Food Industry Experts Converge at ICL Food Specialties R&D Center to Celebrate Innovation

Following a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by Mr. Nir Gilad, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, ICL, and Webster Groves Mayor, Gerry Welch, the guests participated in several ingredient technology demonstrations in the culinary kitchen and with stops at bakery, beverage, dairy and meat labs as well.

 

“When it comes to food formulations, it’s not enough to describe innovation – we have to let our customers see, smell and taste it for themselves,” says Nancy Stachiw, director, Applications Development, ICL Food Specialties. “We’ve opened similar facilities in Europe, Mexico and Brazil and are thrilled to now offer our North American customers a creative center where they can collaborate and develop product concepts that meet consumer trends, from ideation to commercialization. The ICL Food Specialties food technologists work alongside them to solve formulation challenges.”

 

“The new R&D Center at Webster Groves is considered a Center of Excellence for ICL,” Stachiw tells FoodIngredientsFirst. “We knew that in order to take our R&D efforts to the next level, we needed capability to create new products, applications, formulations and prototypes in all our key markets – bakery, meat, dairy and beverage. This center was built to promote customer collaboration – we encourage our customers to come work side by side with us in the lab.  The new R&D Center is a commitment to our markets and our customers.”

 

Based in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves, the space more than doubles the size of the previous R&D facility and is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, including a full culinary test kitchen and performance technology with video tools that allows ICL Food Specialties experts to host virtual ideation sessions and live, instructional webinars.

 

“We are building on our phosphate expertise to manage proteins to deliver innovative texture and stability solutions for customers,” explains Stachiw, “We are developing ingredients that are differentiated and can create unexpected textures or can help maintain or support expected textures under challenging process conditions.”

 

Stachiw adds: “We recently launched our new Rovitaris Protein System, this is a meat alternative matrix made up of dairy and plant proteins that delivers a texture indistinguishable from traditional meat products. We sampled Rovitaris Hot Dogs and the customer response was amazing,” she explains, “The bite, mouthfeel and texture are identical to a traditional hot dog.”

 

“We also have a very innovative product for use in acidic beverages where added protein is desired. Our BEKAPLUS BP 900 whey protein has excellent transparency, bland flavor and is stable at low pH,” says Stachiw. “We are doing some interesting and promising work on foam stability/functionality and egg white replacement. This is still in development but we featured an Angel Food Cake at the customer workshop that was produced with 50% replacement of egg white – it was exceptional,” she adds.