Kampffmeyer Food Innovation said its new centre, which will become operation in August this year, will enable bakers to work alongside its technologists to trial recipes and develop new products.
The Hamburg based firm has roots reaching back to the Middle Ages, but today is positioned as a hi-tech miller developing new applications for milled grain products to meet pressing needs for the food industry.
Svenja Frank, project manager at Kampffmeyer Food Innovation told BakeryandSnacks.com that initially the centre’s focus, for historic reasons, will be on the German bakery sector but she stressed that the facility is also keen to extend its reach to the wider European market.
She also said that Kampffmeyer intends to engage with universities and plans to unite experts from industry and academia for brain storming sessions in its conference rooms.
According to Frank, R&D priorities at the centre will be informed by current industry drivers including research into making grains healthier and clean labelling innovation.
The centre will cover an area of 2200 square metres and will include a trials kitchen and cutting edge baking technology to enable extensive testing of new binding systems and coatings, as well as pilot plants for refining milled grain products.
The facility is also set to have laboratory equipment for sensorial analysis and measurement of product properties, claims the German milling group.
“We want to involve our clients and prospective experts, offer a platform for exchange and innovation, and be open for knowledge transfer – in both directions,” said managing director of Kampffmeyer, Karl Heinz Driller.
Innovation centres that add value to a supplier’s offering are a growing trend within the food industry.
Belgium’s Puratos recently opened an Industrial Patisserie Competence Center (IPPC), saying it hoped get a better understanding of the needs of the industrial patisserie sector by developing industrial applications in tandem with the bakers.
Pierre Tossut, group R&D director, explained that the IPPC would assist patisserie manufacturers in terms of ingredients, recipes and nutrition value from the process stage right through to sensory evaluation looking at crunch and texture.
Puratos also has another innovation centre in in Belgium and one in in the UK, which, it claims is able to help bakers there speed up product development to meet short deadlines often required by retailers and also helps them meet very British bakery tastes.