Ingredion’s Indianapolis investment and the work behind food texture

A modernization programme for Indianapolis

Ingredion announced more than US$100 million of investment in its Indianapolis facility on Feb 4, 2025. The programme combined equipment modernization, efficiency improvements and installation of an energy cogeneration system. Management expected the work to expand the plant’s capabilities in specialty starch-based texturizers and support future customer growth. The facility in Indiana, in the United States, supplied ingredients for applications including confectionery, beverages, soups, sauces, batters and breadings. The announced completion window was the second half of 2026. That timetable described a project expectation, rather than a verified commissioning date or confirmation that every item of new equipment had entered service. Ingredion did not publish an additional annual tonnage figure for the plant in the announcement.

Valdirene Evans, then senior vice president and president of global texture solutions, linked the investment to several quarters of volume growth in texture products. She expected the work to increase capacity and support customers’ future requirements. Eric Seip, senior vice president of global operations and chief supply chain officer, associated the programme with greater energy efficiency, cost competitiveness and agility in serving customers. The Indianapolis project announcement identified improved reliability and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions as intended outcomes of the energy work. It did not specify a percentage reduction in emissions, a generating capacity for the cogeneration system or a completed reduction in operating costs. Those intended benefits remained management’s expectations for the announced investment.

Texture sales and the difference between forecasts and results

Ingredion’s Texture & Healthful Solutions segment generated US$2.366 billion of net sales in 2024, compared with US$2.460 billion in 2023. Fourth-quarter sales were US$581 million, against US$578 million a year earlier. The full-year sales bridge included a positive US$174 million volume effect, offset by an unfavorable US$260 million price-and-mix effect and US$8 million from foreign exchange. These figures measured the segment’s sales movements in dollars; the volume contribution was not a physical tonnage number. The company’s earlier November 2024 presentation had estimated full-year segment sales at approximately US$2.4 billion to US$2.5 billion. The subsequent full-year result supplied a separate actual figure for the period, rather than leaving that earlier guidance as the final reported outcome.

The segment’s operating income reached US$350 million in 2024, down from US$394 million in 2023. Fourth-quarter operating income increased from US$76 million to US$94 million. Management attributed the quarterly improvement to better volumes and favorable input costs, partly offset by price and mix. For the full year, unfavorable price and mix and the carry-forward of higher-cost inventory weighed on performance, with improved volumes and raw-material costs providing partial offsets. Ingredion also projected texture sales of approximately US$3 billion in 2028. That longer-term sales ambition covered the wider business, while the Indianapolis announcement concerned one facility’s equipment and energy infrastructure. Neither the segment sales figure nor the 2028 projection was an additional investment budget assigned to the Indianapolis project.

Food applications across the texture business

Ingredion organized its texture business around five food categories in its Nov 14, 2024 Texture Innovation Day presentation: savory foods, dairy, bakery, snacks and beverages. Within savory foods, the company identified wet and dry sauces and dressings, ready meals, meat, fish and poultry, batters and breadings, and noodles. The dairy category included yogurt and yogurt alternatives, processed cheese and cheese alternatives, creamers and milk alternatives. These groups covered different finished-food applications for ingredient development. The Indianapolis facility’s stated range of starches and texturizers overlapped several of those uses, but the broader category map described the company’s texture activities, rather than a complete list of products manufactured on a particular production line. Each finished-food category presented its own formulation requirements.

Bakery applications included cakes, doughnuts and pastries, with their fillings and toppings, as well as bread, bread mixes, tortillas, biscuits, cookies and crackers. Sports and energy drinks appeared among the beverage applications, including ready-to-drink and ready-to-mix formats. Ingredion’s priorities combined the eating experience with affordability and ingredient-label preferences. These priorities formed part of the company’s commercial approach to texture, alongside product development and manufacturing support. Its three stated areas of focus were:

• Texture experience: developing the sensory characteristics sought for a particular food or beverage.
• Affordability: reformulation opportunities involving ingredients such as dairy solids, eggs, oils or tomato solids.
• Clean-label, natural and authentic positioning: adapting ingredient choices to customers’ product and label requirements.

From the product brief to storage and consumption

Ingredion’s texture development presentation separated the customer’s value chain into product requirements, formulation, manufacturing, packaging and transport, storage, and consumption. The company identified complex product and label requirements at the start of that chain, variability in raw ingredients during formulation, and batch-to-batch consistency during manufacturing. Further requirements concerned shelf-life stability at ambient or cold temperatures and the texture experienced when the consumer finally ate the food. Ingredion described customized ingredients and formulation expertise as services it could apply at these different stages. These were categories of development work and customer requirements, rather than published operating instructions for a particular food factory.

The company’s development sequence started with customer engagement and an assessment of the existing product. Teams then defined the problem or opportunity, generated concepts, modeled and tested prototypes, and moved toward implementation and scale-up. Ingredion also grouped its services around sensory and consumer preferences, texture science and applications, ingredient preferences, and predictive formulation. Its technical capabilities included plant science, ingredient science, biotransformation, process technology, analytical measurement and scientific and regulatory affairs. The described work extended beyond supplying an ingredient by name: the company included prototype development and the transition toward customer manufacturing in its service offering. Its product evaluations considered characteristics including viscosity, firmness, mouthfeel and flavor lag, alongside attributes such as slipperiness, chalkiness and mouth drying.

Starch structure in coatings and other foods

Ingredion distinguished amylose-containing starches, including high-amylose maize, from amylopectin-containing starches such as waxy maize in its discussion of batters and coatings. The company associated the former with increased crunchiness, hardness and strength, and the latter with expansion and crispiness. Its examples contrasted a relatively brittle, dense structure with a more porous and open structure. These descriptions concerned ingredient functions in texture development, without establishing a single formulation that would deliver the same result in every food. The company’s broader raw-material portfolio included corn, tapioca, rice, potato and pea, alongside other sources. Starches, hydrocolloids and fibers appeared as distinct groups within that portfolio, with additional offerings for sweetening and customized solutions.

Food-specific development examples included fries, tortillas, mochi and pizza. Ingredion identified repeated heating and cooling, together with moisture, heat and oil, as challenges for the texture and holding time of fries. For tortillas, it identified processing through formulation, baking, freezing and microwaving, with stretchability and texture among the development requirements. Its mochi example focused on a chewy texture, shelf life and resistance to collapse after baking. These examples illustrated different customer problems within the company’s texture programme. Ingredion also used microscopic examination in its texture work, including confocal laser scanning images of French-fry coatings. The presentation identified surface crust, potato cells and oil globules within that example.

Reformulation work and consumer research

Pizza provided another example of several ingredient functions within one finished food. Ingredion identified cheese, toppings, crust and sauce as separate areas for development. Its listed opportunities included plant-based cheese, anti-caking ingredients associated with cheese melt, plant-based toppings, chewy or crisp crusts, gluten-free formats and protein enhancement using pulse flours. For sauces, the company discussed replacing part of the tomato solids as an affordability option. The broader reformulation categories also included replacing dairy solids, eggs, oil, fat or gluten, depending on the food application. The pizza work also included systems-based approaches aimed at reducing preparation labour and delivery-related requirements for maintaining food quality. The company treated those tasks as elements of product development alongside ingredient selection.

Ingredion’s September 2024 proprietary consumer study covered 11 countries and 11,602 participants. In the findings presented that November, 80% paid attention to food and beverage prices, 60% regularly checked ingredient lists, 75% found an all-natural claim appealing and 72% preferred products with natural ingredients. The percentages used the top two responses on a five-point agreement scale. Another finding associated 60% of consumers with a preference for foods combining multiple textures and flavors. These were results of the company’s consumer research, with their stated sample and question format. Participants responded to statements about their personal habits on a scale running from complete disagreement to complete agreement. The reported percentages combined the responses rated four and five, rather than only the strongest agreement response.

A dated product example: NOVATION Indulge 2940

Ingredion announced NOVATION Indulge 2940 on Feb 6, 2024, a year before the Food Dive coverage of the Indianapolis programme. The company introduced it as a functional native corn starch for gelling and co-texturizing dairy products, dairy alternatives and desserts. The launch began in North America, with other regions described as forthcoming. Yogurts, puddings and desserts were among the stated applications. Ingredion promoted a corn-starch ingredient declaration and linked the product to its clean-label texturizer range. Those were the manufacturer’s descriptions of the ingredient and its intended uses. The launch did not identify Indianapolis as the product’s manufacturing site, so the ingredient serves as an example of the wider texture portfolio rather than evidence of a specific output from the new plant investment.

The product’s technical specification effective Dec 15, 2025 identifies waxy maize as its source and gives the product code 70000466. Typical appearance is a white to off-white fine powder. Maximum moisture is 14%, while the pH range is 4.5 to 6.5. Ingredion describes a thermoreversible soft-set gelled texture and a rich, creamy mouthfeel, with puddings and desserts among the intended applications. The ingredient requires heat for functionalization. The manufacturer also describes resistance to heat and shear and tolerance of acid. These properties belong to this named product’s specification. They are not a set of operating temperatures, mixing times or application rates for the Indianapolis plant or for every food that contains starch.

Packaging, storage and the specification’s status

NOVATION Indulge 2940 is packaged in multi-ply kraft paper bags under the Dec 15, 2025 specification. The document does not give a bag weight. Storage conditions call for a clean, dry area at ambient temperature, away from strongly aromatic materials. The stated best-before period is 24 months from manufacture. The product is identified as part of Ingredion’s identity-preserved programme for non-GM ingredients. The specification is marked provisional, pending further review while the product remains under development, with its next review date set for Dec 15, 2028. Those qualifications accompany the listed characteristics. Typical nutritional data per 100 g of the ingredient include 88.7 g of carbohydrate, 0.3 g of protein, 13 mg of sodium and 17 mg of calcium. These values concern the starch ingredient before formulation into a finished food.

The dated product specification also assigns responsibility for compliance with applicable end-product regulations to the recipient. Its handling and physical-property information concerns the ingredient supplied for further formulation. The commercial launch, the later specification and the Indianapolis investment announcement therefore have distinct dates and purposes: product introduction in February 2024, a facility programme announced in February 2025, and technical information effective in December 2025. The later technical details are retained with their actual date. They do not change the original publication date of the investment coverage or convert the plant’s expected 2026 completion into an observed outcome.

The wider investment and operating context

Ingredion generated US$7.430 billion of total net sales in 2024 and US$1.436 billion of cash from operations. Net capital expenditure was US$295 million. At Dec 31, 2024, the company had approximately US$1.8 billion of debt and US$1.0 billion of cash, including short-term investments. Its February 2025 outlook set capital expenditure for the coming year at approximately US$400 million to US$450 million. These were consolidated amounts and company-wide guidance. The Indianapolis programme’s announced investment exceeded US$100 million, but the release did not allocate that full amount to a single reporting year or provide a breakdown between the cogeneration system and other equipment. The project budget and annual consolidated capital expenditure were therefore separate measures.

The business converted grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based materials into ingredients for food, beverages, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets. Its February 2025 project announcement described a workforce of more than 11,000 and customers in more than 120 countries. Indianapolis formed part of that wider manufacturing and customer-development activity. Management’s stated objectives for the site combined capacity, equipment reliability, energy efficiency and specialty-starch innovation. The accompanying texture work covered customer briefs, ingredient selection, sensory evaluation, prototype testing and manufacturing scale-up. The announced project supplied a named location, an investment threshold and an expected completion window. Its future production and energy outcomes remained subject to the completion and operation of the programme rather than being established by the investment announcement itself.