Firmenich Developing Natural Food Ingredients From Marine Proteins to Capitalize on Health & Wellness Trend

03 May 2016 --- Firmenich is ready to commence production of marine protein hydrolyzates derived from white fish, as part of the flavor giant’s shift towards health & wellness products that move far beyond its traditional base.

“With the focus of many companies, including Firmenich, towards health & wellness, we see that marine ingredients can have an important role in this area. Marine protein hydrolyzates are the first of many candidates where seafood ingredients can contribute to meeting these demands,” Dr. Tormod Thomsen, General Manager/Director Global Category Seafood (pictured) at Firmenich’s Seafood Business Unit told FoodIngredientsFirst in a detailed interview.

While specifics in terms of targets are not being disclosed at this stage, Thomsen confirmed that the company will soon be capable of production with the potential to scale up as the market develops. “We are a B2B company and we are working with our customers to develop the best way to market products with natural food ingredients from marine proteins,” he explained.

Firmenich is recognized for its industry-leading commitment to research, as it invests 10% of its turnover annually to drive breakthrough science. The Group’s global research team runs four centers of excellence in Geneva, Switzerland; Princeton, United States; Shanghai, China; and Gujarat, India. Also, it works in close collaboration with a network of open innovation partners, including leading academic institutions worldwide as well as cutting edge start-ups.

Firmenich was the sole sponsor and co-organizer of a symposium held in Norway last week, which was dedicated to sharing the latest science and research around the health benefits of marine proteins and peptides. Hosted by Legasea Biomarine Cluster, a consortium of Norwegian companies dedicated to biomarine science and technology, the event gathered more than 100 top scientists in Ålesund, Norway, the epicenter of biomarine ingredient production.

“This event was hosted in the heart of the Norwegian fishing industry, which is the second largest exporter of seafood in the world [after China]. There are more than 500 marine companies in the area, with everything from species management to catching and processing. There is a lot of interest now in Norway and elsewhere to develop a bioeconomy and look to develop better ways for food, protein and health ingredient production,” says Thomsen.

Underpinning the importance of the event, the Crown Prince of Norway kicked-off the symposium with a speech on the need to provide quality nutrients, in particular biomarine ingredients, to meet the needs of a growing world population in a sustainable manner. Ms. Vinita Bali, Chair of the Board of Directors’ Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), discussed in her keynote the critical need to rethink the nutrition challenges and how fish can be at the center of innovative food solutions, given the potential of fisheries to provide improved access to proteins and key micronutrients.

For decades, the Firmenich Seafood facility in Ålesund, Norway, has been processing approximately 10,000 tons of seafood raw materials annually to create seafood extracts and flavors for its food and beverage customers worldwide. Through sophisticated biotechnological processes, Firmenich converts the raw material, which is largely side-streams from the seafood industry, creating a sustainable value chain for these flavors. In recent years, the company has been exploring ways to further extract value from this process, and in doing so, has developed natural food ingredients derived from marine protein, which the company plans to commercialize in the coming year.

He pointed out that there are four basic areas that are being assessed for potential benefits of consuming: Digestive Health, Blood Glucose Management, Satiety & Weight Management and Muscle Health. “I would say there is a varying degree of existing publications and scientific studies. So one of the ideas behind the symposium was to summarize where the field is as of today and see what is possible going forward,” Thomsen noted.

Sustainability will be the key point of differentiation, however. “Since we are basing the production on side streams from traditional fishing industry, this is a way of utilizing the resources in the best possible way. In the past this would have been waste, or feed ingredients. So this is really taking better advantage of the available resources,” he notes.

Thomsen was clear to pointing out that the species of fish used is not suffering from depleted stocks. “We were the first flavor house to get MSC [Marine Stewardship Council] certification for our products in 2013. So this is based on highly sustainable stocks of north Eastern Atlantic cod. We are in the process of obtaining MSC-certification for many of our products,” he noted.

Effectively selling customers a side stream product is not proving to be a tough sell either, he claimed. “It’s clear that this is about sustainable production of healthy ingredients, also by reducing the environmental footprint of the fisheries, by utilizing the side streams, from the traditional filet production. Our customers see the facility and the raw material and understand how this process is being done, really understand that this is a high quality raw material that we turn into a better product,” Thomsen noted.

Of course there are some taste elements to overcome in terms of application, with cutting edge flavor technology required. “It is well known that many of these products have a marine off-note and smell to them, which limits the types of applications available. This is where our flavor competence is really helpful in terms of either masking, increasing the versatility of the applications. So we could be speaking about microencapsulation or masking with other flavors. The whole range of capabilities that we have with our flavorists is interesting and marine protein hydrolyzates are a good match for us,” he says.

Overcoming consumer perception around a fishy taste will be a challenge however, that will require strong product development that takes two aspects into account. “It is about how to develop the right applications to make them taste good and secondly how to provide to documentation to show that they are actually beneficial for health,” says Thomsen.

The move shows a clear shift in focus into the health & wellness sector by the company. Clearly seafood is emerging as a highly sustainable and natural resource that can be utilized to develop new products for innovative functional foods.

By Robin Wyers

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