Bunge opens state-of-the-art Culinary Center in Bradley, Illinois

ST. LOUIS, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), is expanding the Bunge Ingredient Innovation Center (BIIC) in Bradley, Illinois to include a full service culinary center.  The state-of-the-art facility includes an industrial kitchen and a corporate dining room with extensive video capabilities.

"As a leader in innovation for milled grain and edible oil products, this new facility reflects our continued commitment to providing our customers with a complete range of products and services," said Soren Schroder, president and CEO, Bunge North America.  "The culinary center enables customers to take our award-winning food ingredients and either test how they improve their existing products or develop new recipes."

With the addition of the culinary center, the Bunge Ingredient Innovation Center can now take products from creation to commercialization.  Bunge's team of 25 scientists who are located in the facility develop nutritionally-improved and performance-enhanced solutions to meet changing food industry trends.  These products can be tested in a real-world manufacturing environment in the edible oils and extrusion pilot plants.  Food companies can then test the ingredients in product formulations.

After products are developed, they can be tested and sampled in the bakery applications, analytical and sensory laboratories to ensure they met the nutritional, performance and taste attributes required.

"In addition to providing a hands-on experience for our customers, the new culinary center enables us to showcase the talents of our chefs through live product demonstrations and training," said Bill McCullough, director of marketing.  "We also strengthen the link between the applications scientists and culinary experts from our Chef's group by developing on-trend menu items for foodservice as well as developing new product concepts that end up on the retail shelf."

The general contractor on the project was d. katz equipment, LLC.  With more than 35 years in the foodservice industry, the company specializes in the design and build of leading restaurants in the Chicago area. 

About Bunge North America
Bunge North America (www.bungenorthamerica.com), the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), is a vertically integrated food and feed ingredient company, supplying raw and processed agricultural commodities and specialized food ingredients to a wide range of customers in the livestock, poultry, food processor, foodservice and bakery industries.  With headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge North America and its subsidiaries operate grain elevators, oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries and packaging facilities, and corn dry mills in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

About Bunge Limited
Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company with approximately 35,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat and corn to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in North and South America. Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. We have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. The following important factors, among others, could affect our business and financial performance: industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business; fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Bunge North America