Beverage ingredient suppliers are collaborating with other companies as a way to expand their distribution reach and develop new products.

Commerce, Calif.-based Gold Coast Ingredients’ (GCI) new S.M.A.R.T. Center has opened. Located in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., Gold Coast has positioned sales, marketing, applications, research and technology under one roof in order to maximize its creative efforts, it says. With more than 10 new laboratories, GCI’s S.M.A.R.T. Center focuses on developing custom flavors and colors, as well as extracts, flavor modifiers, and ingredient enhancers, it adds.

TIC Gums, White Marsh, Md., announced that six of its pectin products now carry the Non-GMO Project Verified seal. According to the Non-GMO Project website, “the Non-GMO Project Verified seal gives shoppers the assurance that a product has completed a comprehensive third-party verification for compliance with the Non-GMO Project Standard.”

Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Florida Chemical Co. (FCC), a division of Flotek Industries. Based in Winter Haven, Fla., FCC specializes in citrus-based flavors and fragrances, and is one of the world’s largest providers of citrus oils and ingredients, it says. FCC’s citrus expertize, together with ADM’s combined leadership in research and development, will allow ADM to strategically accelerate and expand its diverse offerings in natural flavors and high-value products and solutions to a wider customer base, it adds.

Gelymar, Providencia, Santiago, Chile, appointed AIDP Inc., City of Industry, Calif., as its exclusive North American distributor for its carrageenan product portfolio. Gelymar’s carrageenan products are sustainably sourced from cold-water seaweed, and are vegan and gluten free, it says. The ingredient is used in food manufacturing to improve texture, stability, mouthfeel, suspension, smoothness, thickening and gelling.

New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) reports that it has established an industry-exclusive collaboration with Aryballe, a pioneer in digital olfaction technology based in Grenoble, France, to refine and further develop the flavor and fragrance capabilities and applications of Aryballe’s technology in portable, universal odor detection sensors.