IFF announced that the company invested $15.8 million in three of its innovation centers in Latin America. The facilities are strategically located in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; and Santiago, Chile to serve the diverse local markets. The sites feature state-of-the-art research, application, sensory labs, and pilot plants, and offer customers access to complete product-design capabilities.

The innovation centers are designed to enhance customer experience, allowing customers to have deeper involvement in the development process, fostering collaboration across the company’s three business divisions—Nourish, Health & Biosciences, and Scent— to deliver the exact solutions they are pursuing in a much shorter time. The new facilities will support product design and development from conceptualization to commercialization, serving the food and beverage, animal nutrition and health, home and personal care, nutritional supplements, and bioenergy industries. 

“This substantial investment is consistent with IFF’s strategy to support the growth potential of Latin America,” said Zacarias Karacristo, country leader of IFF Brazil and regional president of Nourish division, IFF, Latin America. “It is also a testament of our commitment to being a key innovation partner to our regional customers.” 

“These regional innovation centers allow us to co-create so that we can help them transform ideas into essential solutions that address the latest consumer needs and market trends with agility and purpose,” added Karacristo.

The centers include:

• Brazil Innovation Center – Located in the Castelo Branco Office Park, Barueri, Sao Paulo, this approximately 2,000 square-meter ultra-modern facility consolidates the R&D capabilities of IFF’s Nourish and Health & Biosciences divisions. The $6.3 million facility is LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified and one of only a few buildings in the country with this certification. It houses laboratories and pilot plants designed to replicate large-scale industrial production processes, to serve the needs of all key categories, including bakery, confectionary, beverages, culinary and snacks, meat, fats and oils, dairy, and ice cream.

• Colombia Innovation Center – A $7.8 million facility that is conveniently located in the Megaport Business Center in Bogotá. It spans almost 6,000 square meters and features research, application, and sensory labs, as well as a pilot plant to support product development co-creation in food and beverage, home and personal care, and health and wellness segments across the Nourish, Health & Biosciences, and Scent divisions. This innovation center will serve customers in Colombia, South Central America, and the greater Andean and Caribbean regions.

• Chile Innovation Center – The $1.7 million facility is conveniently located in Ciudad Empresarial, a financial and innovation hub in the city of Santiago de Chile. In addition to consolidating overall administrative and creative services in the region, four new application laboratories will offer IFF’s extensive portfolio of functional ingredients, flavors, colors, and aromas and support product development in the bakery, bars, confectionary, beverages, dairy, culinary, and snacks categories. 

In line with the company’s dedication to sustainability, each innovation center was constructed following strict sustainability guidelines. 

For more than 60 years, IFF has maintained a significant presence and footprint in key Latin American markets. The three new facilities bring the total number of IFF innovation centers in Latin America to 12.