ADM to expand Spanish probiotic facility amid surging demand

A new study helps to explain how nerve cells sense the microbes in the gut and how they coordinate their function with other tissues in the digestive tract.

Food and nutrition giant ADM says a new state state-of-the-art facility in Valencia, Spain, will provide a five-fold increase in its probiotic capabilities as the company looks to meet growing demand for microbiome solutions.

The new ADM Biopolis facility will be co-located with ADM’s flavour production facility in Valencia and is expected produce a wide range of probiotic and postbiotic ingredients using ‘industry leading technology’.

The microbiome is one of the hottest areas of innovation in multiple industries. From food and animal feed, into specialist nutrition and pharmaceutic solutions, the huge potential for microbiome-based solutions to improve health has led to an explosion of interest in probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics and live bacterial therapeutics in recent years.

Ian Pinner, chief strategy and innovation officer, and president of ADM’s Health & Wellness division noted that consumers are increasingly focus on the foundational role food plays in supporting health and wellness.

“Consumers today are thinking about the things they eat and drink in entirely new ways,” said Pinner. “They expect food and beverages that are not only delicious, but support health and wellness, come from sustainable ingredients, and are produced by companies that share their values.”

“Our continued investment in these growth areas ensures that ADM is perfectly positioned to meet their needs,” he added, noting that the growth investments ADM has made in recent years put it in ‘an unparalleled position’ to meet changing needs and growing demand.

Meeting demand

The growing importance of prebiotics and probiotics in the food and nutrition space, coupled with increased developments and commercialisation opportunities for postbiotics bring even more demand for microbiome-based solutions – all of which ADM hope to tap into with its expanded capacity.

The new facility, expected to be online in 2022, will provide the company with a five-fold increase in production capacity to meet this growing demand, says the company – adding that it sees for new solutions in weight management, skin health, immune health, gut health, oral health, fertility and more.

“Our new Valencia facility will feature leading-edge technology and dramatically enhance our ability to meet fast-growing demand for products and solutions from nature designed to target the microbiome and help improve metabolic health,” said Pinner.

ADM has established itself as a market leader for such microbiome-based solutions, with an award-winning portfolio of products and ingredients, including Bio-Kult Migréa® (NutraIngredients Awards 2020 – Probiotic Product of the Year), Bifidobacterium lactis BPL1 (NutraIngredients Awards 2020 – Ingredient of the Year: Weight Management 2020), and Bacillus subtilis PXN®21®, a live microbial strain shown to reduce the aggregation of α-synuclein, paving the way for future research in Parkinson’s disease (NutraIngredients Awards 2020 –  Editor’s Award for Innovation).

Photo: Archer Daniels Midland Co.