Erber has held a forum to showcase its research and development strategies and to emphasise the importance of food and feed safety.
The event, held on 16 December in Technopol Tulln, Austria, also included the official opening of laboratory facilities at the Austrian Biomin research centre and highlighted the concepts of Erber's three subsidiaries: Biomin, Romer Labs and Bio-Ferm.
About 80 scientists and experts from industry and government agencies took part.
Romer Labs and its spin-off companies Quantas and Biopure analyse undesirable contaminants in food and feeds, such as fungal toxins or allergens.
Their products for determining these contaminants include rapid field tests or specific chromatographic tests that serve as reference methods.
Bio-Ferm offers biological plant protectants while Biomin focuses on feed additives, which support animal health the natural way or counteract feed contaminants such as mycotoxins or pathogenic microbes.
All three companies support research and development facilities at the Technopol Tulln.
Lectures by Biomin's research and development scientists focused on new approaches to detoxify fungal toxins, the development of test models for the investigation of the gastrointestinal flora and the development of safe probiotics.
Bio-Ferm presented its approach to biological plant protection, describing how biological control agents prevent harmful microbes from proliferating on the plant's surface.
Bio-Ferm received the Lower Austrian Innovation Award earlier this year for this product development.
Romer made a presentation on the melamine contamination of baby and infant milk concentrates in China, which killed four babies and made more then 60,000 ill.
Romer adapted and optimised its existing test kit and completed the melamine testing product portfolio with isotope labelled standards and reference analysis.
