In a move to help dairy manufacturers better respond to evolving consumer demands, Cargill Turkey has opened a state-of-the-art technical application center and a high-tech ingredient blending production plant in Bursa, Orhangazi. The company is investing $5 million to expand its Infuse by Cargill service and the center will serve as a regional innovation hub, supporting dairy customers throughout the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META).

First introduced in Europe in 2020, Infuse is designed to deliver ingredient solutions that meet demands around nutritional balance, plant-based and label-friendliness. It offers the ease of a blended solution that speeds up development cycles, so it can get innovations to market faster.

Located in Orhangazi, Turkey, the Application Center has an ability to offer solutions for the current consumer trends like calorie or fat reduction, fiber and protein enriched foods, or plant-based foods, etc. In addition to these emerging trends, Cargill says it wants to meet META dairy manufacturers’ needs like offering more affordable products to market or solving their supply chain hurdles by offering them customized easy-to-apply blends. The center includes pilot facilities that mimic full-scale dairy processing production lines, enabling Cargill ingredient and application specialists to rapidly test ingredient solutions in real-world conditions.

Cargill Foods META Executive Committee Member & Chief Product and Marketing Officer Cem Beysel says that the center will serve as a regional innovation area. “As Cargill, we have been trying to support food and beverage manufacturers both in Turkey and in the Middle East and Africa with our ever-expanding products and services,” he says. With this investment in Bursa Orhangazi, we will serve our customers as if this place is their own R&D center. 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.”