NEO GEN C OR P OR AT I ON
Looking to the Future of Food and Animal Safety BY DAN LEBLANC, CORPORATE WRITER, NEOGEN CORPORATION
Since its founding in 1982, Lansing, Michigan-based Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NEOG) has earned its status as a market-leading company in the development of rapid food safety diagnostics, including tests for the rapid detection of natural toxins, allergens, dairy antibiotics, pathogens, spoilage microorganisms, and sanitation concerns. Odds are strong that the quality and safety of the foods that you regularly eat are verified by a Neogen test. Neogen’s success has been built through testing innovations, such as the development of the first commercially available onsite tests for mycotoxins and food allergens (e.g., peanuts and milk), which enabled food companies to test their products before they were shipped to consumers. Neogen’s customers now include the biggest, best-known food companies in more than 140 countries in the world. Likewise, Neogen has become a market-leading company in the development of animal health products and innovative animal genomic services. The company’s vision to build upon its testing success is to provide food producers, processors and distributors with innovative tools for analysis to make quicker and more informed data-driven decisions on their ranches and farms, as well as throughout the global farm-to-fork food chain. The explosive growth in the fields of biotechnology and computer science has provided food producers and processors with an unprecedented amount of data concerning all aspects of their operations, including test results. Neogen is positioned to help producers and processors make sense of all the new data.
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For example, for most food products, decision making starts very early in the process. When it comes to providing the highest quality and quantity animal protein food products, including meat, milk and eggs, producers start by selecting the best animals for breeding programs. Neogen’s global animal genomics operations turn the seemingly daunting task of interpreting an animal’s genome, which includes billions of nucleotide base pairs, into easily understandable information. For example, cattle producers use Neogen technology to select the best animals for desirable traits, such as higher milk production, more tender steaks, or better disease resistance. These data-driven decisions result in a food supply that is safer, healthier and more environmentally efficient to produce — and more profitable for the producers.
In addition to animal selection, Neogen products can aid with operational decisions aimed at reducing contaminants. The safety and quality of the global food supply is challenged by contaminants on every step of its journey to the dinner plate. Contamination can occur in a farmer’s field, such as sprouts being contaminated with E. coli or corn with a
