Vibrant Ingredients announces the grand opening of its 11,000sq-ft Innovation Center in Cranbury, N.J. The new state-of-the-art facility marks a significant investment in innovation, collaboration and customer partnership. 

The Innovation Center is designed to bring customers and technical experts together in a hands-on environment to accelerate product development through rapid prototyping, technical collaboration, and turnkey solutions for beverage and food applications across retail and foodservice. 

“This center is a game changer for Vibrant Ingredients and our customers,” Vince Macciocchi, CEO of Vibrant Ingredients, said in a statement. “We’ve built an environment where innovation is driven by close collaboration. This provides customers direct access to our expertise and ingredient portfolio from concept through commercialization. It’s a more connected, customer-centric way to develop solutions that truly meet consumer needs.”

The facility includes advanced beverage processing capabilities including HTST/UHT processing, carbonation, emulsions, and inline homogenization. Lab and pilot-scale development are supported, with expanded flavor and analytical lab capabilities coming later this year. Customers can work directly with Vibrant’s team to create customized, market-ready solutions in a single location. 

“At the core of this center is collaboration, and it’s powered by innovation,” Brian Merritt, vice president, creation & principal flavorist at Vibrant Ingredients, said in a statement. “By partnering closely with our customers, we explore new flavor possibilities, test applications in real time, and turn bold ideas into scalable, market-ready solutions.”

Located in central New Jersey, the facility places Vibrant Ingredients in the heart of the nation’s flavor and innovation hub while providing convenient access for customers and supporting the company’s established team of technical experts. 

With a team that includes certified flavor chemists and experienced product developers, the Innovation Center highlights Vibrant Ingredients’ unique advantage: direct access to expertise from day one. 

Customers of any size can work directly with Vibrant’s subject matter experts in a highly personalized environment. This focused approach helps accelerate innovation and efficiently bring ideas to life. 

The Innovation Center redefines product development with a customer-centric model that emphasizes collaboration and seamlessly links concept, formulation, and commercialization, supporting a more efficient path to market. It reflects Vibrant’s commitment to innovation, partnership and execution. 

Later this month, Prepared Foods will publish an interview with Vince Macciocchi, CEO of Vibrant Ingredients, to provide more detail on this development and how it will support the food and beverage R&D process.