S.D. Plant to Reap Some Jobs From Expansion of Kelco

Merck & Co., the giant pharmaceutical firm, will spend $29 million to expand plants in San Diego and Oklahoma that produce biogums, materials used as thickening and suspending agents by the food-processing, oil-drilling and chemical industries.

Less than half of the $29 million is earmarked for Merck’s Kelco Division plant in San Diego. The lion’s share will be used to expand a large Kelco facility in Okmulgee, Okla., said Steve Zapoticzny, Kelco’s San Diego-based public affairs manager.

Kelco has 600 employees in San Diego. The planned expansion will generate a “modest” number of new jobs, Zapoticzny said.

Biogums, which are produced through fermentation processes, end up in a wide variety of consumer products. Kelco produces the materials at fermentation plants in San Diego, Oklahoma and England.

Merck linked the expansion to increased demand from existing customers, along with new applications that are being made possible by new production techniques. Merck has, for example, received federal Food & Drug Administration approval to sell biogums to bakeries, which will use the substances to improve the texture of pastry fillings and cake icings.

The planned expansion will not affect Kelco’s seaweed harvesting operation, which produces alginates, another type of thickening and suspending agents. Kelco has been harvesting seaweed from giant kelp beds in the Pacific since 1929.

Like biogums, alginates are used by a variety of industries. They are used to stabilize and improve the texture of salad dressings, baked goods, frozen foods and restructured meats. They are also used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations.