danisco Cultures continues to perform strongly for the Danish company, a fact reflected in the company's financial report for the first nine months of 2006/7, in which the division helped drive organic growth for both Bioingredients and its overarching Ingredients sector.
Bioingredients, which comprises cultures and Danisco's Genencor enzymes business, saw sales of DKK1.282 bn (c €172m) during the nine-month period - 39 per cent of revenue for Ingredients as a whole.
Both the cultures and enzyme product areas were said to contribute to the six per cent organic growth achieved, compared to five per cent for the prior year period.