McCormick & Company is betting on consumers turning to spices and flavoring to help stretch their increasingly tightened food budgets, but it’s the less frequently discussed side of the business, Flavor Solutions, that does much of the heavy lifting for the seasoning empire.
That side of McCormick supplies flavorings, ingredients and other products to CPG companies, quick-service restaurants and other foodservice outlets.
It is a critical component of McCormick’s business – Flavor Solutions brought in $2.89 billion in net sales in 2025, roughly 42% of the company’s total – and is on full display at the spice giant’s seminar series, Flavor University.
McCormick is also doubling down on its B2B business with the recent launch of its Flavor Solutions web portal www.mccormickflavor.com.
“Our new website brings McCormick Flavor Solutions’ expertise and capabilities together in one accessible destination for our customers,” Suzanne Roy, president of McCormick Flavor Solutions said in a press release. “As product developers navigate increasingly complex formulation and market demands, we want to provide practical insights, technical guidance and flavor inspiration that help them create products consumers will love.”
Bringing the flavor knowledge
Flavor University, which has been in operation for 30 years, became a McCormick holding with its 2020 purchase of Geneva, Ill.-based flavor manufacturer FONA International for $710 million.
McCormick emphasized during a recent two-day Flavor 101 seminar in Geneva that the classes are not a sales pitch for the spice company. Instead, they offer a serious immersion-style dive into flavor science with classes like Taste Modification 201; Heat Flavor 201; Pet Care Flavor 201; and more.
The free seminars attract professionals from across the food science industry, said Deirdre Burgess, group manager of Brand and Content Marketing and Education Platforms at McCormick.
Over the last three decades, the seminar series has hosted over 450 classes and attracted more than 20,000 attendees from 15,000-plus companies.
Flavor for beginners
Flavor University’s introductory class, Flavor 101, takes place in a large theater-style classroom big enough to seat roughly 100 students.
During the recent class in late September, roughly 60 students attended from lesser-known food and beverage manufacturers to the largest CPG companies across the globe.
Entire sections of the two-day seminar were dedicated to the finer points of taste science, such as where taste occurs in the mouth and how 80% of the sensation of flavor is driven by aroma.
Flavor is a critical component to any food or beverage product, according to McCormick instructors, who explained that 87% of consumers said in a recent McCormick survey that the taste of a product is more important than the price.
“How does flavor perform? What if you add sugar? What if you add sweeteners? Things like that are intended to help product developers understand the flavor impact, not just on the taste itself,” said Burgess.
She explained that most food science programs at universities across the US include little study of the flavor itself, making the seminar series even more critical for newcomers to the industry.
“This is a gap that we’ve identified that our partners, our product developers, are really hungry for,” she said.
Bringing flavor online
The Flavor Solutions business already maintains a presence on the Internet with the Flavor University Podcast, a monthly 30-minute show that addresses topics like GLP-1 drugs and flavor, flavor and wellness, reformulation and the sensory side of heat.
The monthly podcasts have been downloaded more than 30,000 times since their inception in the early 2020s, Burgess explained, noting that the series, along with McCormick’s webinars, are non-commercial and aimed at education.
“It’s just truly our experts talking about areas where they can share guidance and understanding,” she said.
McCormick also is connecting with B2B clients through its new flavor website that “offers insights from leading flavor experts.” It also includes articles, case studies and more for food scientists across the industry.
“From natural flavor development to taste modification solutions that help mask or reduce off-notes from functional ingredients, the experts at McCormick Flavor Solutions help customers address some of the food and beverage industry’s most pressing challenges,” the company said.
