LAFAYETTE, Ind. — One of the largest users of corn in Indiana is undertaking a $65 million expansion to meet higher demand for one of its food and beverage sweeteners.
Tate & Lyle, a major provider of ingredients and solutions for all of the top 100 food and beverage companies in the world, is investing primarily in new equipment at one of its two plants in Lafayette. Chris Olson, vice president of communication and government affairs for the United Kingdom-based company, said the equipment will allow for increased production of crystalline fructose, a sweetener growing in demand in North America and Asia.
Crystalline fructose is made with corn, but corn growers won’t see any extra business from the expansion, because less of the other corn-based sweeteners made in Lafayette will be produced, "negating the need for more corn," explained Olson. Much of the corn that’s consumed at the plant is from Hoosier growers; the company processes 2 percent of the annual U.S. corn crop.
Tate & Lyle employs close to 500 people in Lafayette and has grain elevators in north-central Indiana helping to assure an adequate supply of corn that feeds into the plants daily, said Olson. The expansion will add eight people to the existing workforce, according to company officials.
According to the company website, the Lafayette operation is also involved in wet corn milling, which takes shelled corn and separates the kernels into their core components of starch, oil, protein and fiber, used to create a wide variety of products for the food, beverage and paper industries. The co-products left from the wet milling process are used in feed products for farm animals and pets.
Crystalline fructose is used in a wide variety of food and beverage products, and helping to drive up demand for the sweetener is growth in the energy drink industry, according to Olson.
Crystalline fructose is first derived from milling corn to produce cornstarch and through further processing, corn syrup and glucose are produced, then converted into fructose. The fructose is allowed to crystallize out, and once dried is milled to produce crystalline fructose, estimated to be 20 percent or more sweeter than sugar.
"This expansion not only allows us to stay ahead of the global demand for crystalline fructose, but also gives us the opportunity and flexibility to continue to grow with the North American and emerging markets," said Joan Braca, president of specialty food ingredients for the company.
Olson said the expansion involves primarily new equipment that will be installed in phases and completed in 2016. This is the second major investment at Tate & Lyle, which last year began a more than $90 million expansion at the Lafayette site for reasons such as increasing the capacity to produce starch for specialty foods.
According to company officials, Tate & Lyle was founded in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century and has more than 30 production and research facilities worldwide. In addition to sweeteners, the firm produces a range of texturants, health and wellness products and industrial ingredients, many of which are also made from corn.
