80-years of manufacturing in Michigan City

Nothing satiates the appetite and soothes the soul quite like a hearty bowl of soup. Integrative Flavors, based in Michigan City, continues a nearly 80-year-old tradition of serving up the base of this comfort staple.

Unlike many comfort foods, which fill you up with questionable and possibly detrimental ingredients, Integrative Flavors Cook’s Delight clean label means quality with no artificial flavors, preservatives or colors. The Cook’s Delight gourmet soup bases, flavor concentrates, gravy mixes, rubs and blends are wholesomely delicious, nutritious and in-demand according to Georgeann Quealy, president of Integrated Flavors.

“We recognized the need for clean products very early on as compared to our competitors, and positioned the company to take advantage of this nutritional movement,” says Quealy. “We do clean label better than our competitors. We have all-purpose products that meet targeted nutritional needs, including low sodium, gluten-free, organic, no ‘big eight’ allergens, no MSG, non-GMO, vegan and vegetarian.”

Cook’s Delight products can be found in many of the nation’s largest restaurant chains, food distributors, food manufacturers, chefs’ kitchens and food service operations. Quealy says Integrative Flavors leads the industry in the creation of clean label soup base products for industrial and food service users.

“We sell directly to the manufacturers who use our product in the creation of finished food products for the market,” she says. “We also sell to food service distributors, who resell the product to local, national and international hospitality groups, restaurants and other food establishments including healthcare, K-12 schools, colleges and universities.”

Integrative Flavors regularly donates soup bases and flavor concentrates to local soup kitchens and food pantries. Recently, Integrative Flavors employees also gave back by doing landscaping and repair work for Stepping Stone, a La Porte County organization which serves those who’ve been affected by sexual assault and domestic violence.

The company began as Williams, West and Witt’s Product Company, which produced bouillon for World War II troops. The company was purchased by Georgeann’s parents, Victor and Dorothy Palmer, in 1981. Georgeann and her husband, Integrative Flavors vice president Brian Quealy, purchased the company from Victor and Dorothy in 2005. The company became known as Integrative Flavors in 2009 and its manufacturing facility relocated to its current Michigan City location in 2010.

Quealy explains that the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility means that they manufacture all of their products onsite as opposed to hiring a partner to make them. Being a family-run business means, “We are more agile and can make decisions quickly, which makes our market decisions easier to implement,” she says.

Click to read more from the Fall 2017 issue of Northwest Indiana Business Quarterly.