Interview with Priscilla POIRIER, Research and Development and Quality Control Manager at Agrauxine by Lesaffre, who joined the company in June 2018.
Can you tell us more about your role and day-to-day tasks at Agrauxine by Lesaffre?
I work at the Agrauxine production site in Loches (France - 37600), as Research & Development and Quality Control Manager. The site produces fungal biomass (mushroom spores) for Agrauxine products, but also for other partners as a subcontractor. This fungal biomass is produced by solid fermentation: the fungus grows on a solid matrix, in this case cereals.
I have a multi-skilled job and my daily tasks are varied. One of my missions is to optimize spore production, whether through production feasibility studies for external customers or through process optimization projects to improve production yields.
As Quality Control Manager, I also ensure that the quality of all products manufactured on the site is closely monitored, and that batches are released only when they conform, i.e. meet customer expectations.
On a daily basis, I'm in contact with all the teams on site (production, maintenance, administration) but also with other Agrauxine departments not based in Loches: regulatory, marketing, technical development, US site... I also have a lot of contact with people in the Lesaffre group: whether with internal R&D or other subsidiaries (Phileo, Envera...). Working with all the expertise available at Lesaffre is a real opportunity for a small organization like ours.
What are the advantages of solid fermentation?
The solid-state fermentation process used here produces large quantities of high-quality mushroom spores. This is the most suitable method, as it mimics the mushroom's natural environment. In nature, mushrooms grow on soil, trees and plants... The spores we produce can be preserved for longer than if they were produced by liquid means.
Another of my missions is to diversify the business. We have a specific tool that is not very widespread in Europe: solid fermentation, which can be used to manufacture biocontrol products, but not only. Our technology can be used for animal nutrition, human nutrition and even cosmetics. Solid fermentation is interesting because, compared with other production processes such as liquid fermentation, it uses less water and less energy. This type of process has become increasingly popular in recent years, as environmental issues become more and more important in industry. When I arrived 6 years ago, I immediately saw the potential and the multitude of possible applications. I was passionate about it. Now the projects are starting to take off. We're working with various entities in the Lesaffre group for whom the properties of the mushrooms we produce here may be of interest. It's a potential business for Agrauxine, but also on a larger scale for the group.
Is there anything you've been particularly proud of since you started working at Agrauxine by Lesaffre?
Agrauxine is a young, fast-growing company, so we had to gradually structure the R&D and quality control departments on the production site. I'm proud to have contributed to this with the help of the Lochoise team. Since my arrival, the team and I have industrialized the production of around 30 strains, and in the quality control department we have quadrupled laboratory activity by doubling our workforce. An important step in the life of the company was also the acquisition of an American company. Since then, I've been back and forth to the US several times to work on various projects with the local team, ranging from formulation to the alignment of quality control methods.