Lactalis USA announced the opening of its Culinary & Sensory Institute in Buffalo, New York, a facility designed to help expand its culinary expertise in multiple channels. The new institute is a center of excellence for Lactalis’ North American culinary and sensory channel operations for fostering innovation, enhancing customer and consumer experiences with the company’s dairy products and testing product quality. Lactalis USA is a subsidiary of Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy company.
The Culinary & Sensory Institute comprises commercial and residential kitchen spaces where Lactalis chefs actively address customer and consumer needs by hosting customers to explore innovative ways to expand menu and retail offerings using equipment found in restaurants and home kitchens. Lactalis chefs also create new recipes and concepts in the institute and further foster dairy product innovation. Additionally, the institute is a central location for sensory panels to sample Lactalis products for quality assurance and compare them against competing brands.
The institute represents a $2 million investment in Buffalo, where the company has invested more than $111 million since 2020 including projects to modernize its manufacturing facility and increase its production of Galbani Mozzarella, Ricotta and whey powder.