ORIVO was granted funding from the Norwegian Research Council to develop the next generation DNA-based analysis for feed products and feed ingredients. Among the partners in the project is the Danish sustainable aquaculture feed producer, BioMar, who sees the value of evidence-based transparency in their industry. The goal of the project, with a total budget of NOK8.6 million ($993,000), is to develop a quantifiable DNA-analysis method to enable precise determination of the species composition in feed-related samples.
“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. 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,” said ORIVO´s CEO Svein Erik Haugmo, who thinks it is time to raise the bar and start moving to more evidence-based transparency documentation. “There is no doubt that there is an increasing demand from modern consumers for more hard evidence such as laboratory test results. The tool we are developing can 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 more and more important.”
To help develop the analysis method, ORIVO has brought together a group of highly recognized academic and commercial organizations with different areas of expertise. “Complex challenges such as the ones we will be faced in this project require a multidiscipline approach. We are both delighted and proud to be joined by such an excellent team of highly skilled researchers from organizations such as The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, SINTEF and Haploid AS,” said CTO in ORIVO and project manager, Erik Fuglseth.
One of the key stakeholders in the project is BioMar. The company has been collaborating with ORIVO for many years already and Morten Holdorff Møjbæk, global sourcing director believes the ability to document responsible sourcing through laboratory testing will be key in the near future. “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 come 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 start in February 2021 and will last for three years, but ORIVO aims to introduce the service to the market sooner. The first version planned aims to be validated within 12 months after the project launch and will be offered to key clients. Further improvements will be implemented continuously and will address an increasingly broader market, including the pet food industry.
