Cargill Completes $5.5M Expansion at Minnesota Food Innovation Center

By Ioana Neamt, Associate Editor

Minnetonka-based Cargill, the largest privately held company in the U.S., recently announced the completion of a $5.5 million expansion of its North American Food Innovation Center in Plymouth, Minn. According to a news release, Cargill plans to bring most of its North American research staff to the facility, which has been extended from 20,000 to 40,000 square feet.

Cargill’s R&D center offers its customers full access to state-of-the-art research equipment, and is the company’s primary research facility serving North American packaged food and beverage industries.

“This is a one-of-a-kind facility – and we believe it will give our customers a competitive advantage,” said Kerr Dow, Cargill vice president of global food technology. “We wanted to find the best way to satisfy the product research-and-development needs of our customers in food and beverage manufacturing and the food service industry.”

The newly expanded center will provide ingredient expertise in multiple food categories, including cereal, snacks, bakery and frying applications. The North American Innovation Center will also feature significant oil ingredient development space devoted to R&D, a bakery applications center facility, and collaboration and presentation space with a fully equipped kitchen for culinary demonstrations and prototype preparation.

Cargill’s remodeled center in Minnesota constitutes an integral part of the company’s extensive network of global Cargill Innovation Centers. The company owns R&D centers in Minnesota, Kansas, China, Brazil, India and Belgium.

Logo courtesy of Cargill Inc.