IFF has announced the opening of its new Culinary Design Center, which provides specialized plant-based expertise to global cuisine creators, and allows for the co-creation of new product experiences to satiate rapidly growing consumer demand for novel plant-based foods. Designed to shorten the time from ideation to commercialization, the new Culinary Design Center features a high-end pilot manufacturing site for plant-based foods and a studio for live streaming and performing remote sensory evaluations.

“The new facility connects customers from around the world with IFF’s team of experts, providing them direct access to our broad expertise and capabilities, ranging from texture to taste, allowing us to deliver new plant-based solutions faster,” said Marcus Pesch, vice president of the IFF RE-IMAGINE programs. “The Culinary Design Center is part of a global network of IFF’s RE-IMAGINE PROTEIN^® Innovation Program.”

The opening of the Culinary Design Center is timely with Euromonitor’s projection of double-digit growth in the plant-based food and beverages segment in Europe in the years ahead, as consumers seek healthier, more sustainable diets. At the facility, the IFF team of scientists and culinary experts will leverage live streaming capabilities, bringing customers along for every stage of the development process, from the pilot plant to the top-of-the-line demonstration kitchen. After experiencing how IFF’s deep scientific expertise will perform in real-world kitchens, customers will receive product samples to taste during expert-led remote sensory sessions.

“Our technical experts have already created some of the best-tasting meat and dairy alternatives, and we are excited to continue pushing the envelope in plant-based innovations,” said Pernille Bak Høstrup, IFF’s culinary design director for ingredients in Europe and head of the Culinary Design Center.

Through our exploratory development work at the Culinary Design Center, IFF and its customers will deliver the next generation of delicious, plant-based foods to consumer tables around the world.