Seed breeder Monsanto has signed up as an early tenant of a new research station opening in North Carolina.
The new laboratory will focus on developing the flavour of salad and vegetable products.
The North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) is a one-of-a-kind facility under development in Kannapolis, North Carolina, in a strategic alliance with the David H Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI).
The NCRC aims to bring together academia and industry, and fosters collaborative research in nutrition, agriculture and biotechnology to accelerate the development of foods with enhanced flavour and greater nutritive value to improve human health.
Monsanto has signed a long-term lease to establish research facilities focused on the taste and nutritional composition of vegetables, and enhanced nutrition in food-focused row crops such as soybeans.
David Stark, vice-president of consumer traits for Monsanto, said at Fruit Logistica 2010: “Last August we held some field trial days in California and took about 20 people there to see what innovation we had in the field and the reaction was amazing. Fruit and vegetables are not what they used to be in the 1990s; tomatoes can be fragrant, and sweet and tart in balance, as melons can be fragrant and sweet. There is hope for us to have products that really taste good.
“Many parents struggle to get children to eat healthily… People struggle with obesity issues. We need to make broccoli as fun as chocolate milk - quite unrealistic, but we are working on it. If children grab a sweet pepper or a melon instead of a salty snack, then we have done a good thing. Our number-one goal is sensory, flavour and appearance.
“This is our strategy; we are a seed company and have no aspirations to become anything but a company that develops innovation for our customers - we are not going to become the retailer. We need to work in partnership. That is why it is so exciting that David Murdock is turning a disused textile factory in North Carolina into a research station. It will be open in June and we are already tenants.”
Last year, Monsanto announced a five-year collaboration with Dole to develop vegetable varieties with consumer-focused attributes such as flavour, texture, aroma and nutrition. Monsanto will be a flagship corporate tenant at NCRC’s 350-acre life science campus.
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