SINGAPORE – Tate & Lyle, a global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets, has unveiled its pioneering Automated Laboratory for Ingredient Experimentation (ALFIE) at its Customer Collaboration and Innovation Centre in Singapore.
The new automated lab in Singapore aims to accelerate the development of innovative mouthfeel solutions for the food and beverage industry.
ALFIE, equipped with advanced robotics, can conduct characterisation tests at ten times the current rate, enhancing predictive modelling and accelerating speed-to-market for new products.
The lab’s two robotic systems ensure seamless data flow, enabling faster and more accurate ingredient design.
It will also accelerate sample production, characterisation and modelling, enabling the company to be able to trial new ingredients more efficiently and create new solutions for customers at greater pace.
Nick Hampton, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle, stated, “Our goal was to create a revolutionary tool that will better predict product performance in food manufacturing, allowing us to create faster and improved solutions to customer challenges.”
The Singapore lab will serve as Tate & Lyle’s Asia Pacific hub for mouthfeel R&D, aligning with Singapore’s Food Manufacturing Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025.
According to the company’s communique, the lab received support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
Andrew Taylor, President of Tate & Lyle’s Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America regions, highlighted that ALFIE is a groundbreaking lab which will redefine research and development in the industry and accelerating innovation tailored for customers’ most complex needs.
“If you consider that about 60% of the world’s population lives within a five-hour flight of Singapore, the location for ALFIE places Tate & Lyle very much at the centre of the future of food globally,” he added.
Similarly, Marcus Dass, Senior Vice President at EDB, emphasized that the opening of ALFIE reflects Singapore’s position as a trusted hub for the region and for cutting-edge innovation in the food and nutrition space.
While ALFIE will be operated by Tate & Lyle’s on-site scientists in Singapore, it is also connected to Tate & Lyle’s Customer Collaboration and Innovation Centre in Hoffman Estates, near Chicago, US, where scientists will be able to operate ALFIE virtually.
Meanwhile, Tate & Lyle ingredients group has posted a net profit growth of 11% to £122 million, though overall revenues for the period were down 7% amid challenging market conditions.
Notably, the company, which has continued its focus on the ever-rising better-for-you reduced sugar option product segment and investing in innovation centres said there were some improved areas of performance for the business this year.
This include volumes being up 6%, with new product revenues being up 10%, as the business continued to deliver a fresh pipeline of innovation across its portfolio.
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