EV Biotech, a startup that setteled in Innolab Agrifood last year, gains great press coverage. In March, an interesting article appeared on EV Biotech in the Northern newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden, written by Bouke Nielsen. A clipping of this article can be found below (the original is in Dutch).
“Chemistry, biology and IT are three diferent topics. At EV Biotech the come together, prompting bacteria to produce vanilla, or eat waste and ‘poop’ bioplastics.
It seems so simple: attaching the gene of a vanille plant to a bacteria, that makes the bacteria produce vanilla. The bacteria as a vanilla factory.
……
There is a great demand for vanilla, also called the new gold. ‘And it keeps on growing”, says Linda Dijkshoorn, CEO of EV Biotech. With the vanilla orchid that grows on Madagascar, the demand can not be met, not in the least because the crop was bad for years now. Labor costs make this process expensive. So people are looking for alternatives. There is an artificial vanille that is made from oil, with a large carbon footprint. Dijkshoorn: “I am a fan of chemistry, but this has its disadvantages.”
You can find the complete original article in Dutch here.
Copyright photo: Dagblad van het Noorden, photographer Geert Job Sevink.
