Food reformulation is becoming less about replacing one ingredient and more about solving several product and production requirements at once. Cargill provided the latest example this month, highlighting a co-development model that lets food manufacturers test ingredient combinations, evaluate product performance, and simulate industrial production before moving a formulation onto the factory floor.
At Foodist Istanbul 2026, Cargill showcased functional systems built around combining ingredients instead of relying on individual components. The company says manufacturers can use those systems to address texture, stability, shelf life, nutritional enrichment, clean-label requirements, and cost optimization simultaneously. The larger opportunity is speed.
Reformulation Briefs Are Getting More Complicated
Food manufacturers increasingly face product-development briefs with competing requirements. A company may want to lower sugar while increasing protein or fiber, remove certain additives, maintain a familiar texture, and keep the product within an existing cost target. Altering one component can affect several others. Reformulation has expanded well beyond traditional reductions in sugar, salt, and fat to include ingredient transparency, processing concerns, and clean-label expectations, all while manufacturers balance taste, value, and production economics. Kraft Heinz's plan to remove all artificial FD&C colors from its U.S. portfolio by 2027 is one example of that expanded scope.
Protein provides one example. Speaking at the CAGNY investor conference, ingredient maker Kerry said more than 60% of food and beverage development activity now involves reformulation, while about 70% of developers are focused on cost reduction and nearly two-thirds are prioritizing clean labels. Those objectives increasingly have to coexist inside the same product.
Testing Before the Production Line
Cargill's response is to move experimentation upstream. At its INFUSE Application Center in Orhangazi, Bursa, manufacturers can test formulations for dairy beverages, yogurt, cheese, cream, desserts, and plant-based foods, evaluating ingredient performance and simulating industrial production conditions at a smaller scale before commercialization. That can make reformulation a manufacturing strategy as much as an R&D exercise. A formulation that performs correctly at a laboratory bench does not automatically behave the same way when mixed, heated, pumped, filled, or stored at a commercial scale. Earlier testing can help manufacturers identify texture, stability, or processing problems before using production capacity for full-scale trials. Chemical labs follow a comparable pattern, qualifying safer substitutes before a restriction forces the issue instead of waiting for a mandate.
Cargill is not alone in this push. ADM said this year it is investing $26 million in its Erlanger, Kentucky operation to expand raw-material handling capacity, building on a separate $15 million investment completed in 2025 that expanded the site's Customer Creation and Innovation Center. Together the investments suggest ingredient suppliers increasingly compete on application expertise and development infrastructure, not just the ingredient itself.
Faster Reformulation Can Become a Competitive Advantage
In today's world, product requirements can change faster than traditional development cycles. Regulation, ingredient costs, supply availability, and consumer preferences can all trigger reformulation. Companies able to adapt recipes more quickly may have an advantage responding to those changes, provided they can preserve consistency, taste, and consumer acceptance. For procurement teams, that may also change how ingredient suppliers are evaluated. Retailers and manufacturers are already renegotiating where costs actually get removed from a product instead of simply passing them along, and suppliers are being pulled into that conversation earlier.
Price will remain important, but technical support, pilot-scale capabilities, and the ability to solve several formulation requirements together can affect how quickly a product reaches commercial production. Ingredient suppliers are moving closer to the development process because an ingredient's value increasingly depends on how quickly manufacturers can turn it into a product that works at scale.
