Ingredient suppliers selling know-how

The ingredients market is transforming from ‘push’ to ‘pull’. Suppliers are becoming know-how partners offering food & beverage innovation modules to food companies. Manufacturers are focusing on production and marketing of new products, while ingredient suppliers are concentrating on the R&D-side.
Elsevier Food International Vol.9, Number 4, November 2006 Vincent Hentzepeter

Co-makership is especially popular in the field of functional foods. Here food producers profit from suppliers’ expertise in areas like health claims, recipe formulations, and food law and safety. In addition to this, there is no need for food manufacturers to operate expensive R&D-centres. This enables even relatively small companies to introduce an innovative food product line at acceptable costs.

Solution provider
Several years ago Vondelmolen, a Belgium manufacturer of gingerbread, introduced a healthier variety of this sweet Flemish evergreen. For this product innovation, the manufacturer used the Beneo-programme of ingredient supplier Orafti. This company offers a concept for the addition of dietary fibres to (liquid) food products, more specifically inulin and oligofructose that are extracted from chicory root. These indigestible ingredients improve the balance of the body's intestinal flora by stimulating beneficial bifidobacteria. Digestive health is promoted in this way, as well as the absorption of essential nutrients like calcium. The cooperation between Vondelmolen and Orafti is a typical example of the changing role of ingredient suppliers. Orafti’s primary aim is not to sell inulin but to offer clients a product development programme for fibre-enriched food products, dairy and drinks. Besides technical support, Orafti tells food companies how to market the Beneo-label on their product. This includes the communication of the nutritional benefits of the product, based on scientific studies. The company plays for example an active role in the battle against obesity, said Dr. Anne Franck (Orafti’s executive vice president of Science and Technology) last August on the occasion of the coming Health Ingredients Exposition (Frankfurt, November 2006): "The induction of satiety by Beneo oligofructose offers an interesting approach to manage body weight and help tackle the obesity problem. This should allow food manufacturers to increase the satiety potential of their food products, thus helping consumers not to overeat themselves.”
Companies that carry the Beneo logo on their product cannot claim exclusive rights for this. But according to Orafti this does not undermine the added value of the health claim. On the contrary, the more products carry the logo, the better the message is spread to the consumers, the company states. In the supermarket, the special label accentuates the health function positioning, acting as a key product differentiator.

Marketing machine
The German Döhler Group is another example of an added value supplier. The company offers global drinking technology concepts for the beverage industry based on the latest consumer marketing studies. Döhler’s marketing machine, just like Orafti’s, always operates in the highest gear. At food & beverage fairs like DrinkTec or Anuga, and more recently the Intermopro, the company impressed visitors with trendy beverage formulations and wild experimental drinks. The Döhler-concept is based on four universal flavour trends for juices, carbonated drinks, dairy drinks and waters. These are pleasure/indulgence, health, naturalness and balanced nutrition. For each category, the beverage industry can select modules. These provide building blocks for new products that match the taste profile of a certain target group. At last year’s DrinkTec the company came up with a yoghurt drink, classified in the ‘indulgence’ category, with 1.5% fat and flavour hints of pineapple, melon and cucumber. One of the health drink creations was a ‘better for you’ cola with lactic acid bacteria and fermented malt for less sweetness. Absence of phosphoric acid reduced the dental erosion risk. As a prototype for a ‘natural’ drink Döhler proposed a ‘juicy snack’ consisting of apples, bananas, rosehips and oat fibres. An example of balanced nutrition was a lime soft drink with artificial sweeteners at no more than 20 calories per litre. Here, the somewhat metallic taste of the sweeteners was masked by a sophisticated palette of citrus flavours.

Unusual combinations
Ingredient manufacturer Wild is a fierce competitor of Döhler. For this supplier too, future trends are today’s challenges. Last year the company introduced some exotic flavour profiles for the dairy industry. What to think of orange, peach and tomato flavoured milk? Or blueberry/vanilla? Unusual combinations that according to Wild help dairy companies to keep ahead of competition. After all, adding value is the only way to stay profitable in the dairy market. Wild has also developed powerful hop aromas that enable soft drink producers to produce alcohol free (fruit) beer straight away from natural ingredients. No need for laborious brewing processes and alcohol stripping. For low-calorie soft drinks, the company has launched the Sweet Up-concept. A novel approach to combine specific sweeteners and flavouring components in a more balanced way to get a better beverage taste, a concept that closely resembles Döhler’s sweeteners approach. For consumers that dislike artificial sugar replacers but do want to reduce their caloric intake, Wild developed the Fruit Up-concept. Here fructosis, a fruit derived sugar from grapes and apples, replaces (refined) beet sugar. Thanks to the relatively high sweetening power of fructosis, fewer carbohydrates are needed for a tasty product than in conventional (soft) drinks.

Confidentiality
Also in terms of taste and colouring, ingredient suppliers go beyond normal supplying activities. Royal Buisman, a Netherlands based international supplier of caramel (aroma), natural, burnt sugar and aromatic caramel syrup, invites customers to direct their product development questions to the R&D centre. Here engineers help to create process solutions for caramel tastes and colours. This could be an instant coffee or powder drinks enhanced with a specific aroma or colour for a private label coffee range. Moreover, creative solutions are offered to meet the ban on roast- or grill lines on ready-to-eat industrial burgers. Caramel colouring can mimic a grill effect, even to some extent in taste. In this way, the product is free of tar-like components that result from true grilling and that that may pose a cancer risk. For clients with special wishes, improved recipes are developed at the company’s own research laboratory. “Look at this ready meat stew,” general manager Peter van de Steeg says, taking a tray out of the laboratory fridge. “This kind of prepared product often get an ashen appearance in the supermarket. We are experimenting with caramel colouring in order to give this meat product an attractive colour with the characteristics of roast meat.”
At Royal Buisman, tailor-made product development for food manufacturers is always performed within a confidentiality framework. However, apart from agreements, exclusivity is guaranteed by some unwritten rules. Food manufacturers show no mercy for ingredient suppliers that leak business sensitive information from one company to another. The supplier in question will quickly be out of business.

From push to pull
At oil supplier Unimills strict protocols are therefore employed in order to keep customer’s know-how within customer’s chambers. The former Unilever-company works for multinationals worldwide and has been part of the Malaysian plantation giant Golden Hope since 2002. Since the buy-out, Unimills increasingly focuses on tailor-made vegetable oils. Some of these are customised, whereas others, like the Cremex-concept, are for universal use. Cremex, launched in August, consists of a group of fat formulations for ice creams with lower saturated fat levels but a common creamy taste. With saturated fat levels as low as 40 per cent, Unimills offers an alternative to ice cream manufacturers that base their recipes on either coconut oil with a saturated fat level of 92 per cent or dairy butter with 63 per cent saturates and four per cent trans fats. This example illustrates again the growing importance of suppliers when it comes to food innovations. It also shows that ingredient suppliers are becoming closer to the consumer. Unimills understands what consumers need: a tasty ice cream with fewer ‘side-effects.’ The trend in the ingredients market is from push to pull and that is a positive thing.