“Revolutionary ingredients” at Fi Europe 2019: Epi Ingredients taps into fermented food hype

05 Dec 2019 --- French dairy ingredients supplier, Epi Ingredients, is presenting several innovative solutions at Fi Europe 2019, which is ongoing in Paris this week. “With fermented foods as one of 2019’s top trends, we focused our efforts on expanding our fermented ingredients offerings. However, we know that nutrition and healthy options are also an essential aspect of consumers’ purchasing decisions. Recognizing this, we have developed a new nutrition-oriented concept specifically designed as a satisfying tasty alternative that also addresses nutritional aspects,” explains Mathieu Lucot, Marketing Manager at Epi Ingredients.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst at the show, Lucot says, “fermented products and ingredients already exist in many areas of the world. They are trendy ingredients and we wanted to expand our offerings further into this space.”

Following on from the successful launches of SoFlexi and SoBenefik these past two years, the company is now launching what it markets as a “revolutionary extruded crispy ingredient and third concept of the range SoUnik.” This patented ingredient, known as SoCrispies, was co-developed with a company specialized in the extrusion process. SoCrispies comes in two varieties and makes the perfect crunchy inclusion or topping for an array of finished products:

• The first variety contains 100 percent dairy proteins and was created as a new tasty and nutritious way to incorporate protein into applications such as chocolate bars, nutrition bars or frozen desserts and ice cream.
• The other variety features the company’s flagship yogurt powder and was designed as a yogurt-flavored add-in, bringing crunchiness and a distinctive yogurt-flavor to a wide range of food applications.

Epi Ingredients is offering samples of their protein crisps in chocolate bars and ice cream; all high in protein thanks to these inclusions. At the Fi Europe 2019 event, their indulgent yogurt-crisps are available to sample in chocolate, candy bars and as a topping on frozen yogurt. Such texture-enhancing protein ingredients have featured strongly in NPD, particularly in protein bars, as consumers are enticed by functional products with a craveable mouthfeel.

“SoCrispies is our new concept this year, and notably its a new way to have a protein extruded in a way that you can use it as an inclusion in bars, chocolate and ice cream – so it’s a nutritional offering really tapping into those high protein trends,” Lucot comments. 

“There is a lot of scope for innovation in this space,” he adds. 

As mentioned by Lucot, Epi Ingredients has been working on expanding its offerings in fermented ingredients, and beyond the yogurt crisps. 

The company is also highlighting its “ethnic” fermented powders, the newest addition to the EPILAC range. According to Epi Ingredients, it made sense for the company to develop these new ingredients, which are ideal for the formulation of both shelf-stable and fresh products that carry the health halo of yogurt while delivering the sense of adventure and discovery that modern consumers are craving. 

Lucot highlights that the “ethnic” fermented powders are adaptable to many different trends that industry sees today. “For example, kefir is sour, it is acidic, fermented and different. And what we mean by ‘ethnic’ is that it can relate to many trends,” he explains. 

Epi Ingredients was able to create new flavor profiles by playing with different cultures and fine-tuning their process. Some of the new ingredients developed include a skyr powder and a kefir powder. 

All of these new fermentation-based additions – whether it be the yogurt crisps or the ethnic fermented powders – also take on a new dimension in light of the recent Kosher certification of their production site this past summer by Orthodox Union Kosher certification service; allowing Epi Ingredients to now supply their customers with fermented powders that are both Kosher and Halal certified, and thus opening up new markets for the company.

By Elizabeth Green, with additional reporting from Laxmi Haigh in Paris