BioMar joins bid for better feed analysis
Feed producer BioMar has become a partner in a project to develop the next generation DNA-based analysis for feed products and feed ingredients.
The work will be led by feed ingredients testing and certification services supplier Orivo, which has been granted funding from the Norwegian Research Council.
The goal of the project, which has a total budget of NOK 8.6 million (£732,000), is to develop a quantifiable DNA-analysis method to enable precise determination of the species composition in feed-related samples.
A more precise tool
“The DNA-based analysis methods currently available in the market are either unreliable in terms of quantifiability or unable to detect unknown species present in a sample,” said Orivo chief executive Svein Erik Haugmo in a press release.
“With this project we aim to expand our existing analysis platform with a method that solves both these issues. Our goal is to offer players in all parts of the feed value chain a tool to precisely determine the species composition of their samples.”
Haugmo said that the tool being developed could be used by companies either to make sure that the products they are buying have the right specifications, or to document sustainable sourcing to clients in a value chain where transparency is becoming increasingly important.
Full transparency
Morten Holdorff Møjbæk, BioMar’s global sourcing director, said: “At BioMar we strive for full transparency and traceability throughout our supply chain. Sourcing raw materials like marine ingredients where there is overfishing of 33% of fish stocks comes with a huge responsibility and that is why knowing the identity of the fish species is critical to us.
“Having this verified through Orivo’s testing platform adds a very important extra level of insurance for us. We are therefore glad to support the further development of this platform to expand its application areas and make it even more useful to us and our clients.”
The project will launch in February 2021 and will last for three years, but Orivo aims to introduce the service to the market sooner. The first version is planned to be validated within 12 months of the project’s launch and will be offered to key clients.
As well as BioMar, researchers from organisations such as the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, SINTEF and Haploid AS will contribute to the project.
