IFT First 2025: Brenntag serves up culinary innovation with hybrid meats and bold flavors

A sharpened focus on culinary flexibility, bold flavors, and sustainability is driving consumer demands in F&B as health-conscious choices take center stage. Brenntag targets these demands with ingredient innovations for hybrid meats, sugar-reduced beverages, and specialized color solutions amid the complexities of a changing regulatory landscape.

Food Ingredients First caught up with Terry Wagner, innovations and applications manager for the US at Brenntag, at the recently concluded IFT First in Chicago (July 14-16), to unwrap how the company is navigating formulation, color, and flexitarian trends as consumers’ sustainability demands gather pace.

“Culinary flexibility is about pivoting like a batch manufacturer. Sustainability is all about reducing your carbon footprint and making Earth-focused decisions and actions as a company,” says Wagner. “For bold flavors, it’s about having exciting, relevant flavors that match market trends.”

Tapping flexitarian trends

At the event, the company showcased its hybrid meat concepts as a flexitarian-friendly solution by blending the familiarity of animal protein with the sustainability of plant-based ingredients.

Terry Wagner, innovations and applications manager for the US at Brenntag.“The flexitarian trend has been growing — consumers want to reduce their carbon footprint and consume less beef. We developed a hybrid quesadilla that is 75% beef and 25% soy, using textured soy concentrate from Bunge, one of our soy suppliers,” Wagner notes.

He links such formulations to the concept of “extending” a product’s value or utility by combining ingredients to benefit both the manufacturer and the consumer. 

“For a long time, manufacturers have been extending their needs, and for a while, it’s been done for one sole purpose: to reduce costs. Now the market is receptive to this technique, because it’s not just a cost-cutting technique, but also a win for the consumer.”

While the manufacturer can offer a product that helps reduce carbon footprint, the consumer wins because they feel they’re doing their part for the environment, he explains.

Elevating beverages

In addition to hybrid meat, the Germany-headquartered firm also exhibited a “Power Energy Drink” formulated using its ingredient portfolio to target the ongoing sugar reduction trends in beverages.

While maintaining that sugar reduction is key in such beverages, Wagner underscores that the company faced challenges due to sugar’s functionality in bringing a “unique flavor profile and impact on the overall sensory experience.”

“Typically, high-intensity sweeteners drive 100% of the sweetness in beverages, but in some cases, bulk sweeteners can help. These don’t have an off-taste that is commonly recognized as a diet beverage, but they are not as sweet as sugar.”

While sugar reduction in energy drinks is in demand, formulators face challenges due to sugar’s functionality in bringing a unique flavor profile.To avoid a diet beverage-like taste, Brenntag uses two bulking sweeteners, erythritol and sorbitol, “at their upper usage level limits, to drive 70-80% of the sweetness,” he tells us. This allows us to use less high-intensity sweetener, resulting in a better-tasting zero-sugar product.

“So we don’t have to use a lot of the high-intensity sweetener, resulting in what I believe to be one of the best-tasting zero-sugar products using the unique attributes of all our ingredients.”

Navigating color challenges

As food colors remain in the regulatory spotlight this year in the US, Brenntag is navigating these challenges by connecting its customers with the company’s color experts, Wagner tells us.

“Our strategic partner, Oterra, is an industry leader in natural colors. We have a range of solutions ready to go, but we never take a one-size-fits-all approach.”

He adds that the company focuses on providing targeted recommendations, which allows for detailed ingredient formulation information and higher chances of success.

Meanwhile, to target local market needs, Brenntag utilizes its Innovation & Application Centers for guidance from its ingredient experts.

“We have 32 application innovation labs, and they are aware of their market and its uniqueness. They are ready to provide targeted solutions and innovations to our customers with the local trends in mind,” he concludes.