Solvay, a provider of natural and functional vanillin and ethyl-vanillin ingredients, said it opened its new Vanil’Expert Center (VEC). Located at Solvay’s North American headquarters in Princeton, N.J., the center will provide customers with technical and product development support across the company’s full range of vanillin-based solutions, with a special focus on the natural trend.

Drawing on Solvay’s 100-plus years of experience, the Vanil’Expert Center features a dedicated food laboratory and sensory analysis room. The center is designed to help solve customers’ technical and formulation challenges, as well as to inspire tasty product creations that meet real consumer needs, Solvay said.

“The new Vanil’Expert Center highlights our commitment to drive the industry forward and helping our customers overcome their technical challenges quickly,” said Edouard Janssen, senior vice president and general manager, Solvay Aroma Performance, Americas. “In today’s competitive markets, accelerating product development and getting to market first is more important than ever before. The new center will provide valuable support for some of the common technical challenges in food applications, such as switching to natural and off-note masking in high protein products.”