KEY INTERVIEW: Opportunities for Lactic Acid Fermentation in Food Safety and Nutrition

29 Jul 2014 --- Lactic acid is already present within our bodies but it can also be adapted for a whole host of other uses, particularly in the food sector. Galactic has 20 years of experience in this field and it now supplies lactic acid solutions to 65 countries across five continents. FoodIngredientsFirst speaks to sales, marketing and business development director, Jean-Christophe Bogaert, to find out more:

Galactic was created in 1994, so in many respects it is a fairly young company, but its achievements are wide and it has a rapid pace for innovation.

It can now offer lactic acid solutions for a large range of application sectors such as the polymers industry and pharmaceuticals. But food represents around 75% of its business.

“In food we work across a lot of different segments,” explains Bogaert. “Meat and seafood is a big area where lactic acid derivatives are primarily used as preservative agents to inhibit the growth of bacteria . Basically it is a guarantee of food safety but it also improves shelf-life.”

Key food segments:
Bakery is another key area for Galactic, where lactic acid has preservative properties.

“We have ProDough Adagio, which is effectively a version of our ProMeat Adagio. With this product you can replace phosphates because it will mimic what yeast does,” he explains. “It is much cheaper than yeast and more controllable. Yeast is a living material so it is not so constant and there can be a lot of variations in the result.”

The company has also discovered that ProDough is a taste enhancer, so it promotes the taste of things such as butter in baked products.

Lactates are also used in the dairy sector for food supplementation and to increase the calcium content of milk.

“It’s really useful in our work with soy milk for example, as we can increase the calcium levels of soy milk to reach the same levels of that which you would find in cow’s milk,” he says.

Within dairy, Galactic has a new product called ProDairy Adagio, which is primarily used within soft cheese applications. “It is a Crystal Lactic Acid powder which mimics what bacteria does in food products – it is progressive and it can be controlled by both dosages and temperature.”

The benefits of this are that it can help reduce processing times and it also allows customers to adjust the texture of cheeses such as Mozzarella, so that it can be made harder if necessary for grating purposes.

“It results in a more stable product so during its shelf-life on say, a pizza, it won’t lose on taste, texture or meltability.”

In beverages, lactates are used for mineral fortification, and sports and energy drinks is a big growth segment for the company.

“Interestingly the biggest user of calcium lactate in the world is Coca-Cola for its Minute Maid drink, which is supplemented with calcium,” he notes.

Meanwhile in confectionery, lactic acid buffered is used to prevent the inversion of sugar. New segments within food include sauces and dressings, Bogaert explains.

“Really we have spent the last two years changing our market approach from being a lactic acid producer into a ‘natural solutions provider’,” he says. “This has opened up new segments for us.”

In order to do this the company set up a research and development (R&D) center in Brussels one and a half years ago. “Our teams all work together with clients to adjust our existing products to the needs of our customer.”

R&D is a big area for the company and it invests around 5% of its turnover back into this area. In order to streamline this focus on innovation, Galactic has identified four key areas of growth potential for its lactic acid concepts.

Food trends:
“We have identified four main trends in the food industry which are the main pillars where we have a role to play or can design new products,” he states.

The first of these is food safety, using lactic acid as a natural preservative. “There is an increasing need to improve food safety,” he says. “It is very important topic for us.”

The second pillar is health improvements, where Galactic works in two ways.

“One area is to allow our customers to increase the level of ‘good’ applications such as to enrich calcium in their products. It’s about adding ingredients that offer a positive effect on health.”

The other area of health for Galactic is by designing solutions that help to reduce ‘unhealthy’ ingredients, such as sodium, such as in salt-rich products like processed meat.

“We have solutions that enable our clients to reduce the sodium without losing any of the taste, and also, without losing any of the benefits you get from salt as a preservative – therefore we maintain food safety.”

It also has solutions to reduce the use of sodium aluminium phosphate (SALP), which is now banned in Europe, he notes.

As a third area of focus, the company is looking at cost efficiency.

“We don’t sell cheaper than our competitors necessarily but we do work on developing more efficient solutions, such as being able to offer reduced dosages. It means it is a win-win situation for us and our customers if products can be used at a lower dosage.”

Finally, and particularly for mature markets such as North America and Japan, clean label is a big opportunity for the company.

“Our products are natural and increasingly our customers are asking for help in creating products which are more natural and without e-numbers,” he says.

Innovating within this fast-moving sector means that Galactic has its work cut out. But Bogaert is confident that a focus on the four key pillars Galactic has outlined for lactic acid potential will drive this company further down the road to success.

By Sonya Hook