July 27, 2006

IdentiGEN sets up subsidiary to tap North American markets

IdentiGEN Ltd., a provider of DNA-based tracing systems to the agriculture and food industries in Europe since 2000, has announced a new subsidiary, IdentiGEN North America, Inc to market IdentiGEN's proprietary TraceBack DNA tracking system in North America.

The company's system is able to provide the source of meat products throughout the entire chain of production -- from the animal of origin up through the producer, meat packer, food retailer and consumer.

The company plans to offer the system in the US and Canada for tracing beef and pork.

IdentiGEN's DNA-based TraceBack system offers producers, packers and retailers the first proven way to trace the origin of meat back through the supply chain in the event of a disease outbreak, said Patrick Cunningham, Ph.D., chairman of IdentiGEN Ltd

The TraceBack system works by analysing individual DNA samples from each animal and combines DNA analysis with genetic markers as identifiers.

IdentiGEN has also developed proprietary DNA collection and analysis methods that simplify the entire process so that the TraceBack system can be easily implemented, the company said.

IdentiGEN has even developed techniques to enable identification of products containing meat from multiple animals, such as ground beef.