ISTANBUL – Cargill announced the opening of a state-of-the-art technical application center and high-tech ingredient blending production plant in Turkey to help dairy manufacturers find ways to solve problems as consumers’ demands evolve.

The company will invest $5 million to expand its INFUSE by Cargill service, and its facility in Orhangazi, Turkey, will become a regional innovation hub to support dairy customers in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Cargill first introduced its INFUSE program in Europe in 2020. It brings ingredient solutions that address industry trends such as nutritional balance, plant-based products and label-friendliness. The program was designed to innovate, speed up development cycles and get products to market more quickly.

For the company’s customers in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, the service intends to provide access to expertise and resources. The technical application center is equipped to address features such as calorie or fat reduction, fiber and protein enriched foods and plant-based foods. Cargill said it also wants to offer more affordable products to market and solve supply chain issues for the region’s dairy manufacturers.

The center’s pilot facilities mimic full-scale dairy processing production lines, enabling Cargill’s on-site specialists to rapidly test ingredient solutions.

Cem Beysel, Cargill Foods META executive committee member and chief product and marketing officer, said the application center will bring innovations to the region, as the company aims to support food and beverage manufacturers in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

“We will serve our customers as if this place is their own R&D center,” Beysel said. “The application center offers manufacturers texturizing blends. Mixtures, which are used in very low quantities in order to ensure the fluidity, aftertaste, rough and/or smoothness of the foods, meet the special needs of the customers while creating the advantage of speed and low cost."

He said the center has more than 300 ingredients, making it able to quickly work on prototypes and shorten the development timeline.

"Given today's complex formulation challenges, the days of solving problems with a single ingredient are gone,” Beysel said. “We understand how ingredients work together and how to create optimal solutions. Producers in the META region are in search of innovative products that are suitable for consumers' preferences and taste. On the other hand, manufacturers of new generation products, especially vegan dairy alternatives, are also in search of solutions for the localization and local production of imported formulas. With the application center, we will support the development of the most suitable solution for the needs in the fastest way possible."