Camarillo Firm Buys Du Pont’s Food Safety Business

A Ventura County food safety testing firm has acquired the safety diagnostics business of DuPont & Co. Financial details of the transaction between Hygenia LLC, in Camarillo, and DuPont, in Wilmington, Del., were not disclosed From the deal, Hygenia gains the sales, research and manufacturing organization of Qualicon, the food safety diagnostics business of DuPont’s nutirition and health division. The company will also receive the Bax and RiboPrinter systems used to detect contaminating organisms and foodborne pathogens. Hygenia Chief Executive Steve Nason said the acquisition creates a broad food safety company that better serves its customers. “The combined company’s microbiology products will cover the full manufacturing process, from in-process environmental tests to finished product tests,” Nason said in a prepared statement. Hygenia is a microbiology and life science company serving industrial food processors, health care institutions and life science researchers. It is owned by private equity investment firm Warburg Pincus in New York.