Darling Ingredients Announces Commissioning of Production Facility in Ghent Belgium

Part of Rousselot's Collagen Peptide Expansion Strategy 

IRVING, Texas, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE: DAR), today announced that its Rousselot business has successfully commissioned collagen peptides production at its Ghent Belgium location. Ghent is one of the main Rousselot collagen production sites and is exclusively producing porcine collagen. Ghent is also home to the Rousselot Expertise Center combining the global R&D Center, the EMEA application labs and the Pilot Hall opened in 2019. Rousselot Ghent is now well positioned to serve the worldwide market for collagen peptides with first commercial batches ready for delivery as of July.

"We are excited to announce the commissioning of this production facility in Ghent," said Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Darling Ingredients. "Expanding our global production of hydrolyzed collagen is an important part of our strategy moving forward. Our Rousselot business has been producing bovine collagen peptides in Brazil and porcine collagen peptides in Angoulême, France and we have recently completed construction of a new state of the art production unit dedicated to fish collagen peptides in Angoulême as well," Stuewe added.

The first commercial batches of fish collagen peptides from the new facility will be delivered to Rousselot worldwide customers in August. Furthermore, to answer the rapid growth of the bovine collagen market and to be closer to the European market, Rousselot Angoulême has now started to produce collagen peptides of bovine origin. Construction continues for the collagen peptides facility in Presidente Epitacio, Brazil which is expected to be completed in October 2020. Once completed, Darling will have four facilities which can produce bovine, porcine and fish collagen peptides.

"It was vital to review our production and supply chain organization and to build new production capabilities, able not only to respond to the strong collagen market growth but also to produce the collagens of superior quality that our customers and the consumers demand," explains Jos Vervoort, Executive Vice President Rousselot.

About Darling

Darling Ingredients Inc. is a global developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients, creating a wide range of ingredients and specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, technical, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.  With operations on five continents, the Company collects and transforms all aspects of animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as gelatin, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstocks, green energy, natural casings and hides.  The Company also recovers and converts recycled oils (used cooking oil and animal fats) into valuable feed and fuel ingredients and collects and processes residual bakery products into feed ingredients. In addition, the Company provides environmental services, such as grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. The Company sells its products domestically and internationally and operates within three industry segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients and Fuel Ingredients. For additional information, visit the Company's website at http://www.darlingii.com.