GMOs

Biotechnology for the biobased economy

There is an increasing need for sustainable solutions to today’s industrial processes for producing chemicals and fuel. By enabling their production using renewable carbon from plant-derived sources, there could be environmental and economic gains for society at large. 

In this so-called biobased economy, greenhouse gas emissions and end-of-pipe pollution would be reduced and rural farm economies stimulated by the development of non-food uses of plants and crop residues.

We believe that the tools of modern biotechnology including the use of genetically modified (micro)organisms (GMOs), can lead to developing  technologies crucial to realising this vision. Through this route, it will become possible to develop new applications using products that, for economic, safety or environmental reasons, were not available before. Product performance can be improved and production efficiency increased, reducing energy and raw material consumption and waste in the process.

At Danisco, biotechnology is a key innovation tool in many of our sectors. Gene technology makes it possible to develop new strains of microorganisms that produce enzymes for various applications. Our scientists can also use gene technology to tailor enzymes for specific customer needs, providing benefits in both production efficiency and in the final product. To us, biotechnology and GMOs are indispensable.

We believe that gene technology is a safe and useful tool that can offer production efficiencies in the development of industrial enzyme products.

Safe use of bioproducts in enzyme production

We create products from naturally occurring enzymes and then use biotechnology to optimize their performance. Production of bioproducts, such as enzymes, often uses genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs).

GMMs do not include genetically modified plants and animals and thus are considered to be a GMO (genetically modified organism) subclass. To develop our products, we extract bioproducts produced by GMMs, but these bioproducts are not living organisms themselves.

Genencor uses only class 1 GMMs in production. Class 1 GMMs have a proven history of safe use and/or have limited survival in nature. They are nontoxic and nonpathogenic and are safe for humans, animals, and the environment.

Strictest safety protocols

Genencor also uses state-of-the-art technology and follows strict operational protocols to minimize release of GMMs into the environment. All of our production processes take place in fermentation vessels and recovery equipment designed to keep the production organisms contained.

Any products using GMMs are tested for the presence of the production organism during quality control processes and must meet the specification of no detectable production organisms at a detection limit of 1 colony forming unit per milliliter or gram.

We operate in full compliance with regulatory policies in all areas where we manufacture or deliver products.