Roquette ups capacity in France and Italy
"Microalgae foods pioneer, the joint venture Solazyme and Roquette Nutritionals, has recently announced its manufacturing facility in Lestrem, France [processing algal flour for reduced fat products]," said a spokeswoman for Roquette. "Phase one, of 300t capacity, is produced in a pilot unit. At the same time a new production area is being built enabling the capacity to be increased to 5,000t: this is phase two and it is planned to start at the beginning of 2013."
Roquette is targeting dairy firms with plant-based solutions, such as glucono delta lactone (GDL) to replace ingredients such as calcium sulphate and magnesium chloride, proteins, starches and fibres.
Growth in cheese processing was raising demand for GDL, the preferred acid used for such purposes, said Roquette, so it is increasing production of it at its factory in Cassano Spinola, Italy.
The move would bring "a few additional thousand tonnes" to the market, said Christine Chainer, fermentation production manager. Roquette is one of only two European producers of GDL.
