Roquette opens new food innovation center in France

Pictured: Roquette cuts the ribbon on its new Food Innovation Center in France. Photo from Roquette.

Plant-based-ingredients supplier Roquette opened its new food development innovation center in Lestrem, France, in June. The site is designed to help food manufacturers develop new products, supporting them with R&D and technical expertise, “cutting-edge” equipment, labs, and scale-up testing.

“This Food Innovation Center has been designed to support food players by offering a huge range of capabilities, where Roquette experts will provide advice and solutions to their process and formulation challenges,” the company’s press release states. “It includes a demonstration kitchen, a sensory analysis laboratory, various collaborative spaces, and labs allowing pilot-scale testing for different food applications. All food sectors, including dairy, savory, confectionery, bakery, beverage, or specialized nutrition, will benefit from these new capabilities.”

Some of the advanced equipment featured at the center includes a high-moisture extrusion (HME), an ultra-high temperature (UHT) line with direct steam injection for dairy and beverage applications, and a tableting press simulator.