Cargill to Carry Out Innovation Activities in Türkiye

Cargill shifts innovation focus to Turkey, Middle East and Africa region after launching INFUSE™ across Europe in 2020. Cargill, which continues to invest in Turkey for healthy and innovative food solutions, has established a high-tech Application Center and ingredient blending facility in Bursa Orhangazi. This facility will serve as a regional research hub to accelerate the development and launch of innovative products for customers in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. Cargill has established a high-tech INFUSE™ Application Center and ingredient blending facility in Bursa Orhangazi to enable dairy producers in the META region covering Turkey, the Middle East and Africa to respond more quickly and effectively to changing consumer expectations. Operating as a regional innovation center, the facility established by Cargill to expand INFUSE™ services will serve as a solution partner, providing technical support and product development opportunities to dairy producers in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. Introduced in Europe in 2020, INFUSE™ offers ingredient solutions that meet consumer demand for balanced, plant-based and clean-label products. INFUSE™ also accelerates product development processes, enabling innovations to reach market faster.

Domestic alternatives to imported products

The center in Bursa Orhangazi can provide solutions for today's consumer trends: reduced-calorie and reduced-fat products, as well as fiber- and protein-rich and plant-based products. Beyond these emerging trends, Cargill aims to help dairy producers in the region bring higher-quality, trend-aligned products to market at more competitive prices and faster. The INFUSE™ Application Center also aims to provide dairy producers with readily applicable blends to address supply chain difficulties and support efforts such as localizing imported formulations. The pilot facilities within the INFUSE™ Application Center feature production lines that directly replicate full-scale dairy processing lines, enabling Cargill ingredients to be sourced and allowing application specialists to test ingredient solutions rapidly under real production conditions. Cem Beysel, Executive Board Member responsible for Product Management and Marketing at Cargill Food Middle East, Turkey and Africa, said the center will serve as a regional innovation hub. Beysel said, "At Cargill, we have long endeavored to support food and beverage producers in both Turkey and the Middle East and Africa with our continuously expanding range of products and services. In this facility where we have invested in Orhangazi, we will serve our customers like their own R&D centers. The Application Center provides producers with texture-modifying blends. These blends, used in very small quantities to ensure that foods meet consumer expectations by adjusting their flow, taste and mouthfeel to be either textured or smooth, meet our customers' need for quality products tailored to their products while providing cost and speed advantages," he added. Beysel said, "We start by understanding each customer's needs, then use our technical expertise to arrive at the right ingredient solution and ratio. INFUSE™, at the heart of recipe development and innovation concepts, represents the finest example of how we help our customers succeed as Cargill and the working model we have developed for this purpose.

Solutions tailored to needs

INFUSE™ builds its customer-focused approach in the Turkey, Middle East and Africa region around 3 core principles: unwavering focus and commitment to delivering trend-aligned solutions, determination to bring speed to market, and access to deep technical expertise and resources to deliver custom-formulated ingredient solutions that meet each customer's unique needs. Beysel noted that with more than 300 components already in the toolbox, prototypes can be rapidly developed, delivered and optimized, thereby significantly reducing time to market. "Given today's complex recipe challenges, the days of solving problems with a single ingredient are behind us. We know how ingredients work together and how to create optimal solutions. Producers in the META region covering Turkey, the Middle East and Africa need innovative products that match consumer preferences and taste preferences. On the other hand, producers of new-generation products such as vegan milk and dairy products are also seeking solutions for localizing and producing imported formulations locally. Through our Application Center, we will support the development and delivery of the most suitable solutions for these needs in the shortest possible time," he said.