With its advanced automated lab ALFIE and strategic location in Singapore, Veronica Cueva, SVP, Research & Development and Solutions Innovations at Tate & Lyle explains how the company is supporting the region’s growing demand for healthier food solutions. Kiran Grewal reports.
When global ingredients leader Tate & Lyle decided to expand its innovation capabilities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Singapore emerged as the natural choice. This strategic move led to the establishment of an advanced automated lab, affectionately known as ALFIE, in the bustling city-state. Here’s how Singapore’s unique advantages and ALFIE’s cutting-edge technology are shaping the future of food innovation. Kiran Grewal, Editor of Kennedy’s Confection speaks to Veronica Cueva, SVP, Research & Development and Solutions Innovations at Tate & Lyle, in an exclusive interview:
“For Tate & Lyle, the decision to base our APAC innovation hub in Singapore was rooted in strategy and vision,” explains Veronica Cueva. “With 60% of the world’s population within a five-hour flight, Singapore provides unparalleled access to a dynamic and diverse consumer market. Establishing ALFIE here not only reinforces our commitment to the region but also positions us at the forefront of food innovation.”
Singapore’s strategic location isn’t its only asset. The city-state’s commitment to fostering a thriving food-tech ecosystem and its alignment with Tate & Lyle’s forward-thinking goals made it the ideal partner for this ambitious project.
Supporting Singapore’s vision for 2025
Singapore’s 2025 Food Manufacturing Industry Transformation Map (ITM) aims to cement the country’s role as a leader in food and nutrition. Tate & Lyle’s investment in ALFIE directly supports this vision.
“Tate & Lyle’s launch of ALFIE aligns seamlessly with Singapore’s ITM goals,” says Cueva. “We are enhancing innovation capabilities, adopting advanced technologies, and contributing to a vibrant food manufacturing ecosystem. By leveraging ALFIE’s potential, we’re helping realize Singapore’s vision of a highly advanced and thriving food manufacturing hub.”
Accelerating innovation with ALFIE
The capabilities of ALFIE are poised to redefine ingredient development and experimentation.
“ALFIE operates 24/7, enabling continuous production and testing of ingredient prototypes with minimal human intervention,” shares Cueva. “This not only extends the scientific workday but also allows us to run parallel processes, producing and evaluating multiple prototypes simultaneously.”
The results speak volumes. ALFIE delivers a tenfold increase in lab throughput, significantly shortening development cycles and boosting innovation speed. But the benefits don’t end there.
“As ALFIE evolves, its capabilities will expand,” adds Cueva. “We’re already creating predictive models to forecast product attributes and performance. As these models mature, ALFIE’s predictive power will enable even faster development, marking a transformative leap for food science.”
As Tate & Lyle embraces ALFIE’s sophisticated predictive modeling and enhanced data analytics, the impact on product development timelines is profound.
“As ALFIE’s predictive capabilities mature, we expect a significant acceleration in development,” says Veronica Cueva. “The predictive modeling will eliminate the need for extensive scoping and prototyping phases, allowing us to move directly into refining product performance.”
The potential time savings are remarkable. “With ALFIE, prototype development times could shrink from months to weeks, and in some cases, even days,” Cueva explains. “This marks a swift leap from concept to reality, revolutionizing how we bring new products to market.”
A global team, virtually connected
The synergy between Tate & Lyle’s Hoffman Estates, Chicago, team and the Singapore lab is a testament to the power of virtual connectivity in modern R&D.
“Our teams in Chicago and Singapore function as one distributed unit, with seamless access to shared data and tools,” Cueva notes. “A scientist in Chicago can design an experiment and push it directly to ALFIE in Singapore, while the data is collected, analyzed, and reviewed collaboratively in real time.”
This level of integration is enhanced by cutting-edge tools, including VR gear, which enables live evaluations. “Using VR, teams can discuss prototype observations as if they were in the same room—evaluating, for example, the stringiness of a sauce or the wobble of a pudding made with a new ingredient.”
Beyond the traditional lab
ALFIE’s robotics and automation technologies represent a significant departure from traditional food R&D setups.
“In a conventional ingredient lab, processes are often manual and time-intensive,” says Cueva. “By automating routine tasks, ALFIE allows our scientists to focus on solving complex challenges and pursuing creative solutions.”
The system employs technology more advanced than that found in many automated manufacturing facilities. Once loaded with raw materials, ALFIE executes experimental designs to produce finished prototypes, characterizes the samples with a robotic system, and seamlessly integrates the data into predictive models.
“This level of automation minimizes human interaction, reducing errors and dramatically increasing speed,” explains Cueva. “Our scientists can dedicate their time to thinking about science, rather than just doing science. It’s a paradigm shift that fosters true innovation.”
“It’s a game-changer in speed and customization,” says Veronica Cueva. “ALFIE will allow us to provide new product prototypes for customer evaluation in a much shorter timeframe. This rapid turnaround empowers us to solve processing challenges more efficiently through proprietary models we’ll develop. Moreover, it enhances our ability to fine-tune mouthfeel—a critical component in formulations—to meet the exact sensory needs of our customers.”
For customers, this translates into faster and more tailored solutions, enabling them to tackle challenges and bring products to market more effectively.
Enabling healthier innovations for Asia
As Asia’s consumers increasingly seek healthier food and beverage options, ALFIE positions Tate & Lyle to meet these evolving demands.
“ALFIE gives us the ability to model and refine mouthfeel to align with Asian taste preferences, even as we tackle challenges like sugar reduction or incorporating fiber and protein,” notes Cueva. “This capability is key to creating healthier, more satisfying options for health-conscious consumers in the region.”
The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) played a crucial role in bringing ALFIE to life.
“The EDB’s support has been instrumental in facilitating ALFIE’s development,” says Cueva. “While the specific incentives or programs haven’t been detailed publicly, their collaboration underscores Singapore’s commitment to fostering innovation and attracting industry leaders in the food and nutrition space. Their involvement reinforced our decision to base ALFIE in Singapore.”
ALFIE’s design reflects Tate & Lyle’s commitment to sustainability, bringing resource efficiency and waste reduction to the forefront of R&D.
“ALFIE is built to be resource-efficient, producing only the amounts required for testing and minimizing chemical use and waste,” explains Cueva. “In the future, as our models advance, we anticipate eliminating many of the scoping experiments conducted today, further enhancing efficiency.”
Looking ahead
With Singapore as its base and ALFIE as its innovation engine, Tate & Lyle is setting a new benchmark in the food industry. The combination of a strategic location, forward-thinking investment, and state-of-the-art automation highlights the company’s dedication to shaping the future of food—one innovative step at a time.
By automating the mundane and embracing the cutting edge, Tate & Lyle has redefined the boundaries of food science. “The transfer of manual tasks to automated systems doesn’t just enhance efficiency,” Cueva concludes. “It creates an environment where innovation thrives, enabling our teams to dream bigger and deliver better solutions for the future of food.”
Editorial contact:
Editor: Kiran Grewal kgrewal@kennedys.co.uk
