Kidd believes that the animal feed market offers pharmaceutical companies the perfect chance to seize functional food technology. "There are 1,200 human health companies that specialize in biotech," he says. "On the other hand, only a few specialize in plant or ag biotech. A lot of these pharmaceuticals are now looking to do something in the ag area. The partnership possibilities are unbelievably large."
As an example, Kidd points to research exploring the idea of genetically engineered vaccine-carrying food crops that could protect grazing animals from disease (K.S. Brown, The Scientist, Oct. 2, 1995, page 14).
Another potential biotech market involves microbe-produced molecules added to food. To boost a food's nutritional benefit, researchers may add molecules in a so-called biotransformation process. One biotransformation example is L-carnitine, which helps move fatty acids across mitochondrial membranes (P.S.J. Cheetham, Chemistry and Industry, N7:265-9, April 3, 1995).
Both of these ventures are in the ...
