Glanbia Nutritionals has nearly doubled the size of its customer-focused Collaboration Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, adding a new bakery lab and a culinary applications kitchen. The Glanbia Collaboration Center is a co-development and process optimization facility designed to accelerate successful product introductions for customers, from initial ideation to product completion.

The first Glanbia Collaboration Center building opened in April 2009 in Twin Falls with extensive pilot and lab capabilities for bar, beverage and dairy application development. A second Collaboration Center building has now opened adjacent to the first building with comprehensive baking, kitchen and lab capabilities for bakery development and culinary applications development.

At the Collaboration Center, customers are able to work side-by-side with Glanbia scientists and commercialization professionals in developing, producing and testing of new product prototypes that use Glanbia’s growing portfolio of whey & milk proteins, whey peptides, functional ingredients, flavors and next generation grain ingredients to provide a range of functional and nutritional solutions.

“From basic science to applications expertise, Glanbia has steadily made significant investments in people, facilities and equipment that provide the scientific and creative backbone our customers seek in a product development partner,” said Eric Bastian, Vice President of R&D. “The new addition to our Collaboration Center demonstrates our commitment to helping bakery customers and prepared foods customers achieve the same benefits already available to our bar, beverage, and dairy product customers, with solutions tailored to customers’ individual needs.”

As one example, the equipment within the new building replicates common bakery functions with commercial, artisanal, and in-store bakeries. Customer bakers can work together with Glanbia’s bakers to formulate, bake and review prototypes faster to help more quickly take advantage of consumer’s seemingly insatiable interest in more healthful products such as gluten free, clean label, or higher fiber products.

The new Collaboration Center building is part of the newly named Glanbia Research Campus, a three building R&D site in Twin Falls, Idaho hosting basic research labs, application labs, analytical labs, pilot processing facilities, and offices.