Decadent delights: Cargill brings gourmet chocolate solutions to Singapore’s Food & Hotel Asia

23 Apr 2024 --- Tapping into forward-looking market insights in Asia, Cargill is showcasing its high-quality gourmet products and versatile solutions for chocolate, compounds, fillings & coatings and decorations, specially tailored for chefs, foodservice and professionals in the hospitality industry at this week’s Food & Hotel Asia (FHA) in Singapore.

“We are seeing a growing consumer appetite for indulgent experiences and higher ingredient consciousness. Across APAC, consumers have shown that they prioritize rich flavors and attractive visuals when it comes to indulgence, and they desire to maintain good health from their food and beverage choices,” shares Xiaoling Liu, indulgence leader, Food Solutions Asia Pacific.

Expanding culinary offerings 
Inspired by these trends, the gourmet chocolate innovations Cargill is bringing to FHA will enable its foodservice customers in APAC to develop delightful culinary offerings that consumers want, states Liu. 

“At the same time, our bean-to-bar capabilities in Asia, from sustainable sourcing commitment to product co-creation, position us to deliver even greater value as our customer’s partner of choice for innovation and growth.” 

“Experience It” is a key theme revealed in Cargill’s 2024 TrendTracker proprietary research, which provides annual insights into global & regional consumer F&B trends. 

Consumers place a high level of importance on experiences. Through their food and drink, consumers seek experiences that are novel and exciting, nostalgic and comforting, indulgent and pampering. 

TrendTracker reported that 33% of APAC consumers believe that rich flavors and tastes are essential for an indulgent experience, and caramel, in particular, proves popular, as two in five consumers are most interested in caramel flavors among emerging flavors of chocolate or chocolate products. 

To meet this consumer desire, Cargill is presenting its range of creative gourmet chocolate solutions with complex caramel flavors, including: 

• Pâtissier by Aalst Chocolate Chocolate Artisan Sol, easy-to-use chocolate caramel buttons with a strong creamy and nutty profile.
• Pâtissier by Aalst Chocolate Chocolate Artisan Milk Carmelo, a smooth milk chocolate that reveals a strong creamy and caramel first note with a hint of nuttiness.
• Veliche Euphoria Caramel, easy-to-use white chocolate caramel buttons offering rich and intense caramel with cookie notes and a hint of saltiness and balanced caramelized sugar on the finish. 

Elevating the whole sensory experience 
Cargill is also featuring its Pâtissier by Aalst Chocolate Prismatic Coating and Filling, ready-to-use flavored pastes that carry a strong, milky and creamy profile alongside its distinctive flavors and colors. It also presents a wide and ever-evolving portfolio of Smet & Leman decorations that focus on bringing visual excitement and signature customization to creations through the impact of color, shapes and personalized designs. 

Cargill is committed to serving the Asian market and beyond with “from Asia for Asia” bean-to-bar solutions.Meanwhile, the “Healthy for Me” theme in the TrendTracker reflected that more consumers today are proactively adopting a holistic approach to health, being more thoughtful and deliberate regarding their food and beverage choices and being more selective about ingredients that go into their foods. 

Based on the report, sugar is the top ingredient that APAC consumers are actively trying to limit in their diet. When it comes to chocolate, 50% of APAC consumers prefer dark chocolate for its less sweet taste profile and hold the perception that the darker the chocolate, the healthier and more premium it is. 

Cargill’s high cocoa percentage range with Pâtissier by Aalst Chocolate Chocolate Artisan Dark 85% Chocolatier and Pâtissier by Aalst Chocolate Chocolate Artisan Dark Single Origin Ghana 75% coverture with high cocoa content allows “endless possibilities” for chefs and food professionals to create alternatives with lower sweetness levels without compromising the richness and intensity of flavor.

Accelerating business 
Within Asia, Cargill has been accelerating sustainable cocoa sourcing practices in Indonesia for more than ten years, complemented by a world-class cocoa processing plant in the country that also houses Asia’s most advanced cocoa development center. 

Later this year, the plant in Gresik is set to complete enhancements to its production lines that will support the development of premium cocoa solutions through flavor and color customization. 

In Singapore, Cargill operates the Aalst Chocolate manufacturing plant, which exports products to over 50 countries, and the Chocolate Academy, which serves as a hub for innovation and co-creation with customers, supported by Cargill’s four food innovation centers across Asia. 

Cargill is also able to offer its cocoa & chocolate customers access to a wide array of ingredients and solutions, such as specialty fats from edible oils — all of which will position the company to deliver value, innovation and growth for customers across the region. 

Earlier this month, Food Ingredients First reported Cargill partnered with Voyage Foods to scale up alternatives to cocoa-based products to meet consumers’ indulgence needs. The commercial partnership will also provide food manufacturers with nut spreads produced with no nut or dairy allergens used in the recipe formulation. 

Meanwhile, in March, Nestlé announced the launch of two projects in collaboration with its suppliers, Cargill and ETG | Beyond Beans, to move toward environmental sustainability. 

Edited by Elizabeth Green