EUSTIS, FLA. – Florida Food Products is acquiring Comax Flavors, Melville, NY. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Comax is a manufacturer and supplier of flavor solutions for the beverage and nutrition markets. The company has a manufacturing plant in Melville and a R&D facility in Marlton, NJ.

In September, private equity investment firm Ardian, New York, acquired a majority stake in Florida Food Products from MidOcean Partners for approximately $1 billion. The company said at the time one of its goals was to enter new adjacencies and expand internationally.

“Comax has built an impressive portfolio of natural flavors, which we intend to augment with FFP’s industry leading extraction, drying, and fermentation capabilities,” said Jim Holdrieth, chief executive officer of Florida Food Products. “Our acquisition of Comax represents our first major investment of the Ardian and MidOcean partnership and accelerates our objective of becoming the industry’s largest independent provider of natural ingredients.”

Comax will continue to operate out of Melville once the transaction is complete and the Calabretta family, the sellers of the business, will maintain an equity position in the combined business, according to Florida Food Products.

“This partnership gives Comax access to new technologies, ingredients, and distribution that will accelerate the existing Comax business and provide more solutions and capabilities for our valued customers,” said Peter Calabretta Jr., CEO of Comax.

Florida Food Products is a formulator and producer of vegetable- and fruit-based clean label ingredients. It is the largest provider of clean label cures for the protein sector and offers a growing portfolio of natural ingredients that have applications throughout the food and beverage industry, according to the company.