Symrise webinar preview: “Vanilla continues as a mainstay flavor across applications amid supply pressures”

29 Mar 2024 --- Demand and prices for natural vanilla vary and fluctuate due to cost-conscious consumers, inflation and volatile market situation in Madagascar, as well as environmental challenges. However, for Symrise, sustainability will always represent a key topic for natural vanilla.

Food Ingredients First speaks with Laurent Deniau, global director for Vanilla and Botanicals at Symrise, ahead of the company’s webinar on vanilla, who discusses the current situation in Madagascar.

“Most of the global production comes from the African country, which is sensitive country regarding biodiversity as well as population. We source natural vanilla sustainably in Madagascar.”

“We have our entire vanilla certified by third parties, covering a wide range of requirements, from Rainforest Alliance and Fair for life,” Deniau notes. 

The queen of flavors
According to Deniau, vanilla continues as a taste favorite across different F&B applications.

“By decoding vanilla flavors and combining it with our extensive application know-how, we can tailor vanilla flavors to all kinds of applications. This way, we are answering specific customer and end-consumer needs,” he underscores. 

Deniau believes Symrise can build preferred vanilla tastes, answering market demand regardless of application, country or age group.

“As natural vanilla needs support to answer the global demand, our comprehensive portfolio offers a wide range of solutions,” he notes. “They range from natural extracts to cost-effective flavor solutions.”

Functional solutions 
Many consumers today are increasingly looking for healthier food and beverages offering nutritional support and other functionalities. 

The majority of these products incorporate special ingredients or formulas — coming with unpleasant off-notes impacting the overall flavor profile. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the taste, mouthfeel, and smell of these products to combine health benefits with pleasure and indulgence. 

Commenting on why vanilla can be crucial for overcoming off-notes and flavor development solutions, Deniau replies: “Consumers around the world widely love vanilla. They associate it strongly with comfort, familiarity and childhood memories. Based on this, consumer acceptance, as well as its strong taste and complex composition, vanilla works well as a natural masker for off-notes.”

Eighty percent of the world’s global production of vanilla comes from Madagascar.Advancing in taste
Symrise has an extensive capacity and portfolio of vanilla flavors for health and nutrition applications and the company believes vanilla is the “perfect answer to a health-conscious world.”

“We possess the capability to create customized (vanilla) masking flavor solutions. They are effectively decreasing undesirable off-notes and off-tastes while neutralizing the product’s base flavor,” Deniau says. 

The company has been “mastering vanilla for 150 years already and continues to extend our portfolio to answer the challenge of today and tomorrow.”

“We constantly enrich our consumer knowledge year after year to build preferred vanilla tastes across regions and generations,” he comments. 

In Symrise’s forthcoming webinar, the company will be sharing its knowledge and 150 years of expertise in vanilla. Deniau says the company is “continuously enriching our knowledge and professional know-how by exploring how it masters the complete value chain and creates inspiring solutions from flavors to extracts. 

You can register for the webinar here. 

By Elizabeth Green