Unlocking natural taste for your products with sustainably sourced ingredients!
17 Nov 2020 | Symrise
Global consumers are getting more health-conscious. Recent studies show that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified this trend. Consumers want to know what ingredients they contain, how farmers grow raw materials, and how it impacts the planet. This growing awareness of trust and traceability relates to the food chain and has resulted in an increased demand for natural food solutions. The webinar from Symrise addresses these needs relating to taste solutions in the F&B landscape.
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Hello and welcome to today's food ingredients first hosted webinar.
I'm Elizabeth Green and I'll be moderating the webinar from Symrise today.
I'm the deputy editor of CNS Media, which is the publisher of The World of Food Ingredients, Food Ingredients First, Nutrition Insight and packaging insights.
We are also the sister company of Enova Market Insight.
Before we get started with the webinar, I'd like to let our listeners know that you can submit any questions you wish to be answered through the Q&A engagement tool.
Any questions that we don't have time to respond to during today's session can be answered via email following the presentation.
The webinar will also be available on demand on food ingredientsfirst.com.
A link to view the on-demand webinar will be emailed to you after the presentation.
The webinar today is entitled Unlocking Natural Taste for Your Products with Sustainably Sourced Ingredients.
Consumers across all countries and categories are getting more health conscious.
Recent studies show that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified this trend.
This also applies to the taste solutions going into food and beverage NPD.
Consumers today want to know what ingredients they contain, how farmers grow raw materials, and how it impacts the planet.
This growing awareness for trust and traceability relates to the food chain as a whole and has resulted in an increased demand for natural food solutions.
Our speaker today, Stephanie Hartwick, has been working for Symrise since 2006.
She is responsible for coordinating the internal and external communication of the global naturalness approach at the Cymrise flavor division.
Stephanie will explain the key elements that products have to embrace if they want to reflect the boundless taste varieties of nature.
Our listeners will learn how to address the consumer needs and requirements with consistent quality so that consumers feel assured that their food has been minimally processed, contains natural ingredients, and will be good for them.
I will now hand over to Stephanie, who will take our listeners through her presentation.
Stephanie, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
So also a warm welcome from my side to our today's webinar to learn more about how to unlock natural taste for your products with sustainably sourced ingredients.
So it's a true global movement and especially in these challenging times around the global COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across all countries and categories are getting more health conscious and thinking consciously and critically about their purchases.
This means, for example, they are looking for organic and natural food, following a special diet like vegan, vegetarian, or paleo, consumer dairy alternatives, or try to avoid meat.
They want to know what the food contains they eat, how farmers grow it, and how it impacts the planet.
So for example, more and more consumers are concerned about pesticides and chemicals, as as must farm meat and produce.
They want to know if the products have been grown in toxic soil or nourished with polluted water, and also protecting animals plays a decisive role for many consumers.
This growing awareness for trust and traceability in the food chain has resulted in an increased demand for food closest to its natural state.
Consumers look for food and drinks with ingredients they know from their kitchens and they are familiar with.
They want the taste of garden fresh tomatoes or the taste of a lemonade just like freshly squeezed.
Consumers want assurance that their food has been minimally processed, contains natural ingredients, and will be good for them.
They know that their food choices impact their health, and they are also getting more and more aware of how their behavior and their choices can influence the environment positively or negatively.
As a result, there is an increased demand for products from farmers that take care about sustainable agricultural practices.
These rapid changes within the world of naturalness and the aforementioned consumer needs pose both significant challenges and opportunities for the food and beverage industry.
To stay relevant, companies should offer products that consumers recognize and accept as truly natural, and here they have to adapt very quickly.
This means, for example, they should use familiar and common preparation methods consumers know from their kitchens.
So for example, like roasted, cooked, or boiled, this can positively impact the naturalist's perception.
Further, they should use explicitly words like natural or fresh and avoid ingredients with chemical artificial sounding names consumers even cannot pronounce.
Manufacturers like you should be very transparent and specific.
So for example, based on a consumer research study we conducted in Europe, we figured out that the explicit use of the word natural can make a difference in driving preference, especially if linked to the core ingredient.
So for example, a natural onion extract versus onion extract, and the explicit specification on content can improve preference while abstract reference to ingredients can harm it.
So it's better, for example, to name the specific ingredients, like for instance, carrot or onion, instead of just saying the soup contains vegetables.
Manufacturers should move away from perceptions of highly processed industrial food.
Instead, they should deliver exciting and unique taste experiences while creating meaningful, compelling narratives that are relevant to consumers.
They should deliver engaging stories and key information that provide reassurance in a rapidly changing world.
So for example, provide information about the origin and the use of the used ingredients.
Where does the vanilla in your beloved ice cream is coming from, for example, from Madagascar?
And where are the citrus fruits from used in your favorite juice, for instance, from South Africa, Italy, Argentina, or Mexico?
By listening to consumers and adapting to their behavior, agile manufacturers can combine innovation and sustainability to make the entire production process better for everyone from start to finish.
Nature also means variety.
It's evolving.
It's ever changing and hard to predict, with crops and harvests depending on the weather, soil, and so much more.
But at the same time, consumers expect, expect a very specific taste with high impact.
The key is here to offer products that reflect the boundless taste variety of nature and addressing the versatile consumer needs and requirements with consistent quality that consumers love as they are not willing to compromise on great taste.
So Code of Nature is our taste solution platform that unlocks and amplifies the authentic taste of nature.
With Code of Nature, we are combining the best of nature and the best of science and delivering against the shifting consumer demands or naturalness.
This means with Code of Nature we provide signature taste solutions.
These taste solutions are made with the best of nature, means with high quality natural raw materials that are carefully sourced and prepared.
And deliver a consumer preferred authentic taste.
The code of nature is driven by two guiding principles.
It's about the scientific understanding and the ethical understanding.
This means to decode and unlock nature, we need a deep and holistic understanding of nature in every little detail.
At the same time, we are following an ethical approach, starting from high quality natural raw materials, building supply chains from fork to fork, and acting with integrity.
To really decode naturalness in all its facets and to deliver natural taste solutions, we need to look at it from many different angles.
This means first of all, we need to understand what the consumers are looking for, but at the same time, we also need to understand what are the challenges the industry and our customers like you are facing.
Further, to create natural taste experiences, we need the right high quality raw materials and the right gentle processes, innovative technologies, and flavor creation and application expertise to amplify nature and to develop tailor-made natural taste solutions with distinctive flavor profiles for your products.
And last but not least, we need to understand the global regulatory framework and the differences between the different countries to ensure to be compliant with all our natural solutions.
And this is what Code of Nature is all about.
Our holistic approach combines the work of passionate colleagues with partners we trust, respecting nature, and connecting all the facets of Simrai's longstanding expertise and heritage.
Our code of nature approach is based on 4 pillars.
These 4 pillars are strongly interlinked and demonstrate our holistic approach.
So let's have a deep dive into the 4 pillars to see what they are all about.
Being consumer driven means decoding consumer trends and developing natural taste experiences that consumers love.
Decoding consumer trends and preferences is key, and a deep understanding of what drives food choices is critical to secure success of new products.
We at Sumras are extensively investing to identify insights which influence purchase decisions the most, to get a deep understanding of what consumers really want.
More than 19,000 consumers have been engaged globally in several in-house researches on labeling a naturalist's perception.
So for example, we wanted to figure out which claims, ingredients, production methods, etc.
Are the most attractive and acceptable ones when it comes to natural product solutions.
We also wanted to figure out which product cues influence more the naturalist perception.
How important is naturalness in relation to other product attributes in driving purchase decision and how consumer perception and preferences vary across countries and categories.
This way we can support you to create great tasting products delivering against the demanding consumer needs and preferences in terms of naturalness.
In our today's webinar, we would like to share with you 5 global key takeaways from our extensive in-house research.
So we figured out that across all categories and countries, consumers are looking for great taste experiences.
They are not willing to compromise on taste.
Taste is the most important driver.
If a product is not tasty, consumers will not buy it again.
Further, the explicit use of the words like natural, organic and fresh can positively influence the perception and acceptance of a product.
So it's highly recommended to use these kind of words to increase the naturalist perception of your products.
We also figured out that consumers do not like ingredients with chemical artificial sounding names they cannot even pronounce and understand, but instead they want to get specific, clear and understandable information about the ingredients used in the foods and drinks they consume.
When it comes to naturalness, consumers prefer familiar and common preparation methods.
It means they are looking for something they know from their own kitchen at home.
It's all about homemade and kitchen style, for example, roasted, cooked, or boiled.
This way, the product is perceived as more natural.
And last but not least, the consumer expectations on what natural means can differ from region to region.
It ranges from knowing exactly the type of ingredients, where the ingredients in the food come from, and the preparation method.
So it's very important to understand the consumer needs and preferences in the respective target markets to deliver a product that consumers love and recognize and accept as truly natural.
Talking about the second pillar, the best networks.
So society, industries and consumers are facing big, big global challenges.
For example, the population is growing from 7.3 to 8.5 billion in 2030.
This means there is a need for more food.
At the same time, agriculture has a deep social and environmental impact.
This means new farming models are needed, and according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 1/3 of food is lost or wasted along the value chain.
This means there is a need for better practices in field storage, and logistics.
Consumers across the world are also increasingly concerned about protecting the environment.
Non-exploitation, forest conservation, and natural qualities.
As such, the provenance and source of the products they purchase and consume is of growing importance.
The best natural pillar is about responsible and sustainable sourcing of raw materials from people and places we know and trust.
This is one of the ways SIMRES is different.
We make direct connections with fields and farmers and build long-term partnerships based on mutual respect.
This helps local communities and creates value for all stakeholders.
Promoting the improvement of supply chains and the shift towards more responsible paths is a key enabler of the Sunrise sustainability strategy, as our company uses thousands of raw materials from all over the world and is heavily reliant on their availability, quality, and price stability.
Responsible sourcing and sustainable agriculture are recognized as prerequisites for long-term commercial success.
We maximize the sustainability of our supply chain and raw materials.
The focus here is on ensuring a stable long-term supply of high quality raw materials, as as providing the greatest possible transparency and mitigation of our environmental and social impact.
SunRice consistently optimizes its strategy for responsibly acquiring raw materials.
The proportion of raw materials derived from sustainable sources is constantly being increased, which in turn promotes biodiversity and prevents deforestation.
Engaging with multiple stakeholders upon common principles and a shared vision, Sunrise can unlock the full potential of pure and rich natural ingredients and generate end to end value for farmers, communities, customers, and consumers.
With our sustainable sourcing strategy, we deliver traceability, transparency, reliable supply, high quality, and reduced market volatility in the long term for futureproof customer and consumer satisfaction.
We go beyond the supply chain.
We support farming communities with a holistic approach to drive long term shared sustainable value for everyone.
So for example, with our projects and initiatives, we are supporting farmers in Madagascar to get access to healthcare, to empower women and taking care of crop diversification and regenerative and climate smart agriculture.
Talking about our 3rd pillar, it's about applied science.
By applying the best of science to the best of nature, we create natural signature taste solutions for our customers.
Using proprietary and innovative technologies as as gentle processes to amplify nature, we can develop tailor-made natural taste solutions with distinctive flavor profiles.
We are one of the founders of the taste industry.
We embrace circular economy and lever proprietary resource efficient technologies to develop signature taste solutions which offer to consumers the most authentic taste in combination with naturalness and sustainability to reduce pressure on natural resources.
We developed innovative proprietary technologies based on circular production pathways and high efficiency in use of agricultural raw materials.
As a result, we have a wide range of natural and sustainable signature flavor tonalities with distinctive taste profiles, also very difficult for competition to duplicate.
This means these solutions providing an impactful signature taste for your products.
For example, we have a technology in place to utilize and upcycle valuable side streams from food processing that would be otherwise lost.
Through our technology, they are efficiently recovered to develop natural and sustainable extracts.
We place inspiring flavor creation at the heart of everything we do, from the most refined traditional favorites to novel creations.
While consumer preferences may continue to evolve, one constant remains.
The majority of people place great taste at the forefront of their food and drink desires, and so we do.
We have the right setup to support you to create natural winning taste solutions.
You can rely on our profound knowledge of flavor raw materials and the expertise of our highly skilled flavorists.
Based on that, we are able to create winning taste solutions for you in line with your commercial, technical and legal requirements.
Having the capability to run professional application trials to test flavor performance and stability and also doing tests for scale up trials and simulation of production processes, we can support you in your development processes and help you to realize new business opportunities.
And last but not least, we can support you with our in-depth product and industry insights, know-how about relevant raw materials, as as deep understanding of production processes and interactions of flavors with food metrics to master your challenges around natural product solutions.
And last but not least, talking about the 4th pillar, the regulatory guidance one.
So the number of food regulations is constantly growing.
For all declarations, illustrations of ingredients on packaging, or the labeling of individual food ingredients, we have to find tailor-made solutions depending on the product category and country.
To ensure highest quality, safety and compliance of our products for all our locations worldwide, we have set up our regulatory department on a global scale with local understanding.
We are represented in various regulatory associations as in working groups to actively influence changes.
So for example, we are members of the International Organization of the Flavor Industry, the European Flavor and Fragrance Association, and other national associations.
We offer you regulatory consultancy as a proactive sparring partner for all regulatory issues.
This way we can support you to predict legal changes with our early warning system as we closely monitor developments and assess the impact and can also train and inform you pracively about future developments.
We are supporting you with tailored solutions that often go beyond current market standards.
This helps you to navigate the complex and changing regulatory landscape.
Proactive advice from a trusted partner can ensure compliance and drive opportunities to create labels that consumers understand and trust.
And why this is so important?
The packaging is the first touch point a consumer has with a product based on the look and feel of the packaging, the claims, ingredients, etc.
A consumer will make a decision if the product is appealing to him and if he's going to buy the product or not.
And based on consumer insights, we identified that consumers are looking for transparency.
They want to know exactly what's in the products.
And here we have different opportunities to create transparency and labels consumers understand and trust.
So the further we move on this error to the right, the higher the transparency and the more it is also understandable for consumers.
It starts with the lowest level of transparency on the left side of the arrow and natural flavoring, and even this declaration is not possible for all countries.
In China, for instance, you are just allowed to claim it as a flavoring, but not a natural flavoring.
So it's important to be aware of the differences in terms of regulations within the different countries.
Following the arrow, the next level of transparency is then about an alternative declaration.
This means to use a more specific labeling under the flavor legislation.
An alternative declaration could be, for instance, vanilla extract, lemon oil, spice extract, or herbal infusion instead of using the term natural flavoring.
And also the usage of pictorials, for example, vanilla beans, vanilla flowers, strawberries, or lemons can further help to increase the transparency for the consumers.
Same for claims here we are talking for instance about positive front of pack claims like made with ginger extract, made with lemon oil, or with the taste of onions.
These types of claims help the consumer to understand exactly what the product contains and provide transparent, specific, and relevant information about the product.
Further, this also supports the naturalist perception of the product and makes it more appealing to consumers.
And last but not least, the highest level of transparency is a food declaration.
This means using declarations, for example, like tomato powder, onion oil, or chicken broth.
But of course manufacturers cannot just claim what they want.
They have to be in line with certain laws and regulations, and these may vary from country to country and also from category to category.
So it's a very complex regulatory landscape.
Therefore, regulatory guidance is very important to ensure compliance and at the same time to find the right solutions consumers are able to understand.
And here we are aiming for labeling co-creation with you.
This means right from the beginning of a project, depending on your needs, we can offer guidance to select the right level of transparency and jointly create labels that consumers understand and trust.
So what does it mean now in a nutshell?
What are your four benefits from code of Nature?
So it's about deploying natural taste experiences based on consumer insights and proprietary sensory research.
You can rely on sustainable and responsible sourcing from people and places we know and trust.
It's about learning how proprietary technologies and gentle preparation methods create the best natural signature taste for your products.
And you receive guidance in a complex and diverse regulatory landscape to create labels consumers understand and trust.
So the following example about Bergamot illustrates how SimRes crafts inspiring solutions for its customers and consumers and how the four code of nature pillar contribute to that.
The challenge here is about crafting a natural or a great tea.
Starting with the consumer and his needs, the premium tea blends with larger leaves, blossoms, fruits, and spices enjoy a high demand.
Consumers are looking for a natural, authentic taste.
They are not willing to compromise on taste, but the great taste will not only come from the tea blends containing the leaves, fruits, and.
So the question is how to create an overall appealing product that fits consumer needs and how to bring in this required great and natural taste but without having any artificial looking flavored particles in the tea bags that are not perceived as natural.
So we have the right solution.
It starts with high quality raw materials, and this is what the best natural pillar is all about.
Simra sources its bergamots from the heart of Calabria in Italy.
Our partner works with a group of trusted farmers to grow bergamo sustainably.
Our partner is the world market leader in bergamot oil production for the flavor and fragrance industry and uses state of the art technology for citrus oil processing.
This partnership also involving the local university drives the implementation of good agricultural practices to secure supply, guarantee highest quality, and also respect biodiversity and is positively impacting local communities.
So how to translate these quality raw materials now into a natural flavor solution, and this is about our applied science pillar.
Our innovative technology attains a truly natural encapsulation by applying the flavor directly to the tea leaves.
Messy rice captures the taste of the burger mod right on the top of the tea leaves and avoid granules within the blend.
This method also guarantees ideal blending features for optimum taste.
Adding natural taste to the tea leaf itself gives consumers a premium natural appeal and taste experience, so our technology delivers the most consistent blend quality of tea and a consumer preferred authentic great taste.
And last but not least, we are talking about our regulatory guidance pillar.
As already mentioned earlier in this webinar, the packaging is the first touch point a consumer has with the product.
Consumers are looking for transparent and specific information that is relevant and easy to understand based on the look and feel of the packaging, the claims, ingredients, etc.
A consumer will make a decision if the product is appealing to him or not.
In this case, using premium bergamot oil responsibly and sustainably sourced from the farmers in the heart of Calabria in Italy, we can be very transparent and specific and provide consumers with an authentic citrus story supporting, for example, provenance claims on pack.
So this is a great example on how decoding consumer trends, high quality raw materials, innovative technologies and processes, as as regulatory guidance come together and can add value to the naturalness appeal of your product.
So are you curious to learn more?
So feel free to get in contact with us to discover how SimRice can help you to develop natural taste solutions consumers love.
And if you have already any questions today, you can use the upcoming Q&A session to place your questions here.
Thank you Stephanie for this great presentation.
This is Elizabeth Green once again from Food Ingredients First, and I'll now host Q&A session with our listeners and Stephanie.
Some great questions have been sent in, so thank you in advance.
OK, the first question to get us started is from one of our listeners, which highlights natural ingredients.
Question is, how has the pande how has the demand for natural ingredients evolved in the food and beverage sector over the past few years?
Over to you, Stephanie.
Thanks for the question.
So, first of all, nowadays food means more than just fuel to the modern consumer, and here, as we've learned already in the webinar, our extensive in-house researchers have shown that a change in attitudes towards naturalness is really a global phenomenon.
So what does it mean?
So this means that consumers really across all countries and all categories are getting more health conscious and at the same time they're getting more and more aware that their food choices impact their health.
And this way a lot of them are trying to follow a special diet, so for example, a vegetarian diet or a vegan one.
They also try to consume more dairy alternatives and they try to avoid meat because they're also getting more and more aware of how their behavior and their choices can influence the environment.
And this enhanced awareness of nutrition and also the rise of social media where people heavily exchange on sharing their opinions, attitudes, and experience about food and drinks have generated growing demand for natural products over the last year, and this is also sharpening the focus on product labels.
So consumers want to know exactly what their food comes from and what does it contain, and they are looking for products with ingredients they know from the kitchens and they are familiar with, and they are not compromised or not willing to compromise on taste.
And yeah, in general it has become evident that the explicit use of the word natural exerts a great influence on the perception and also the acceptance of a product or its ingredients.
But at that point it's also important to mention that the meaning of what natural means is both variety in the usage across categories and regions and variably understood by different consumers.
So this means, for example, clean labor may mean for some of them free from artificial ingredients, while other consumers may seek for products from ethical or environmentally friendly brands.
But simple and recognizable ingredients certainly play a role in defining a natural product.
And therefore it's important to understand what consumers are looking for to be able to offer products that consumers recognize and accept as truly natural.
And while this clean labeling movement continues to gain traction among consumers.
On the other side, it can be also a moving target for manufacturers addressing those needs.
This is why the consumer tastes, preferences, and also their perception of clean and natural change.
Therefore, it's important to be agile.
And cleaning up a product label is always a holistic approach, and all the single parameters, like, for example, flavor, aroma, color, or texture should not be considered in isolation when reformulating a product, as consumers are not compromising on all these elements.
But based on our holistic code of nature approach, we are able to understand the evolving consumer needs and expectations, and this enables us to support you then to find the right product solution and to create a signature taste consumers are looking for.
That's great, Stephanie, thank you very much.
It's very insightful.
I think it leads us nicely on to our next question, which is which consumer group is driving the naturalness movement the most?
Here we see definitely one consumer group who is driving the naturalist movement the most.
So here the naturalist movement is predominantly driven by the younger consumers, also known as the Generation Z.
Because these people are digital natives.
They are growing up with social media.
They are very active on social media, and it's easy for them, for them to get detailed information about products, preparation methods, and also the origin of ingredients.
And this generation likes to ask the hard questions.
They want to know exactly.
Where their products are coming from and how the ingredients have been sourced and how it impacts the planet, and these young people in particular are turning to naturalists as they strive to make the most of their mealtime, combining culinary creativity with being healthy and also searching for quality and minimizing the impact on the fragile world.
And this generation is looking for food solutions with a positive impact on their health and also good for the planet.
They are increasingly concerned about protecting the environment, and as a result, there is an increasing demand for natural products from farmers that take care about sustainable agricultural practices.
That's great Stephanie, thank you very much.
Now another one of our listeners would like to ask about the pandemic, which is obviously a hot topic right now.
The question is, how has COVID-19 impacted the demand for natural ingredients?
Over to you, Stephanie.
Yeah, thanks, thanks for this question, question.
And yeah, this is really an important one because during these challenging times people spend more time at home and we all have fewer opportunities to eat out and more time, you know, to think about and to plan our meal times, and this means that people cook much more by themselves and take more time to read ingredient lists and labels carefully as they want insurance that their food has been minimally processed, contains just natural ingredients, and will be good for them.
And this, yeah, let's call it the new normal, has accelerated the changes in attitudes as people consider what is important to them.
And they also think about how this is represented in their food choices.
So the COVID-19 pandemic will reinforce the connections consumers make between the health of the planet and the health of the people.
They have an increased interest in the ingredients.
The food is made of, how it is prepared, and what's the impact on the planet, and this has increased the demand for natural food.
So you can say this is where the global pandemic is accelerating the naturalist movement and results in an increasing demand for natural products.
And this means due to the pandemic, natural taste solutions and also natural ingredients are more relevant than ever.
Thank you Stephanie, that's really interesting.
Now onto our next, next question from a listener who says, do you see further potential for responsibly and sustainably sourced ingredients?
So the answer is yes, definitely we do.
So first of all, there is only one planet, so this means also the number of natural raw materials is limited, and especially in the food and beverage industry, we are using raw materials from all over the world and we are heavily reliant on their availability, quality, and also their price stability.
And being one of the founders of the taste industry, of course we know that responsible sourcing and sustainable agriculture are prerequisites for long-term commercial success, and this is why we are constantly optimizing our strategy for sustainably acquiring raw materials, and we are also constantly increasing the proportion of raw materials derived from sustainable sources over the next years.
At the same time, we maximize the sustainability of our supply of our supply chain and raw materials to ensure a stable long-term supply of these precious, high quality raw materials, as as providing the greatest possible transparency.
And of course the overall goal is to generate value for all stakeholders, and here we are talking about farmers, communities, customers, and consumers.
And this also goes hand in hand with the development of innovative proprietary technologies based on circular production pathways and high efficiency in use of agricultural raw materials.
And here we are aiming to reduce the pressure on natural resources and to safeguard the nature for generations to come.
So yeah, there's definitely a big, big future potential for responsibly and sustainably sourced ingredients.
That's great, Stephanie, thank you very much.
Moving on to our next question now, what kind of gentle processes and innovative technologies does simides use for natural raw materials?
Can you give some more examples of this, Stephanie?
Yeah, thanks for this question.
And yeah, of course, I can give you one more example besides the bergamot you've heard about already in the webinar.
Let me give you another one on vanilla.
So describing the challenge, it's about creating a halal certified vanilla extract.
So let me explain a bit more in detail what the challenge is about and how the fore code of Nature pillar contribute here to deliver a solution.
So as we've learned already in the webinar, decoding consumer trends and preferences is key, and we need a deep understanding of what drives food choices.
This is critical to secure the success of new products.
And looking at the four pillars and how they contribute here to find a solution, let's start with our consumer-driven pillar to learn more about consumer needs.
And here we see that the demand for natural and halal certified raw materials with authentic taste profiles are increasing.
So for example, Muslim consumers also want high quality vanilla in their products with the same complex and rich taste profile as they know from conventional vanilla extracts from fermented vanilla beans.
And why this is a challenge.
So to get there we need to remove the alcohol when heating the extract.
And of course the usage of alcohol is not in line with halal requirements.
So this is the challenge.
And removing the alcohol means also that valuable the flavor components and with them the authentic tastes get lost.
The question is then how to deliver against the consumer need and how to create a halal certified vanilla extract with the same complex and rich taste profile as from conventional vanilla extract.
And of course here, like you've heard with the bergamot, the same for vanilla, it all starts with our high quality raw materials, and here we are talking then about the second pillar, the best natural one.
With our backward integrated approach on Madagascar, we are able to use the best and most responsibly sourced vanilla beans.
So we are bringing you closest to the source and creating certainty through our secured vanilla supply chain.
And hour-long standing presence in the key sourcing regions of Sava in Madagascar 365 days a year and partnering directly with 7000 vanilla farmers enables the delivery of high quality sustainable vanilla with shared value while securing the vanilla of tomorrow.
And we are creating positive impacts through local engagement with farming communities and the environment is fundamental to the sustainability of supply chains, and the presence in Madagascar, as I mentioned, the 365 days a year also allows us a full vertical integration with a complete oversight of the vanilla transformation process through local operations.
So the next step or the next question is then how to translate these high quality raw materials into great tasting product solutions and what kind of processes we have in place.
And here we are talking about the third pillar, the applied science 1.
And this means we have an innovative extraction method in place without using alcohol that guarantees the full and authentic taste profile of vanilla.
Due to this new extraction method, without using alcohol, consumers can enjoy a high quality vanilla in their products with the same rich and authentic taste profile answering the need for a halal certified version.
And this is possible because the improved extraction method preserves volatiles and also sensitive flavor components of vanilla beans.
Oh sorry, of the vanilla bean extract, and it also secures the quality of the vanilla beans, and this enables us to deliver halal extracts without a heating step.
And last but not least, then how the fourth pillar of code of nature, the regulatory guidance one is contributing to the solution.
So having the direct access to the vanilla right from the source.
We have the complete traceability.
This means including the product origin and reinforced by certification, and this can support positive product claims.
Further, the extract is halal certified according to the highest standards.
So this is another example that demonstrates how decoding consumer trends, high quality raw materials, innovative technology and processes, as as the regulatory guidance come together to deliver against demanding consumer needs.
Thank you, Stephanie, that's very insightful indeed.
I think we have time for one or two more questions now.
So this next question relates to organic claims.
The question is, how do you see the development of organic claims?
Over to you.
Yeah, so based on several researches we've done, the explicit use of words like organic can really drive preference and positively influence the naturalist perception and acceptance of a product and where this trend is coming from.
So many consumers perceive organic as the most natural option, but at the same time they also consider organic products to be healthier and more sustainable.
And for example, this becomes increasingly important in the growing demand for organic products in Europe.
So last year's sales of organic food and beverage recorded high growth across almost all categories, and the upcoming EU organic regulation opens up great opportunities for superior product experiences and natural labeling.
The EU organic regulation defines very precisely the use of natural flavorings in organic products, and in the future, only certain natural flavorings will be allowed in organic products.
This means at least 95% of the natural flavor must always originate from the name source.
And just to give you an example, so this means that at least 95% of tomato flavoring must come from tomato and only up to 5% from other natural sources, but only to round off the rich taste or to assure a consistent and specific note.
And this has also some impact on the manufacturers because this means they must reformulate their organic products if they use flavors other than the natural I flavorings to meet the new EU requirements in future.
And here you can of course rely on our regulatory expertise and support.
To deliver, authentic taste solutions for customers and being in line with this regulation.
And yeah, this means also together we can turn nature's and regulatory challenges into growth opportunities to make life taste better.
Thank you very much, Stephanie.
That's about all we have time for today.
I'd like to thank Simrise and Stephanie in particular for the presentation and the very insightful thoughts during this Q&A session.
That concludes the questions and presentation.
I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in to the webinar brought to you by Symrise.
Before we sign off, I'd also like to let you know that all questions that we didn't have time to answer today will be answered via email.
You can also check your inbox for an on-demand version which will be sent out to you shortly.
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