ASIA – Global ingredients company, Ingredion has extended its virtual laboratory capabilities, INSIDE IDEA LABS to the dairy market in the Asia-Pacific region.

The virtual dairy lab brings insights and application expertise in dairy product formulation to food and beverage manufacturers, while ensuring they meet consumer needs in the fast-growing segment.

The virtual dairy lab showcases technical resources including sample formulations, white papers and responses to questions that customers frequently ask about topics such as formulating clean label and indulgent dairy products, recipe savings and mouthfeel enhancement.

With Idea Labs, Ingredion is setting an eye on the growing market opportunities in APAC, with a focus on cheese, yogurt and creamers including sweetened condensed creamers (SCCs) and non-dairy creamers (NDCs).

“Our regional labs have a strong focus on solving the local challenges customers are facing, such as for NDCs and SCCs for markets in the APAC region,” said Eric Weisser, Senior Director for Starch-Based Texturisers, Asia Pacific.

“We apply our expertise to help small and medium-sized enterprises succeed.”

The new lab will offer customers with services not limited to creating indulgent yogurts with clean label appeal, enhancing taste and texture cheese, as well as breakthroughs to reliably stabilized protein and fat.

INSIDE IDEA LABS provide 24/7 on-demand access to Ingredion’s science-based problem solving and consists of regionally developed virtual labs for specific market segments.

“Our virtual beverage lab has been well-received by our customers since its launch in 2018 and we look forward to providing dairy manufacturers with a similar level of expertise and partnership,” said Weisser.

“Our experts are also developing additional resources in other application areas, with more virtual labs to serve customers in key regions better.”

This follows the launch of Ingredion’s first Idea Lab innovation centre in the region, located in Nairobi, Kenya.

The center serves food and beverage manufacturers in the bakery, savoury, dairy, beverages, confectionary and processed meat sectors through innovation and new product development.

The company introduced virtual lab, Inside Idea Labs in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region to foster innovation.