International Flavors & Fragrances executives — from Belgium, China, Italy, and South Africa — descended on Lakeland’s Florida Polytechnic University campus Wednesday to showcase the global conglomerate’s new Citrus Innovation Center.
It’s the only citrus-focused innovation facility in the world, IFF says.
The 30,000-square foot, single-story center has a ribbon-like structure inspired by scent-mapping techniques, emulating the way fragrances move through the air, according to Tampa-based Ryan Companies, which designed and constructed it.
In Lakeland, IFF aims “to coordinate innovation and research and development on the citrus platform,” explained Karel Coosemans, IFF’s vice president of citrus innovation.
“That’s why we wanted to be here,” he continued. “Lakeland still is and has been for the last 100 years the citrus ecosystem for flavors, for fragrances and even the juice industry — the fruit growers, the fruit juicers, the oil processors, the equipment manufacturers.”
What IFF does: IFF specializes in business-to-business trade. It creates flavors and fragrances and sells them to companies such as Procter & Gamble to incorporate into their products like shampoos and soaps.
The Citrus Innovation Center, IFF says, will focus on its products in food and beverage, fine fragrance, body care and fabric and home care.
During the center’s grand opening Wednesday, guests tasted and sampled everything from IFF’s citrus-flavored ice cream to citrusy fine fragrances and citrus-flavored powdered drinks and mocktails.
Jobs: Employees began work at the Florida Polytechnic campus center early in 2024.
The Citrus Innovation Center is expected to support about 40 jobs. Coosemans said they’ve already filled about half of those positions, and hope to have 30 employees working there by the end of 2025.
The company is looking for professionals with a solid scientific background, such as food scientists, chemists, and biologists.
“The facility offers room for expansion, with opportunities for job rotations, professional development, and training — paving the way for future growth and expansion,” according to IFF.
An innovation hub: The Citrus Innovation Center plans to form partnerships with local growers and manufacturers, academia, and IFF scientists.
Inside the center, there’s a botanical greenhouse with about 40 citrus trees from around the world, ranging in variety, to allow for research.
There also are sampling booths, creation and design facilities, and analytical laboratories where scientists can track the addition and subtraction of molecules from citrus oil or citrus itself as they create recipes for scents and look for molecules that aren’t already commercially available to create new flavors.
Citrus oils are typically extracted from the peels to create scents. A peel has hundreds of molecules.
“To have the ability to innovate and create new specialities or concentrates or find new varietals of citrus” is “super,” said Dennis Maroney, an IFF master perfumer. “Everything is about innovation and differentiation and how we can provide and discover that.
“Can we find new citrus or hybrids of citrus? Can we dive into the research and develop different molecules? Can we isolate certain chemicals in the citrus?”
The Grower Connection: IFF executives said they also hope to partner with local citrus growers, and assist with new harvest machinery that could create better yields for growers and more profits for both.
Partnership with Florida Polytechnic University: Coosemans said he hopes one day IFF will be able to partner with Florida Polytechnic to create a citrus curriculum, allowing students to assist in analyzing data the company has compiled from citrus from around the world.
“This is also where Florida Poly is so important,” he said. “We’ve got so much data in our company over the last years.”
“It’s an incredible opportunity,” said Allen Bottorff, Florida Polytechnic’s vice president of administration and finance.
“Florida Poly is 10 years old. We’re at the point now where we’re growing these research partnerships and this is the very first of those. This is the gateway to us having a research park, growing our PhD programs, and growing research beyond this.”
