For centuries, spontaneous fermentations have been used to preserve highly perishable foods by inhibiting the growth of spoilage organisms and produce palatable, healthy food, like fermented dairy products, meats and all kinds of vegetables. These fermentations were mainly characterized by the naturally present lactic microflora in these foodstuffs. In the 1950-60's, more defined starter cultures were introduced and were made commercially available. While at the beginning the underlying processes were not understood in depth but handled empirically, over the last 40-50 years, the culture business evolved into a finely tuned science with exact knowledge and determination of starter organisms and their metabolic activity.

Cargill today develops and produces a full range of cultures and enzymes. These encompasses a full range of relevant bacteria, yeast and moulds to perform acidification, flavor development, ripening and surface formation and many other activities in the final food, mainly dairy, meat and other agricultural products. To meet customer requirements these cultures are available as bulk cultures together with media products, direct to the vat cultures in frozen as well as in freeze-dried format. To target health and wellness aspects of fermented products Cargill offers a range of probiotic products. Cargill offers a wide range of coagulants (rennet) from microbial and animal origin as well as lipases from animal materials.

Cargill’s cultures group is a global leader, benefiting from over 100 years of production experience. Today, with research and manufacturing operations in the US, Germany and France, the group is a modern highly integrated global business.