Through ideation, collaboration, rapid testing and a series of virtual meetings from the Ingredion Idea Labs^® innovation center in Bridgewater, New Jersey, our team helped make a delicious and more profitable cheddar cheese cracker for Cheddies.

Cheddies is a new company based in San Antonio, Texas, started by brothers Francisco and Tomas Pergola. The brothers dreamed of creating the perfect snack – savory, crunchy and made with quality ingredients, including all-natural cheddar cheese as the main ingredient.

The crackers were a success, and Cheddies started planning for expansion. Ingredion learned about Cheddies' plans in mid-May from a major scale-up facility for crackers, pretzels, cookies and baked snacks. The project was executed through Ingredion's Catalyst Co-Creation Program. "This program is a great example of how Ingredion can quickly co-create and execute for our customers, like Cheddies, to deliver great-tasting consumer-preferred foods," said Agnes Lapinska, senior manager of the Catalyst Co-Creation Program.

The Pergola brothers shared the project's success with their stakeholders, explaining they had worked with "a team of experienced R&D formulators to enhance the Cheddies snacking experience with two goals in mind: improving quality and profitability of the product." 

"This was our first fully executed Catalyst Co-creation Program project in the U.S. and Canada. We engaged with the customer, scoped out the project and signed and completed a statement of work in a rapid ideation process in less than two weeks," said Lapinska. "Through this project, we were able to test our model, collaborate with our eco-system partners, and build a relationship with a new customer. We also gained a significant amount of learnings as we keep focusing on the development of the Catalyst Co-Creation Program in the U.S. and Canada."