Chr Hansen focuses on dairy ingredient sector

The organisers claim that the 2006 exposition will be the largest in the show's 24-year history, with over 295 booths and 180 companies displaying the latest technology and services for the cheese industry.

This should give the Danish ingredients firm ample opportunity to showcase a number of its solutions, which have been developed in line with the firm's increasing interest in this particular sector.

For example, the firm recently announced plans to increase the fermentation capacity of its US cultures plant by 35 per cent in order to tap potential growth in the probiotics market.

The $7.4 million upgrade to its culture plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the largest single expansion in the plant's history, and completes a five-year $25 million investment plan.

The move can be seen as an attempt to tap the growing functional food market in the US, which was worth $19 billion (16.2) in 2004, compared to $4 billion in Western Europe. Indeed probiotics have been identified by the Danish company as a key growth sector on both sides of the Atlantic.

Other new products that will be on display include YieldMAX PL, the first enzyme solution from Chr Hansen and Novozymes. This is designed to increase production yield of mozzarella and pizza cheese by two per cent.

The company also plans to display a fermentation produced chymosin coagulant, CHY-MAX, which has highly specific milk clotting activity like calf rennet that enables cheese makers to achieve a very high yield. The Danish firm will also sponsor the Championship Cheese Auction Reception and will host a Latin-themed hospitality suite on 26 April that will feature the company's dairy flavours in dip applications.

The ICTE, co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and the Wisconsin Centre for Dairy Research, includes seminars, exhibits, and events for more than 1,800 attendees from around the world.