October 24/South San Francisco, Calif./Business Wire -- Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals, a microalgae-derived food ingredients company, announced the location of its Phase II manufacturing facility. The company will begin producing its lead microalgae derived food ingredient, Whole Algalin Flour, at Roquette's commercial production plant in Lestrem, France. The 300-metric-ton Phase I facility is anticipated to be completed on-schedule by year end 2011 and operational in early 2012. This facility will be expanded into the 5,000-metric-ton Phase II facility in 2012.

"Lestrem is the technology base for Roquette, and its flagship manufacturing facility. Having our Phase I and II facilities located there will allow Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals to leverage Roquette's world-class manufacturing capabilities and expedite large-scale commercial production," said Jodie Morgan, president and general manager of Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals. "Given the incredibly positive feedback from the market as it awaits the introduction of our new microalgae-based food ingredients and oils, we are excited to be taking these fundamental commercialization steps."

"This is a significant step forward in the progress of Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals' manufacturing timeline and we are excited about moving forward with this incredible market opportunity," said Guy Talbourdet, CEO of Roquette. "Roquette's state of the art location in Lestrem contains the essential infrastructure necessary to rapidly commercialize the manufacturing of this breakthrough food ingredient, Whole Algalin Flour. We are looking forward to bringing it to market in 2012."

In November of 2010, Solazyme, Inc., a California-based renewable oil and bioproducts company and Roquette Freres, a global starch and starch-derivatives company headquartered in France, formed a joint venture that combined Roquette's history and capabilities as a global food ingredient supplier with Solazyme's microalgae-based technology.

 From the October 24, 2011, Prepared Foods' Daily News.