ADM Animal Nutrition, a division of Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), announced that it has opened a new Animal Nutrition Technology Center in Decatur, Ill. The facility builds upon ADM's legacy of innovation in animal nutrition, offering capabilities to enhance customer collaboration and develop fully tailored nutrition solutions.

The technology center is designed to serve the needs of the broad animal nutrition market, with a focus on ingredient and nutritional solutions development for pet foods, pet treats and aquaculture feeds. It features state-of-the-art technology, including:

* A pilot extrusion facility, fully equipped to run multiple small batches in a single day to assess ingredient functionality in extrusion for use in pet foods/treats and aquaculture feeds;

* A pet food culinary kitchen, providing an interactive experience for customers to aid in product development and product performance evaluations;

* A feed evaluation laboratory with specialized screening, including in vitro and simulated digestion analyses, and

* An enzyme analysis laboratory to support the development of novel feed enzymes.

“The Animal Nutrition Technology Center was built as a result of ADM's commitment to research and growth in the animal nutrition space,” said Ryan Lane, president of ADM Animal Nutrition, North America. “We recognize collaboration is the cornerstone of successful customer relationships and developed the center with this in mind. We're proud to showcase our expertise and further enhance our capabilities, with this facility serving as a global hub for research and development.”

Recent acquisitions of Neovia — an international leader in value-added solutions for production and companion animals — and pet treat manufacturer Crosswind Industries, as well as renovations to specialty animal nutrition plants in the U.S. and China, further demonstrate ADM's commitment to global growth of the business, the announcement said.

“Over the past five years, ADM has significantly expanded its animal nutrition capabilities to meet increased customer demands for comprehensive research and accelerated speed-to-market,” Lane said. “This facility allows us to work with customers to create solutions that meet the changing needs of consumers, all under one roof.”

ADM is a global leader in animal nutrition, providing amino acids, additives, ingredients, tailor-made premix formulations and complete feed for the production animal, aquaculture and companion animal markets. With more than 110 production facilities around the world, ADM Animal Nutrition provides innovative, individualized solutions to support customer growth and optimize value creation and differentiation while reinforcing food safety and animal health and wellness.

For more than a century, ADM has transformed crops into products that serve the vital needs of a growing world. ADM is one of the world's largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, with approximately 40,000 employees serving customers in nearly 200 countries. Its global value chain includes approximately 450 crop procurement locations, more than 330 food and feed ingredient manufacturing facilities, 62 innovation centers and a premier global crop transportation network.

Source: Archer Daniels Midland, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.