Tate & Lyle PLC (Tate & Lyle or the Company), a world leader in ingredient solutions for healthier food and beverages, is pleased to announce the launch of its new ‘Automated Laboratory for Ingredient Experimentation’, known as ‘ALFIE’, at its Customer Collaboration and Innovation Centre in Singapore. Through the pioneering use of automated robotics, ALFIE represents a revolution in the delivery of mouthfeel solutions for customers, providing faster and more accurate ingredient design and accelerating speed-to-market for new products.
ALFIE, which represents a multi-million pound investment in innovation by Tate & Lyle, has the ability to run characterisation tests at around 10 times the current rate, and provides enhanced predictive modelling. It comprises two robotic systems with complete connectivity and seamless data flow for fast ingredient and solution design. By accelerating sample production, characterisation and modelling, the company will be able to trial new ingredients more efficiently and create new solutions for customers at greater pace.
This major investment by Tate & Lyle, with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), makes the Singapore lab Tate & Lyle’s Asia Pacific hub for mouthfeel R&D and customer solutions. While ALFIE will be operated by Tate & Lyle’s on-site scientists in Singapore, it is also connected to Tate & Lyle’s Customer Collaboration and Innovation Centre in Hoffman Estates, near Chicago, US, where scientists will be able to operate ALFIE virtually.
