KEY INTERVIEW: 2016 Brings Food to the Table for Leading Calcium Carbonate Producer Omya

04 Jan 2016 --- International calcium carbonate supplier Omya, based in Switzerland, has a long history in the industrial production and supply of the mineral, but its presence on the international food and pharmaceutical stage is more recent. Vice president Food, Pharma and Cosmetics Stefan Lander is charged with leading the global food and pharma team in the company’s new strategic goal to build its new business area.

“We currently have three food-grade facilities, in the US, France and Turkey, and this spread allows a global supply and in most cases, allows us to be close to our customers. With the current geographical positioning, we have a strong presence in Europe and North America, but the focus will be to develop business in the Asia Pacific and Russia/Middle East region further,” continued Lander. “We’re not starting from scratch, but there is potential to become more active and this includes working with regional management teams to improve sales and the company’s distribution portfolio.”

Indeed, one of Omya’s strengths is its distribution business, which is a well-established global ingredients and additives distribution network. Its current focus is on natural products and the company represents many suppliers of natural colors and additives, including hydrocolliods and the ever-popular stevia. However, while the extensive distribution network, with its local global expertise, sales offices and technical service are a huge advantage to Omya, today’s challenge is to make its mark as a food ingredient supplier of a versatile, innovative product that can also claim clean label status.

“Calcium carbonate is a highly versatile product,” says Lander. “It is widely used in baking and extruded products and an increasing part of the business is calcium carbonate’s use as a dry powder anti-caking agent. It can be used as a natural alternative to silicates in a number of applications, which appeals to the market currently.

“Two new innovations that are important for Omya are infant nutrition and functionalised calcium carbonate,” reveals Lander. “The infant nutrition market is increasing and becoming a big part of our business. Natural calcium carbonate is used a lot now to replace the precipitated product. It has very low levels of aluminium and, as well as appealing to a natural market, has a low carbon footprint and high purity, which is very much in demand.”

“Functionalised calcium carbonate for the food industry is very interesting,” continues Lander. “Its recrystalized surface gives it a greater surface area which, in turn, gives it a high loading capacity and allows it to be used as an effective carrier for many types of liquid, including oils, that need to be transferred into a powder. The resultant product is easily compressed into a tablet if required and can be used as an anti-caking agent to capture moisture. Production and marketing of this technology began in the South of France in 2015 and is set to grow strongly, particularly in the light of the Gold Award for Best Innovation in APIs and Excipients at the CPHI exhibition in Madrid in October, due to the product showing multifunctional benefits.”

These innovations show, according to Lander, how versatile the raw ingredient can be. It can be used in many different areas and its biggest strength is that this one single product can be adapted to suit the needs of many different customers with a high potential in all areas of food production.

With 130 years’ experience in the mining and marketing of the industrial product, Omya is perfectly placed to take on this new challenge. However, sourcing highly pure raw material, suitable for the food and pharmaceutical industry is an area that Omya, with its 8,000 employees, needs to keep on top of. It has a dedicated team of geologists around the world who seek out mineral deposits that are not only food grade, but sourced sustainably as well. According to Lander, the raw product with the highest purity is found in southern France, with North America and Turkey also providing substantial high-grade mineral deposits. However, Omya also has mining activity in Italy, China, South America and Australia.

“Sustainability is very important, as is responsible mining,” says Lander. “We have an active recultivation program in place and we’re very cautious to provide environment protection and to integrate with local production regulations around the world. When you’re mining as much volume as Omya does, sometimes the company makes a 100 year investment in an area so it has to think long-term, which is why sustainability is so important to us.”

For now, the vision for 2016 is very much food-focussed, says Lander. “Omya is not yet known in the food ingredients world yet,” he says. “We will work on recognition and target the first line food ingredients market with our own product portfolio, supplying highly pure raw, and yet extremely versatile, calcium carbonate for a number of applications.”