FDBusiness.com

Safe Foods International Holdings (SFIH) has acquired International Food Network (IFN), a consulting firm providing product development services from initial idea generation through commercialization. The partnership between IFN and SFIH’s other holding, The National Food Laboratory (The NFL), a consulting and testing firm supporting the food and beverage industry, will create a group able to provide a comprehensive offering of product and process development solutions for a broad set of products and clients.

The combined entity will now offer over 100 in-house subject matter experts, 4 R&D centers (including 1 in Europe), 10 product development labs and culinary kitchens, over 4,000 square feet of modular pilot plant space, proximity to additional pilot plant space and technical contacts at leading food science universities, 36 computerized sensory booths/consumer test stations, and both chemistry and microbiology analytical labs.  The firms will have facilities in Livermore, CA (San Francisco Bay Area); Ithaca, NY; Naples, Florida; and Reading, UK.

“The team at IFN are product development experts and well known in the space,” says Johannes Burlin, President of SFIH and Chairman of The NFL. “The combined skills of IFN and The NFL will allow us to offer new services to our clients in ways that other firms can not currently provide. It will be a new way of delivering results within our industry which we believe will benefit our customers greatly.”