17 Nov 2009 --- The BENEO-Group has created a new research institute to focus on communicating the latest research in nutritional science and advice on claims and other regulatory affairs topics that involve carbohydrate ingredients. The BENEO-Institute has been launched at FiE, two years after the Südzucker divisions Orafti, Palatinit and Remy were grouped together under the BENEO banner. The three BENEO entities are active in the areas of chicory derived functional food ingredients like inulin and oligofructose (Orafti), sugar derived sugar replacers and functional sugars, including Isomalt and isomaltulose (Palatinit) and rice derivatives (Remy). The broad range of BENEO products is used in a wide set of applications ranging from cereals to baked goods, dairy products, beverages and for Isomalt in particular, hard candies and chewing gums.

“For us the launch of the Institute is an extremely important step, because we believe that with its creation, we are in a position to provide even better services to existing customers and develop partnerships with potential customers”, explained BENEO Board member Matthias Moser. “The Institute will unite our forces in the areas of nutritional science, nutritional communication and regulatory affairs. These are three activities which are closely linked to each other and which are extremely important to food manufacturers using functional ingredients”, he added. While the creation of the Institute is designed to serve all three business units of the companies, the BENEO-Orafti and BENEO-Palatinit units have long been strong players in the nutritional applications market. “But we are working on further developments, and BENEO-Remy its rice based ingredients will also be an important focus for us” Moser explained.

The strength of BENEO-Group is based on a “2 leg” approach, a focus on technological aspects on one hand side and on physiological aspects on the other side. “ Technologically we give high quality support to our customers in product and application technology,  with challenges like e.g. sugar replacement or fat replacement. With the nutritional leg we want to visualise and substantiate the expertise that we have in-house and therefore the BENEO-Institute was founded”, says Yves Servotte, fellow BENEO Board member. For Servotte, this is where the company believes the BENEO-Group has made a big step forward to differentiate from other traditional food ingredients suppliers, who only have one pillar of focus.

The BENEO-Group has a turnover in the range of EUR350 million and has traditionally spent around 3-4% of turnover on research and development. “This is a high figure; when you look at the average of the food industry it will be around 0.3% to 0.5%. Even in the face of recent recession we decided not to reduce that as it is of key importance for BENEO-Group”, Moser commented. The budget reserved for the BENEO-Institute remains confidential, but Moser called it ‘substantial’.

The creation of the Institute, which will operate from within various BENEO facilities, comes in a period when various health claims have failed to pass the regulatory hurdles set up by EFSA (the European Food Safety Authority), as seemingly exhaustive dossiers are being demanded by regulators. While the BENEO-Group is still waiting on opinions from its submitted health claims, it is clear that ingredient companies are having to place ever greater budgets into R&D in order to add weight to existing claims or formulate new ones.

By grouping BENEO’s three entities in this way, it is hoped that research into the benefits of diverse carbohydrates will further stimulate strong science and substantiation from the scientific community.

Exclusive by Robin Wyers

A full article on the new research institute will appear in the December issue of The World of Food Ingredients.