Dutch food ingredients company DSM announced this week that it is set to build a new applications development laboratory for Food Specialties and Bakery Ingredients in Delft, Netherlands.
The laboratory, due to be completed in the third quarter of 2003, will involve an investment of approximately EUR 12 million. The new facility will accommodate over a hundred application specialists and product developers, who are mostly now working at different locations in Delft and Zaandam, Netherlands.
DSM claims that the concentration of all research & development activities focusing on food ingredients and end products containing those ingredients into a single new laboratory will improve efficiency and boost DSM's innovative power.
The laboratory will include facilities for producing a wide range of foodstuffs, including bread and baked goods, meat products, cheese, yoghurt, soups, and functional foods on small scale for the purpose of testing food ingredients.
"Consumers are becoming more and more demanding with respect to foodstuffs. Like any other producer nowadays, foodstuff producers, too, must constantly invest in innovation to retain their global market positions.
For them it is particularly important to make efforts to improve aspects relating to the quality of their products such as flavour, texture, nutritional value and shelf life and the efficiency of their production processes. In our new laboratory we will be able to test and improve the applications of our food ingredients using the most advanced techniques," saidFeike Sijbesma, a member of DSM's Managing Board.
The new facilities will support DSM's network of Food Application Centres.