In Denmark, DuPont Nutrition & Health invested $60 million in its European probiotics production facilities to expand three cultures production sites as a response to increasing demand for frozen and freeze-dried starter cultures from the global yogurt, fresh fermented and cheese markets. The European investments will be at the DuPont Nutrition & Health plants in Sassenage and Epernon, France, and Niebüll, Germany.
The first phase will be commissioned in 2017 with an investment in the Sassenage plant to increase freeze-dried cultures production capacity by the end of 2018. This project will also increase fermentation capacity, biomass separation and freeze-drying capacity.
Frozen cultures production capacity will be increased at the Niebüll and Epernon plants. At Niebüll, previous investments resulted in a new pelletizer and further investment will expand ultra-cold storage to increase frozen cultures supply. In Epernon, the plan is to invest in a new fermenter to leverage existing fermentation capacity.