New R&D Center Expands Capabilities

Companies that offer complete laboratory services help streamline product and ingredient development. To that end, Kalsec, Inc., a producer and marketer of spice, herb, hop and vegetable extracts for food, beverage and pharmaceutical applications, recently opened the $8 million, state-of-the-art Paul H. Todd, Jr. Research Center.

The 28,000-sq.-ft. facility focuses on six areas: applications, sensory, product and process research and development, flavor chemistry, analytical, and quality control. The building layout encourages collaboration by the various departments.

The applications team comprises culinary, application, and research and development scientists, and often works in close collaboration with the customer to assure the best final product. For example, the company recently approached a customer with a cost-saving alternative to the dehydrated garlic in an existing salad-dressing formulation. While the thought of saving money was compelling, reformulating was more than the customer wanted to take on at the time. Kalsec offered to reformulate the productthe customer simply supplied a sample of its existing dressing, along with a sample of the dressing without dehydrated garlic. The applications team then matched the dehydrated garlic with a Kalsec extract and included statistical verification of the match via sensory evaluations conducted in the labs new sensory facility.

Armed with trained sensory and lab personnel, we are able to assure our customers of high-quality, consistent flavor extracts that make our customers feel confident using our products, says John Weaver, director of product development, flavors. Kalsec can provide customers with a complete ingredient blend that offers color, flavor and oxidation managementor any combination of the threein one package.

One key feature of the new center is the carbon filtration air-handling system in the sensory laboratory. Because no residual odors remain in the facility after a panel is completed, sensory-evaluation scientists can hold panels as often as necessary.

Additionally, the new laboratory provides Kalsec with several key analytical functions, including: countercurrent chromatography, HPLC, GC-olfactometry, Gerstel sampling, near infrared spectroscopy, GC/MS and UPLCMS- MS. Through chemometricsapplying mathematical and statistical methods to chemical datathese analytical tools are combined with enhanced sensory capabilities to give customers powerful methods of solving food and beverage performance problems.

Kalsec, Inc.
P.O. Box 50511 
Kalamazoo, MI 49005-0511 
Phone: 269/349-9711 
Fax: 269/382-3060 
E-mail: [email protected] 
Website: www.kalsec.com