Chr. Hansen (Novonesis)
HQ DK45% share
Danish bioscience firm; Chy-Max fermentation-produced chymosin and dairy starter cultures.
chemical · input
Rennet / Fermentation-Produced Chymosin (FPC)
The coagulating enzyme of cheesemaking. ~90% of US cheese uses fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC) from GM microbes, a market dominated by Chr. Hansen (now Novonesis).
7
Source countries
4
Companies
1
Goods affected
0
Claims on record
What depends on it
Goods that need this input
1 essential American goods rely on rennet / fermentation-produced chymosin (fpc) somewhere upstream in their supply chain.
Where it comes from
Source countries
Share of global supply, by country.
| Country | Share of supply |
|---|---|
| DKDenmark, except Greenland | 75% |
| ITItaly | 12% |
| JPJapan | 6% |
| TRTurkey | 2% |
| FRFrance | 1% |
| COColombia | 1% |
| NLNetherlands | 1% |
Who makes it
Supplier companies
4 companies produce rennet / fermentation-produced chymosin (fpc).
dsm-firmenich AG(DSFIR.AS)
HQ CH40% share
dsm-firmenich AG (Kaiseraugst, Basel-Land, Switzerland; formed by merger of DSM NV Netherlands and Firmenich SA Geneva, completed May 2023; combined revenue ~€12B of which fragrance ~€3-4B) is the world's third-largest fragrance company. Firmenich (private, Geneva; founded 1895 by Philippe Chuit and Martin Naef) was the world's largest private fragrance house and the only major fragrance company to remain independent until the DSM merger. Firmenich's fragrance heritage includes Chanel No. 5 (Firmenich supplies the fragrance compound to Chanel — one of the most carefully guarded commercial relationships in the fragrance industry; the Chanel No. 5 formula is a Firmenich-originated formula from 1921). DSM contributed nutrition, health, and biosciences (vitamins, carotenoids, animal feed enzymes) to the merger. The combined dsm-firmenich operates manufacturing at Geneva (Switzerland), Haverhill (UK), Neuvy-sur-Barangeon (France), and Florham Park (USA). The Firmenich name is retained in the merged entity's fragrance operations branding.
IFF (Danisco)(IFF)
HQ US
World's second-largest dairy starter culture supplier via its Danisco Food Cultures & Enzymes division, acquired with DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences in February 2021. Primary production at Brabrand (Aarhus), Denmark — a legacy Danisco site dating to the 1870s. Also the world's second-largest flavors & fragrances company (post-Frutarom 2018 merger), making fermentation infrastructure dual-use across dairy cultures, flavor compounds, and fragrance chemicals.
Novonesis(NSIS.CO)
HQ DK
Formed January 2024 from the merger of Novozymes A/S and Chr. Hansen Holding A/S — the largest merger in Danish industrial history. Novonesis inherited Chr. Hansen's dairy cultures business (mesophilic starter cultures, probiotics, cheese cultures) plus Novozymes' industrial enzymes. The merger consolidated two of the three largest global fermentation companies into one Copenhagen-area entity.