Our Innovation Studio - What Sets Us Apart
Commitment – Willing to invest significant time and resources to achieve shared innovation success
Collaboration – Passionate about problem-solving tough innovation challenges side-by-side with your team
Dairy and protein application knowledge – Able to provide specific, science-backed, hands-on guidance to smoothly transition our ingredients into your end products
Urgency – Able to leverage our pilot plant to test new ingredients, applications, and processes efficiently, giving you key insights to accelerate product development
Our Innovation Difference
As with our approach to everything we do, our focus on innovation is customizable to the specific needs of every customer. We have developed a custom innovation process that leverages our industry-leading, in-house team of food scientists, ingredient experts, consumer researchers, and market analysts. Our process is rigorous enough to help us get to the right answer together, but also flexible enough to add value to nearly any innovation challenge or opportunity you may bring to us. Together, we work with you to develop proprietary, scientifically proven, effective solutions that propel your products and business toward success.
Meet a few of our team members
R&D Food Scientists & Application Specialists
Richard Merrill
Richard is a PhD dairy chemist with over 30 years in the industry. He has experience in R&D strategy development, patent strategy, regulatory guidance, and food safety whose career has led to advancements in microbiology, cheesemaking, and dairy ingredient functionality and processing.
Angela Queneau
Angela has a BS and MS in Food Science from Ohio State University and Purdue University, respectively. She also has 9 years of CPG product development in baker, bars, and snacks; as well as 6 years of experience in dairy ingredient manufacturing.
Marketing Strategists & Consumer Researchers
Vanessa Williams
Vanessa has a BA in Strategic Marketing from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Denver Daniels College of Business. She has over 20 years of experience in consumer research and innovation pipeline development.
Andrea Herrera
Andrea has a BS in Food Industrial Engineering from Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Lima, Peru), as well as a MS in Agriculture from Washington State University & an MBA in Marketing from Louisiana State University. She has 7 years of experience in R&D, and B2B & CPG marketing & innovation.
Business Development & Nutrition Sales Experts
B.T. Nauslar
B.T. received his undergraduate degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson School of Management. B.T. has been with Leprino since 2009 and currently is responsible for all commercial aspects of the Leprino Nutrition business, including sales and marketing leadership of our dairy ingredients business as well as overall leadership of the Ascent protein brand.
Jim Camerlo
Jim holds a BS in Business Management from Colorado State University. In his 32 years at Leprino he has worked in foodservice distribution sales, R&D field support, regional and national account sales, leadership of multiple commercial cheese segments and customer service.
Our R&D Pilot Plant
We built a $15 million state-of-the-art pilot plant in 2017 specifically designed for our nutrition customers which offers custom scaled-down versions of many of the unit operations we have at our factories around the globe. It’s ideal for the evaluation and creation of new ingredients, formulations, and processes on a small scale, enabling us to ramp up to production-scale when necessary. Our pilot plant includes a plethora of capabilities including various filtration and evaporation systems, single and multi-stage drying, and blending capabilities so we can create a variety of products you may need.
Our application capabilities include the development of:
- Dry blends and powders
- Hot fill RTD beverages
- Processed and analog cheese
- Nutritional bars
- Fermented dairy products (yogurt and cream cheese)
- Ice cream
- Bakery products
Our Capabilities
Click on the links below to learn more about our Innovation Studio capabilities.
Research & Insights
A preliminary gut check for innovation guidance and guiderails
- Custom primary research – qual & quant
- Consumer behaviors & preferences
- Product claims and benefits research
- Concept testing
- Custom sensory testing
Market Analysis & Strategy
Initial market assessment to identify and verify market opportunities
- In-depth market data & category analysis
- Competitive assessments
- Global category and consumer trend analysis
- White space analysis
- Business strategy development
Research & Development
Application formulation and troubleshooting to ensure successful ingredient performance
- In-depth technical and application expertise
- Custom ideations
- Product/concept development
- Rapid prototyping
Commercial Implementation Support
Support to help smoothly transition our ingredients into your end products
- Access to a robust set of co-manufacturing partners & production specialists
- Able to provide science-backed, hands-on guidance during trials and commercialization ramp up