Bringing better taste and texture to high-protein innovation
Glanbia Innovation and Collaboration Centre profile with Brent Petersen, Senior VP R&D, Dairy Nutrition
Recently a customer spent time at Glanbia’s Innovation and Collaboration Centre in Twin Falls, Idaho, working alongside the R&D team on a new product. Afterwards, they shared how the experience had strengthened their thinking, leaving with greater clarity, confidence and a clearer vision for their brand. “This is not just a supplier relationship to us,” they wrote. “It quickly became a true partnership.”
For Brent Petersen, Senior VP R&D, Dairy Nutrition, that kind of response is not a surprise, but it never gets old. "Those are the things you like to hear," he says. "This is why we do what we do." After more than 25 years helping to build the site’s R&D operation, he has seen the collaboration centre evolve into something distinctive – a place where technical expertise, collaboration and customer partnership come together
A category built from scratch
In the early years, the R&D team at Twin Falls was just three people. What followed was an expansion of expertise, capabilities and application knowledge across beverages, bakery, bars, extrusion and protein snacking.
The ambition was not just to supply ingredients, but to build a deep understanding of the applications those ingredients go into, to help customers solve challenges and unlock opportunities they could not achieve alone.
That evolution is perhaps most visible in protein bars. When the category first emerged, the formulation challenges were considerable. "Early protein bars became extremely hard over time," Brent recalls. "One of the industry's biggest challenges was improving texture and creating a better eating experience."
"We were the first to patent a solution. A lot of people have tried to follow what we do." From there, the ambition shifted, from improving overall product taste and texture, to making it genuinely indulgent. Today the question is how close a protein bar can get to a confectionery experience, and the answer continues to evolve. New textures and formats are transforming the category, with products that bear little resemblance to its early beginnings.
That same trajectory – identify a challenge, build the expertise to solve it and expand what is possible – has defined the centre's expansion into protein snacking more broadly. Glanbia acquired food manufacturer PacMoore specifically for extrusion capability and now operates two R&D extruders across North America.
"In the beginning, you could not get much protein into a cereal or a puffed snack," Brent explains. "We made a lot of progress developing ingredients that changed that." The result is a generation of high-protein snacks that eat like snacks, not supplements.
Putting flavour at the centre of innovation
Taste has always been the barrier between a technically successful product and one consumers actually choose. At Twin Falls, flavour is now built into the innovation process from the start. A dedicated flavour lab on site means a flavourist works alongside the application scientists, tasting and adjusting in real time rather than at the end of the process.
"Sitting on the bench together, we can make tweaks right there and bring it directly to the customer," Brent explains. The effect is compounding - shorter development cycles, fewer iterations, and products that arrive at the customer review stage already dialled in on taste. It’s also what makes customers’ collaboration centre visits so productive. For bars, the team can produce 10 to 12 different prototypes in a single day, covering different flavours and textures. This gives customers real options to respond to before they leave the building.
Dirty soda is a recent example of where that capability can lead. A format that has exploded in the US, similar to Italian sodas but more customisable, it was not an obvious candidate for protein fortification. The team developed a high-protein version and the response has been strong. "I did not imagine it taking off like this," Brent admits. "It is a fantastic opportunity to create a new drinking experience."
Supporting more nutrient-dense products
The broader shift in how consumers think about food, influenced by GLP-1 adoption, updated dietary guidelines, and a growing understanding of protein's role in healthy ageing, has created a moment that Glanbia is well placed to meet. Traditional food companies are rethinking their portfolios in response. "A lot of household brands are adapting," Brent says. " People are increasingly looking for foods that deliver more nutritional value."
For customers navigating that shift, Glanbia brings together the full combination of capabilities needed to solve increasingly complex nutrition challenges. Protein form and function, fibre formulation, flavour development, and micronutrient fortification through Glanbia's vitamin and mineral premix business.
"If you are looking for nutrient density, we can bring together the right combination of capabilities," Brent says. "We can match what customers need right across the brief."
Passion serving as a differentiator
Ask Brent what he wishes more customers understood about what Glanbia can offer, and the answer goes beyond capabilities and categories: "If you are really looking to launch something different, we are the place to come.”
With the combination of flavours, applications, and protein expertise, there is really no other place like it.
But the thing he keeps coming back to is something harder to put in a capabilities deck. "If you have passion for your products, we have a team that is equally passionate,” he shares. “And I think that is rare." That shared investment in the work, in the outcome, in what a customer is trying to build is what turns a product development visit into the kind of relationship that ends with a note saying it stopped feeling like a supplier relationship early on. "When you have two groups with the same passion," Brent notes, "something magical can happen."