Bakery creativity: Zeelandia launches new branding strategy around “inventiveness”

19 Sep 2018 --- Dutch headquartered bakery ingredient company Zeelandia is presenting its new range of concepts, along with a new brand positioning around “inventiveness,” at this years’ International Bakery Fair (IBA) in Munich, Germany. During the tradeshow, which ends tomorrow (September 20) the company is presenting a number of solutions for bread and pastry applications to help create bakery success for both artisan and industrial bakers.

During the show, FoodIngredientsFirst spoke with Ronald Panis, Global Communication Manager at Zeelandia, who highlighted some of the inventive solution concepts on the stand, which the company is coining as “remarkable opportunities.”

“This year, we are presenting our new brand positioning and visual identity to the outside world. When speaking with our stakeholders and customers, we quickly realized that what sets us apart is our inventiveness and ability to keep looking for solutions that work for our customers. This often means that something doesn’t have to be very big, but it can mean working together with our customers to create smart solutions that make bakery a success,” he explains.  

On the stand, the company presented seven examples of their new concepts. You can view the video interview with Panis here. 

What the Fudge – the fusion between pastry and sweets
Product developers at Zeelandia took fudge, which is usually consumed as a sweet and reworked it into a creamy, thick coating which gives pastry like cake, muffins and donuts a unique structure and fancy appearance. Compared to traditional coatings, fudge better avoids cracking and sticking, even when defrosted, says the company.

“We had requests from many of our customers asking for a coating that doesn’t stick or crack after defrosting. We came up with the idea of using fudge as a coating, rather than its traditional candy concepts and so we have brought the world of pastry and sweet together,” he notes. “Functionally, it’s very thick, has a nice texture, doesn’t crack and has an excellent bite.”

Make the moist of it – adding freshness to bread
Grains and seeds in bread add flavor and texture, but these often drain away the moisture in bread. Zeelandia presented a solution that allows grain and seeds to infuse in liquid sourdough. The result is Silkgrain moisturizer, which keeps the bread hydrated and adds a delicious bite and texture, according to the company.

Panis tells FoodIngredientsFirst: “Our Silkgrain moisturizer is essentially a sourdough solution. It’s very popular nowadays to have bread with grains and seeds, which give a nice texture and bite, but sometimes these tend to take away the moisture from the bread so it can become quite dry. To combat this, we came up with a solution which involves infusing the seeds and grains in the sourdough. This makes the bread moist, with a good texture and a longer shelf-life.”

The sound of crust – the Zeelandia Crustitest
A crispy crust is an essential sign for consumers to judge the freshness and quality of bread, according to Zeelandia. To help customers enhance crustiness, researchers developed a unique testing method to analyze – the Zeelandia Crustitest which measures by force and sound; similar to squeezing bread by hand. 

“A good crust is important to consumers,” Panis notes, “It gives a good idea of the freshness of bread, which customers often use to judge their purchases. We developed testing methods to measure the crustiness, which tests the sound and the force of the crust. We use that to develop better bread improvers to our customers to ensure better products with a longer shelf-life,” he explains. 

Flirt with flavors – unlimited taste opportunities with our ready-to-use fillings
As consumers become more globalized, there is an increased demand for new and remarkable flavors. Zeelandia explores flavors around the world which allows them to bring smooth, ready-to-use fillings to their customers. These can be further enriched with textures like tiny pieces of fruit, seeds and nuts. They can offer unlimited combinations for bakers to create with – like a Mojito cupcake with orange peel, says the company. 

“Our new fillings allow us to offer, very quickly, any flavors that our customers might want. Not only do we offer traditional flavors, like vanilla and strawberry but instead niche flavors such as salted caramel and Mojito. Consumers nowadays want new taste experiences and with our ready-to-use filling concepts we can quickly answer to these needs,” he concludes.

You can view the video interview with Ronald Panis, Global Communication Manager at Zeelandia here. 

By Elizabeth Green