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Global supplier of sweet and savoury flavours, extracts and essences, Synergy Flavors has announced the opening of its new savoury innovation centre in Wauconda, Illinois, US. Located at the company’s US headquarters, the new 12,500-square-foot facility features a dedicated space for flavour development, laboratories where customers can work alongside Synergy’s technical team, and a state-of-the-art applications lab that can replicate customers’ commercial kitchens and processing conditions. The facility includes a new culinary demonstration kitchen that can host tasting and innovation sessions with customers. A pilot plant for customer sample production, scale-up and flavour intermediates will be housed inside the savoury centre and will feature pilot spray dryers, flavour reactors, vacuum drying and retort capabilities.

Mike Brown, vice president of R&D and Innovation at Synergy, said: “We have seen tremendous interest from our customers to tour the facility and work alongside our team in the culinary demonstration kitchen. We look forward to hosting all of our customers in the near future at our state-of-the-art facility for tasting and innovation sessions.”

In May 2021, Synergy acquired Innova Flavors to better meet customers’ growing demands for savoury ingredients, natural flavourings and expanded plant-based offerings. Brown continued: “This expansion brings all of our business segments under one roof, strengthening our offerings and positioning us to better serve our customers”. According to Synergy, these infrastructure investments support its focus on target markets, as well as its commitment to ongoing collaboration and innovation with its customers. Synergy's president and CEO, Rod Sowders, added: “The new savoury centre will increase efficiency and allow for greater cross-functional collaboration between the teams. We continue to make significant investments in our future, to continue to be the go-to flavour company for all of our customers’ product line needs.”