As part of its Asia Pacific Innovation Center, Roquette has launched a customer center in Singapore to support clients with plant-based innovations that suit the Asian palate. This is the third facility that the French company launched this year, including the recently opened food innovation centre in Lestrem, France.
The new customer center will foster company collaborations to bring products beyond Singapore and will offer its customers the best solutions and ingredients to support the development of products — from idea to the plate.
According to Roquette, since Asian customers are interested in healthier plant-based alternatives after the pandemic, the new Roquette facility will be pivotal in building innovative and sustainable food experiences to address consumers’s preferences. A report by Food Frontier has revealed that five Asian countries, China, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan, will experience a growing interest in alt proteins.
“It is another proof point of Roquette’s commitment towards innovation and our deep understanding of building the right capabilities to serve the markets, while tailoring our offer to consumers’ eating habits,” says Rohit Markan, CEO of Roquette Asia Pacific.
Focusing on Asian cuisine
Composed of a culinary studio and a sensory hub, the “state-of-the-art facility” will focus on using Roquette’s ingredients in Asian cuisine oriented innovations.
The culinary studio allows for various Asian cooking methods thanks to its multi-purpose capabilities that can effectively showcase the different possibilities of Roquette ingredients. And at the sensory hub, panelists will evaluate the functionality, taste, aroma, and visual appearance of the new plant-based developments. The idea is to receive feedback and adapt the innovations to the region’s flavors.
Roquette argues that Asia’s diverse countries, cultures, culinary options, dietary preferences, and different stages of food production systems have made Singapore the perfect location for its regional headquarters.
“Roquette’s decision to establish its new Customer Experience Center here will leverage Singapore’s status as a food innovation hub to serve the diverse cultures across Asia. This dedicated space will support partners, including Singapore companies, in the growth of their novel food technologies including alternative protein, by enabling the co-creation and advancement of products that are tailored to the preferences of consumers in this region,” comments Damian Chan, Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development.
