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Scale-up of pioneering natural food colourant production moves into important phase
ScotBio, a fast growing Scottish biotech business making a natural blue colourant, has officially opened a new production facility in Lockerbie in the south of Scotland and confirmed ambitious plans to expand further.
The new facility, which complements its existing R&D and head office facility at BioCity outside Glasgow and which plays a key role in the business’s scaling up programme, was officially opened by Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands on 12 November 2019.
Over the past 4 months ScotBio has successfully tested its pioneering method for producing its natural food colourant in a 50,000 litre production tank at the Lockerbie facility. Production capacity will increase further over the next 12 months with the addition of several more of the 50,000 litre vessels in operation at the site. The company is also looking at a number of additional sites in Europe, the US and the Far East as part of its longer term growth plans.
Based in BioCity Glasgow, the biotech incubator located just outside Glasgow, ScotBio has developed a patented, vessel-based process to respond to worldwide demand for ‘clean labels’ and products free of artificial colours by providing FMCG’s with traceable, natural blue and green colourants.
Natural blues and greens are produced using phycocyanin, also known as spirulina extract, an algae derived pigment which received international regulatory approval in 2013. Phycocyanin rich algae is traditionally grown in pond systems, which are seasonal and subject to environmental contamination but ScotBio has developed indoor vessel-based systems that are modular and scalable and capable of meeting the demand from global food manufacturers.