Cargill has strengthened its innovation capabilities in Europe with the installation of a new, state-of-the-art extruder at its R&D center in Vilvoorde, Belgium. Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose platform, the investment is enabling faster product development across food, feed, and pet food applications – while setting new standards in safety, hygiene, and sustainability.
Beyond its technical capabilities, the new installation marks a key step in Cargill’s strategy to accelerate customer collaboration and unlock growth in high-potential segments, including alternative proteins, snacks & cereals, and pet food.
“This investment not only strengthens our local food R&D and production capabilities but allow us to continue to grow with our customers and provide them with more diverse and innovative food solutions across Belgium and the EMEA region.”
Geert Maesmans, VP of R&D, Cargill Food EMEA
Rebuilding extrusion expertise for future growth
The project builds on a long-term ambition to reintroduce extrusion capabilities in Vilvoorde after earlier equipment had been phased out. At the same time, demand for extrusion-driven innovation – particularly in snacking & cereals – is increasing rapidly.
Snacking manufacturers are under increasing pressure to accelerate innovation cycles, respond to evolving consumer trends and bring differentiated products to market more quickly.
34%
of consumers say an indulgent food or drink experience means “a rich sensory enjoyment”
60%
of consumers say that they want to explore new things when they want to indulge
57%
of consumers look for interesting texture combinations in an indulgent food and drink experience
Snacking is evolving into a multi-dimensional experience, elevating the moment and mood, and combining sensory richness such as textural innovation with wellbeing.
We’re excited to expand our longstanding capabilities and expertise in Snacking & Bars to ready to eat (puffed & filled) cereals and extruded salty snacks.
Hear from our team: Clemence Mouyen, Sr Technical Account Manager
"Customers usually ask for validation of the optimal solution in the final application before moving to industrial trials. So, when working with cereals manufacturing customers, in the past, we had to rely on our North American colleagues for application support.
While we are of course grateful for this possibility, we realized it delayed projects and we couldn’t offer our customers the fast support we are known for in other snacking areas.
By bringing back these extrusion capabilities back to Europe, we are now again perfectly equipped to collaborate with our customers on fast validation of results in applications such as Ready to Eat cereals. I couldn’t be more excited to leverage this new capability to better serve my customers."
Cargill: Your one-stop-shop for all snacking needs
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Leverage one partner for all your snacking & cereal needs We now support your extrusion projects in Europe, next to standard salty snacks, coated nuts, and cereal bars. |
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Accelerate innovation & speed to market The new pilot plant enables faster proof-of-concept development, rapid prototyping, and joint collaboration. |
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Develop products more effectively |