Located in Toamasina, Madagascar’s principal seaport, near vanilla growing areas and post‑harvest processing activities, the 650‑square‑meter center brings together lab analysis, extraction, scent and flavor creation, and application development in a single site. By embedding these capabilities close to the crop, IFF can better understand natural variability and translate on‑the‑ground insights into tailored solutions for customers globally. 

The Vanilla Innovation Center features:

• Lab analysis capabilities that apply contaminant and disease-detection protocols to safeguard product integrity, alongside molecular profiling to decode and develop distinctive IFF signatures
• Extraction facilities with scalable rigs to explore vanilla types and optimize extraction and post-harvest variables
• Flavor creation unit that enables tailored regional profiles, including Application Lab capabilities for dairy, bakery and confectionery to validate performance in real market prototypes 
• The Bloomery, a research greenhouse showcasing diverse vanilla varieties and supporting future exploration of varietal performance and post-harvest techniques

"This center is built to turn insight into action,” said Marcus Pesch, vice president, research and development, Taste, IFF. “By bringing science, flavor creation and application development together at origin, we can work more collaboratively with customers, improve speed and consistency, and deliver solutions that are market‑ready and grounded in the realities of vanilla production.”