Hygiena, a Warburg Pincus portfolio company based in Camarillo, Calif., announced plans to acquire the global food safety diagnostics business from DuPont Nutrition & Health, Wilmington, Del.

The acquisition includes all of DuPont Diagnostics business assets, including the BAX and RiboPrinter Systems and associated test kits; a global and technically trained sales, R&D and manufacturing organization; and in-house production capacity. The business was formed by DuPont in 1992 as Qualicon; Hygiena will retain the Qualicon name.

DuPont Diagnostics provides innovative, science-based microbial detection and monitoring products that identify and characterize pathogens and other unwelcome organisms in food ingredients, finished products and production environments.  

“The combination of DuPont Diagnostics and Hygiena will create a broad food safety diagnostics company that can better serve our customers,” says Steve Nason, chief executive officer of Hygiena. “The combined company’s microbiology products will cover the full manufacturing process, from in-process environmental tests to finished product tests. In addition, the combination increases our customer service presence in the United States and internationally, which will allow us to further enhance our research and development efforts and support to our combined customer base.”

“This transaction is a strategic business decision that will allow DuPont Nutrition & Health to focus on growth opportunities that are more closely aligned with our core portfolio of specialty food ingredients,” says Matthias Heinzel, president, DuPont Nutrition & Health. “We believe that the Diagnostics business is an excellent strategic fit with Hygiena. Together, they will be better able to offer greater opportunities for growth and investment in innovative solutions for the global pathogen testing industry.”

Hygiena specializes in rapid food safety and environmental sanitation testing for industrial food processors, life science researchers and more.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.