MOUSCRON, BELGIUM — Cargill has announced the opening of its House of Chocolate, which provides its customers with a collaborative, end-to-end customer experience. The $21 million, 66,700-square-foot complex, which is built alongside the company’s existing chocolate production plant in Belgium, includes a chocolate experience center, a pilot plant with sensory expertise and creative workspace for the company’s European R&D team of chocolate engineers.

“We wanted to create a place where customers can explore the entire world of chocolate under one roof, enabling them to taste, feel, smell and see chocolate in every form,” said Inge Demeyere, managing director for Cargill Chocolate Europe. “At the House of Chocolate, customers can collaborate with our experts and leverage our resources to create products inspired by the latest trends. It is a place designed to bring ideas to life and quickly move them to the market.”

In the facility’s chocolate experience center, customers can explore market trends around health, sustainability and sensory experiences, and brainstorm new product concepts. Collaboration is central to the House of Chocolate experience, as it serves as the European R&D hub for Cargill’s chocolate, coating and filling activities and its 40 chocolate engineers. It also is home to a pilot plant, giving brands the opportunity to rapidly prototype new products in small batches for greater efficiency and speed to market.