Lansing-based food safety product provider, Neogen, could see financial benefits from a shift in federal funding.
According to excerpts from the article:
"The government wants to reduce the time it takes to find problems with food," says David Acheson, M.D., the FDA's associate commissioner for foods. "Congress is looking at requiring preventive controls. Potentially that could mean initiating a testing requirement."
That would be a boon for Neogen, which already counts many U.S. dairies and large food companies as clients, including Smithfield Foods (SFD, Fortune 500), the nation's largest pork producer. But greater opportunities beckon overseas, where regulation is tougher and a range of allergens pose threats to the population.
"The food safety market in Europe is twice as big as that of the U.S.," says Tony Brenner of Roth Capital Partners, an investment bank in Newport Beach, Calif. International sales already make up more than 40% of Neogen's revenues, and the company, which also has offices in Mexico and Scotland, is rapidly working to develop test kits that will detect allergens such as hazelnuts and mustard, both of which are a growing concern in Europe.
"Neogen is really the only pure-play food safety company," says Scott Gleason, an analyst who covers the company for Stephens Inc., an investment bank in Little Rock. "Pepsi and Nabisco do not want to purchase testing products from seven or eight different suppliers; Neogen fills that synergy gap really well."
Read the entire article here.
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