Scelta Mushrooms Looks to Capitalize on the Multiple Application Potential of Mushrooms

26 Oct 2016 --- A key trend at SIAL 2016, which was recently held in Paris, was the launch of new products positioned on a sugar or salt reduced platform. The demand for these applications is stimulating innovation at the supply side. 

Netherlands headquartered mushroom supplier Scelta Mushrooms was nominated for their Scelta Taste Accelerator solution, which won the FiE 2015 award last year for Most Innovative Ingredient. Scelta Taste Accelerator uses the natural power of umami to increase flavor and reduce sodium in processed foods. Umami, the fifth basic taste, gives food a longer lasting taste, while working in a synergy with other basic tastes. Furthermore, Umami flavor compounds have the ability to improve the palatability and increase perceived saltiness. It makes the line of umami-rich vegetable extracts a powerful, natural alternative to MSG/I+G/AYE, but also sodium reduction tool. Sodium reductions of up to 50% have been achieved in a wide range of products, from bread and soup to potato chips, without compromising taste and function and without the use of potassium. 

“We introduced the product during FiE 2015. Before that it was already used in a lot of applications, such as savory soups, sauces and meat etc., but it was not really well known at the time,” Sophie Tullemans at Scelta (pictured below) explains in a joint interview with at SIAL, together with CEO Jan Klerken. “What we have seen since we won these two awards is that a lot of people are now very interested in these products and it has had a huge impact on brand awareness. Before this a lot of companies were dubious about using a product based on mushrooms in their product, such as chips, for example, but now they are on board and eager to try it out.”

The Scelta Taste Accelerator line is being expanded. “At the moment we have a liquid and powder version, but also a product for topical applications, such as nuts and crisps. We also have a product that we use for salt reduction in bread,” she says. A foodservice product is available with a retail variant likely to follow too. “What we are seeing is that a lot of chefs are willing to use our products. We are working on a retail product as well, which will hopefully be on the market quite soon,” notes Tullemans. 

There has been a real surge in interest in mushroom products to enhance flavor, as they can serve as natural alternatives to other salt reducers such as monosodium glutamate. “There is a lot of awareness compared with 2-3 years ago, especially now that salt reduction is prominent in the industry. It’s taken a while to get the ball rolling as the market wasn’t ready at the time, but we are also seeing it with consumers. It’s a clean label product and people would rather use this as a natural flavor, as opposed to E numbers. It is a natural MSG replacer and quite a lot of companies simply declare it as a ‘mushroom powder’ or ‘mushroom extract’ on the label,” says Tullemans. 

Besides the Scelta Taste Accelerator, the latest innovations in the preserved range were on display at SIAL 2016 – the clean label, shelf stable mushrooms in Ecopouch with fresh taste /texture – and appetizers range – the frozen, E-number free Snex vegetable appetizers took center stage. “These are vegetable based snacks, most of them contain mushroom, but also with other vegetables like broccoli etc. We also make snacks for companies that want to create their own flavor, sometimes people want Indian spiced snacks etc., we do make all kind of vegetable products next to our own kind, depending on what exactly is in demand,” she explains.

An innovative approach that looks far beyond the core traditional business of simply mushrooms alone is central to the company’s growth strategy. For example, Scelta is set to build a new factory in July 2017 in Belfeld [near the company’s Venlo headquarters], to produce dried mushroom powder for the first time, with a capacity of 3,500MT. To put this into perspective, the company is also building a new factory for frozen mushrooms which will be open in May 2017, which has the capacity of 40,000MT. In fact the entire company will produce a total of 80,000MT of mushroom products in 2016. “Dried mushrooms a real niche market, it is something which we see a lot of growth in. At the moment it is just for B2B, but in the future it will be for foodservice and retail,” says CEO Jan Klerken. 

Scelta is positioning itself as offering a more traceable and sustainable source for dried mushroom powder, which is a market dominated by China at the moment. “China is mainly producing for internal use. But we can offer year round production and stable pricing,” says Klerken. “Our cost prices are leading in the world, because of our growing to harvesting techniques and the use of an optimized and mechanized system. China itself is a new export destination for us,” he adds.

These types of new opportunities are being assessed as part of an ambitious growth strategy. “Our mushroom powders and taste enhancers are relatively small activities, but everything starts from innovation. When we started our snacks business, we had a turnover of €4-5 million – now that part has grown to 7-8 times that, In fact that’s where we see huge potential for our largest growth,” notes Klerken. 

Their Ecopouch product also just started off as an idea, but now the company is planning to build a new factory to meet demand for all natural products. “Our pillars for the future are sustainability, health and taste. Our products are 100% clean label, serving a market which is changing from fast food to healthy food. Companies like McDonalds are a good example of how the food industry can make the world’s population a bit healthier, and our products provide a solution to this too,” he says.

One other interesting recent business development at the company came about when at the end of 2015, Diana Food [owned by major flavor player Symrise AG] finalized a purchase contract for the acquisition of 60% of the shares of Scelta Umami, which specializes in the manufacture and sale of mushroom concentrates. In the 2015 fiscal year, Scelta Umami generated sales of around €4 million and the purchase price amounted to US$8 million. 

Klerken stresses that the Symrise stake in Scelta as a whole is actually very small at just 2.5%, but the move does offer benefits to both companies. “The intention is that we have a 100% joint operation, because we were both supplying the French market at the time. But the reason why we are working together is not so much about sales, but rather about procurement. While the amount of available mushrooms continues to grow in the Netherlands, in France it is decreasing, so strategically it is better to be sourcing from two markets,” he says. 

Both companies should benefit from the other’s know-how too. “Symrise/Diana Group have a lot of resources in R&D at their headquarters in Rennes (France), so we can really learn a lot. We are focused on taste enhancing, so they can learn a lot from our Scelta Taste Accelerator too,” he notes. “The idea afterwards is that we focus on our actual customer base, and bring innovation to the industry, by stepping into a market that they don’t know, which is foodservice and retail. So there are quite a few overlapping fields,” Klerken concludes. 

It is these types of partnerships and innovations that have catapulted a traditionally basic mushroom player into being a key trend facilitator in the flavor and convenience sphere. 

By Robin Wyers