Ras El Hanout Spice Blend Set to Surge

EHL Ingredients is an importer, blender and packer of food ingredients from around the world. It supplies Ras El Hanout to the food manufacturing sector and has witnessed a notable increase in demand for this popular spice blend. Its sales of Ras El Hanout increased by 60% in the past year.

2/3/2011 --- According to RTS Resource, North African and Middle Eastern flavours are set to see an increase in popularity over the next five years. Ras El Hanout is a complex, aromatic blend of spices with origins in North Africa. Its name means ‘top of the shop’ in Arabic and refers to a mixture of the best spices a shop has to offer, with many blends containing up to 30 spices. It has recently experienced a boost in awareness and popularity thanks to TV chefs such as Jamie Oliver. Product activity featuring the ingredient has been low so far with Innova Market Insights tracking just 31 products from 2005-2010 featuring the ingredient. It has for example been used in the UK in Moroccan flavoured soups.

EHL Ingredients is an importer, blender and packer of food ingredients from around the world. It supplies Ras El Hanout to the food manufacturing sector and has witnessed a notable increase in demand for this popular spice blend. Its sales of Ras El Hanout increased by 60% in the past year. EHL Ingredients has created its own unique blend, featuring a specially formulated combination of herbs and spices, from fennel, cardamom and mace, to ginger, lavender flowers and rose petals. Ras El Hanout has a strong, spicy kick and a floral fragrance and is ideal for use in Morrocan and North African-style starters, sauces and ready meals. It adds a golden colour and an aromatic flavour to soups, cooking sauces and pastes, chicken dishes, vegetable or meat tagines, ready meals and accompaniments such as cous cous. It can also be used in marinades for meat, chicken or fish.

Tasneem Backhouse, sales Director at EHL Ingredients says: “Authenticity and balance are key to a good Ras El Hanout. It’s important to achieve the optimum flavour combination so the spices work together and are not too overpowering. Our product is 100% natural, unique to us and has been trialled and tested to ensure the flavours are maintained during the food production process. It performs particularly well when added to tagines, soups, ready meals, sauces, pastes and marinades and is available for food manufacturers to add to a range of Moroccan or North African-style dishes.

“Consumers are much more knowledgeable about international flavours thanks to travel, cookery shows, restaurant experience and home cooking so food manufacturers must ensure they recreate these flavours well to ensure a successful and popular product. The international foods market is highly competitive; we understand that manufacturers have to work hard to reinvent products and innovate to maintain customer interest and loyalty. This involves a regular refreshing of lines as well as new product development and brand extensions. We work with many leading food manufacturers to provide our natural herbs and spices and can even work with product development teams to develop custom blends.”

The company has been working towards its BRC accreditation and was awarded a grade A certification following a rigourous audit process. This will give EHL’s customers the reassurance of the company’s quality and safety management processes and will open up new growth opportunities for the business.