KEY INTERVIEW: Frutarom Expands Flavor and Health Reach

07 Jan 2015 --- The Frutarom parent company is one of the largest flavor houses in the world, dating back to the 1930s. More recently the company has become famous for the pace of its acquisitions, adding about five to ten companies to its portfolio a year. Here, the company’s general manager for health and business, Holger Riemensperger, talks about recent acquisitions and plans for the future:

Adding to the portfolio and therefore diversifying into new areas of expertise within the flavor industry has become part of the way of life for the team at Frutarom, and indeed part of the company’s skill is its ability to make swift and strategic global acquisitions.

Around ten years ago Frutarom hit a major milestone when it acquired Flachsmann, a company which specialized in botanical extracts.

“This was a major acquisition because it also included five production sites across four companies,” explains Riemensperger.

The acquisition also helped boost Frutarom’s involvement in the area of functional foods, which later gave the company the confidence to change its strategy in order to go into functional foods in a much bigger way.

“This change of strategy happened about three years ago when I joined the company, and it tied in with my area of expertise,” he explains.

“There are two big advantages for Frutarom in functional foods. One is that we are part of a large flavor house, and we have the expertise that dates back many years, which means it is easy for us to come to the customer with a solution.”

There are some very large players in the healthy ingredients industry that don’t have this expertise, he adds.

“The second advantage is that we have to deal in the industry with increased levels of regulatory requirements and with our history also in the pharmaceutical end of the business it gives us a big advantage here,” he says. “When we show functional food customers to our site and then they see the standards we deal with (in terms of things like contaminants and how we do the analysis), they are always impressed. In our case we follow strict pharmaceutical procedures so this is a nice thing for us.”

Functional Foods – the Future
The company changed its direction in research and development a few years ago and it now has a number of products in the pipeline, some of which will launch in the near future into functional food applications, explains Riemensperger.

“For example, we now have two products we will launch from botanical extracts, one will go into a cognitive application and the other is related to endurance and energy.”

In September 2014 meanwhile, the company announced its entry into the omega 3 market with deodorized DHA and EPA marine-sourced omega 3 ingredients designed for a variety of food % beverage applications and dietary supplements.

“As the leading provider of specialty fine ingredients, flavors and savory solutions, Frutarom has excellent access into the food and beverage industries, enabling it to help food manufacturers fortify food with omega 3,” he explains. “Thanks to Frutarom’s expertise, we can easily implement the new line into any food matrix, such as dairy, bakery, baby food, cereals, oils, confectionery, beverages etc. It is both deodorized and without any negative impact on the taste.”

Innovation at Frutarom
Another important milestone for the company has been an investment in an innovation centre in Switzerland, which allows customers to work together with Frutarom to carry out all kinds of testing on new product development.

“Also, we are working on a number of acquisitions in the functional foods direction, with the aim of adding other products to our portfolio,” he explains.

At present the company can boast a range of functional food developments in its portfolio, including those in the omega 3 space, minerals, vitamin K2 and encapsulated iron, to name but a few.

Riemensperger explains that the company made significant investments in the last year to improve its plants in Switzerland and North Berger to provide sustainable natural ingredients that are also high quality. “We also sponsored several clinical research trials on specific nutraceuticals.”

Putting the science behind any functional foods is one of the key areas the company wants to work on, and this forms part of the ongoing innovation plans going forwards.

Publishing studies in different areas of work is all part of this.

“There are multiples areas in functional foods and there are products that are well established in the market but they are getting less sexy for the customers,” he notes. “Vitamin blends are still accepted as a health product rather than in the functional food space, and so growth is slow, as it is in the omega space.”

Frutarom is also looking at ways of adding omega to water solutions and into liquid matrixes, he adds. “Younger consumers have a clear preference for liquid products and shots,” he explains. “Those over 45 years old have a preference for bars or dairy products so it is also a question of identifying the appropriate target market.”

The company is looking at new technologies, according to Riemensperger, but high up on the agenda is also a need for partnerships with companies that have specific levels of expertise.

For the future the key areas of innovation will be for simple products that are natural and clean label, offering natural colors and natural functional benefits.

“Another factor to consider is that the industry will split more and more to respect the local culture of different regions and food in different areas. We may have to adapt products more for each global area.”

All of these things form part of Frutarom’s plan for growth as the company continues to diversify, expand and innovate. Riemensperger is confident that the company has the expertise in terms of staff, acquisitions and research to ensure Frutarom will continue to be a key global player in the future of flavor developments across the world.

By Sonya Hook