IFF to fast-track food ingredients tech at new Nourish Innovation Lab in US

22 Aug 2022 --- International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) has inaugurated its latest US-based Nourish Innovation Lab at the company’s Union Beach, New Jersey R&D center. In the state-of-the-art lab, scientists – including flavorists and food designers – will leverage tools, technologies and ingredient expertise to offer customers full product design.

“At the Nourish Innovation Lab, IFF will service customers using the full portfolio of products from IFF, which includes proteins, maskers, modulators, sweeteners, seasonings, functional ingredients, cultures and enzymes,” details Mauricio Poulsen, VP of Global Innovation, Creation & Design, Nourish, IFF.

“The innovation lab will support both the creation and design needs of all key categories, including snacks, beverages, savory, sweet, dairy, pharma and oral care. The site is the global hub for enabling technologies including a full-scale sensory and consumer insights lab, as well as an analytical lab.”

Driving circularity in food innovation
The Nourish Innovation Lab is one in a series of “aggressive investments” IFF is making to broaden co-creation capabilities.

The 160,000-square-foot Union Beach facility includes a botanical garden, sensory science wing and pilot manufacturing site.

The 160,000-square-foot Union Beach facility has served as IFF’s premier taste and scent research center for more than half a century, and includes a botanical garden, sensory science wing and pilot manufacturing site.

Located in the greater New York City area, the lab will integrate IFF R&D projects with commercial applications desired by consumers, with a special focus on wellness, sustainability and advancing the circular economy. 

IFF scientists will co-innovate with customers throughout the entire process, allowing for increased customer feedback and faster commercialization. “We will nurture an innovation project from concept to kitchen table, under one roof,” remarks Nicolas Mirzayantz, president of Nourish, IFF. 

“Using our scientific knowhow, application excellence and full portfolio of ingredients, we’ll improve the taste and nutrition profiles of next-generation food and beverages,” he continues.

“With our new culinary kitchen, we’re enabling technology focused on the consumer-eating experience, taking food development out of the traditional lab setting and into the kitchen.”

Previous scale-up highlights
Adam Janczuk, VP of global research and development Nourish at IFF, highlights this latest move as a development to aid the company in working “lock-step” with customers.

“We’re proud of this accomplishment, which closely follows the openings of our regional innovation centers in Latin America, and the plant-protein focused Culinary Design Center in Brabrand, Denmark,” she comments.

In light of global shortages of sunflower oil, IFF recently unveiled functional ingredients helping to reduce frying oil waste while maintaining food product quality. The ingredient maker’s Nourish division also rolled out a nutrient-dense hydrocolloid from red seaweed to stabilize plant-based milks. 

Among other highlights, IFF joined forces with Israeli food-tech start-up SimpliiGood by Algaecore Technologies to develop the first commercial smoked salmon analog made entirely from just a single ingredient – whole fresh spirulina.

The company also completed its acquisition of Health Wright Products, a move set to bring formulation and finished format capabilities to IFF’s Health & Biosciences probiotics.

Edited by Benjamin Ferrer