Kerry Ingredients & Flavours at the Heart of Meat Technology and Development

Kerry Ingredients and Flavours in EMEA explained some of the initiatives which are now driving Kerry's growth in the region both within the meat industry and generally across Kerry's broader ingredients and flavours business.

Jul 29 20010 --- Kerry is one of the world’s largest ingredients and flavours companies, with a turnover in excess of €4.7 billion, employing 23,000 people supplying 15,000 products in more than 140 countries.

Kerry Ingredients & Flavours recognises that the meat market will always be very diverse and highly regionalised. Customers are often seeking authentic, traditional and regional products on the one hand, but also looking for more innovative and contemporary ways to enjoy meat on the other.

In March 2009 Kerry added to its already substantial meat products portfolio with the purchase of DERA. Founded in Belgium in 1951, DERA’s strong and well regarded presence in Central and Eastern Europe made it a significant acquisition for Kerry. Its expertise in functional ingredients, savoury flavourings, coatings and marinades, via its well-established brands such as AZM, Idrobin, Robin, LSB, Saumad, Pâtémix, Salamix and Essenso, provided the ideal fit with Kerry’s products.

The acquisition of DERA has added to Kerry’s pedigree as an ingredient solutions provider which helps meet the varying market demands. Over many years Kerry has built a reputation for adding value through innovation, offering a broad range of products including marinades, rubs and glazes, sausage seasonings, meat and savoury seasonings and smoke flavours as well as a range of coatings. Crucially, it’s not just about the products themselves, but also the way they’re delivered in real formulations. Accordingly, Kerry Ingredients & Flavours has built up a dedicated team of meat experts to help customers create products that fulfil consumer needs and market demands.

The company has a deep understanding of the crucial role of new product development in the meat flavourings market. This expertise, marshalled through its development teams, means Kerry Ingredients & Flavours can provide ideas generation and carry out collaborative product work with customers, helping to deliver the nutritional properties, eating quality and experience required in the final product. It is no exaggeration to say that Kerry has the culinary know how and technical expertise to deliver taste and functionality across the entire spectrum of added value meat applications.

Where it all comes together

Building on this pedigree, Kerry Ingredients & Flavours has recently integrated its ingredients, bio-ingredients and flavours divisions, to form a single business entity under the banner ‘where it all comes together’.

This new ‘One Kerry’ approach is founded on a simple realisation: that in today’s challenging market, food manufacturers need more help from their ingredient suppliers to bring consumer-preferred products to market faster and with better value.

A crucial part of this is making it easier for customers to know what is available, and to get what they need, from a multi-faceted solutions provider like Kerry – with, quite literally, everything ‘under one roof’.

Previously food manufacturers might have needed to navigate through a tangled web of providers and sales representatives. Now, thanks to the ‘One Kerry’ approach, a single point of contact provides access to market applications expertise and a broad technology base.

By unifying its ingredients and application expertise in a highly tailored and collaborative way, Kerry can get closer to individual customers, understanding their specific needs and working in partnership with them.

Couple that with a deep understanding of each customer’s business, and Kerry Ingredients & Flavours is now equipped to provide not only the best option for known needs, but also increasingly anticipate future needs and suggest solutions proactively.

Through this highly direct access, manufacturers are finding that one Kerry means one solution to an increasing number of challenges.

Kerry Ingredients & Flavours has carved out a unique position by drawing on the broadest range of technologies in the industry, with the capability to deliver multiple technology solutions in an integrated way. This is a huge change to the way the company works, but it is driven by customers and is all about delivering customer-focused innovation.

More than meat

While Kerry’s technical developments themselves are significant, coupling technical expertise with state-of-the-art marketing and market insight is a piece of real added value for customers.

From a marketing point of view, the ‘One Kerry’ strategy is manifested as three ‘End Use Market’ clusters: Savoury & Dairy (encompassing all meat technologies), Cereal & Sweet, and Beverages. Each EUM is associated with a dedicated account team and a Centre of Excellence for technical development.

Meat technologies are developed and implemented at a Centre of Excellence in Brussels, Belgium. Here Kerry’s team of chefs, development technologists and food scientists understand the performance of the extensive range of ingredients and flavours across the full range of whole muscle meats, comminute products, poultry, barbecue and rotisserie, cooked meats and cured meats.

Kerry’s comprehensive range of ingredients & technologies can resolve flavour, texture and functionality challenges, helping to deliver the nutritional properties, eating quality and experience required in the final product. Kerry’s complete range of ingredients, flavour technologies, and custom-formulated systems provides real food solutions, helping customers to meet both ever more demanding consumer expectations and market dynamics.

The Centre of Excellence for Culinary technologies is located in Bristol in the UK, while that for Bakery and Beverage technologies is in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The technologies developed in these Centres provide solutions for taste, texture, health and nutrition, process functionality and visual appeal.

To complete the picture, global market intelligence teams track emerging global retail and foodservice trends, interpreting them and providing customers with information to help shape regional growth strategies. Supporting their insights are in-house sensory experts and facilities, available to measure and respond to live responses from consumer tasting panels.

This means that Kerry teams across the globe have unrivalled access to all the resources in one of the world’s biggest food organisations, whether customers needs are exclusively meat focused or in other food ingredients areas.

Kerry at IFFA 2010

The ‘One Kerry’ approach in practice has been ably illustrated this year at recent European events such as IFFA, Europe’s leading fair for the meat industry, held in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2010.

At IFFA Kerry Ingredients & Flavours demonstrated how it can help manufacturers meet consumer needs in an holistic and effective way. Five product concepts showcased effective responses to highly topical consumer concerns over issues such as salt and fat reduction. These were:
1. Schnitzel A complete solution for manufacturers seeking to provide improved coating adhesion and increased crispiness.
2. Reduced Fat Pork Liver Pâté A liver pâté with less than 12% fat, a smooth texture and excellent mouth feel and flavour. This recipe contains no added monosodium glutamate (MSG) and addresses the trend towards reduction of fat, while still offering the excellent sensorial properties consumers expect from pâté.
3. Marinated Chicken Wings Chicken wings with a rich and authentic Tex Mex taste, responding to the continuing consumer trend for genuine ethnic taste. The marinade is easy to pour and contains no added MSG.
4. Pepperoni-Topped Pizza A healthier pizza with reduced sodium and fat, cleaner ingredient declarations and fresher ingredients.
5. Meat & Vegetable Pastry Pie A reduced-fat pastry product with lower salt and a cleaner ingredient declaration, yet still delivering flavour, functionality and improved mouthfeel.