Batory Foods, a national distributor of food and food ingredients, has expanded its Wilmington, Ill. facility with the addition of the Batory Foods Innovation Center. 

The 16,000-sq.-ft. space includes an upstairs lab area and a blending facility, enhancing the company’s capabilities in applications development, custom blending and packaging services. Batory Foods hosted a ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 12 to mark this milestone, providing customers and vendors with an experiential tour of the newly upgraded site.

Batory’s Wilmington facility underwent upgrades to accommodate the new lab and blending spaces, which offer a range of services, including testing, one-pack solution creation, sourcing well-researched ingredients and comprehensive documentation. Additionally, the site also allows for advanced blending capabilities, including microdosing and custom labeling, allowing Batory Foods to deliver tailored solutions to meet customer needs. 

As part of this expansion, Batory Foods has invested in technical talent, welcoming a new R&D team with more than 40 years of cumulative food science experience. The team’s expertise spans various fields, including research and development, quality assurance, safety and operations. 

“The new lab and blending capabilities at our Wilmington facility represent our ongoing commitment to innovation and service excellence,” says Jessica Zielinski, vice President of strategic growth and marketing at Batory Foods. “This expansion allows us to enhance our technical and solution-based acumen, delivering even greater value to our customers and partners. The Wilmington site is designed to be a dynamic, evolving space that will continue to adapt to the needs of the product categories we serve, such as beverages, confectionery, bakery and nutrition."