Upcycling concepts appeal to eco-conscious consumers amid pressure to save food resources, says IFF

14 Nov 2023 --- One-third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted somewhere in the value chain, and worryingly, this number is set to grow. One of the ways to address the pressing need for food waste reduction is through upcycling, using byproducts from typically discarded side streams to unlock their highest value and improve the way the industry uses resources when producing F&B products.

International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) is tapping into its product design expertise using its range of upcycled flavors and ingredients, which can help the company and its customers create sustainable products.

Food Ingredients First speaks with Signe Causse, global innovation marketing lead and Eve Martinet-Bareau, global innovation program director (both part of RE-IMAGINE WASTE) at IFF, who discuss the market opportunities for upcycling otherwise wasted ingredients. 

Eve Martinet-Bareau, global innovation program director at IFF.“Food waste is a big concern for the food industry for different reasons, including environmental and economic reasons,” Martinet-Bareau explains. “In times of financial contraction, we should avoid wasting food, and awareness has grown over the past few years.”

With IFF being one the largest food ingredients and flavor suppliers, “we decided to innovate to solve this challenge,” Martinet-Bareau tells us. 

The RE-IMAGINE WASTE program was created two years ago, and the main goal is to help fight food waste. 

The program has three main pillars. “We valorize through upcycling, we prevent through shelf life, and we minimize through resource optimization,” Causse explains. “That’s the messaging used behind our strategy and capabilities.”

Upcycled concepts 
Two beverage prototypes are some of the company’s latest innovations in the space of upcycled products. One is a concept called fizzUP, a soft drink for eco-conscious consumers, using natural and upcycled ingredients.

The next prototype is a Cascara Energy Shot, designed with eco-conscious consumers in mind seeking energy from naturally occurring caffeine, using natural and upcycled ingredients.

These concepts include upcycled raw materials from coffee cherries (the outer peel of coffee beans, also known as cascara) and grape juice (from surplus fruit), enriched with exciting IFF upcycled flavoring extracts.

“We have used cascara as a key ingredient because it’s quite trendy and more readily available in the supply chain,” Martinet-Bareau comments. “There was some regulatory authorization for cascara in beverages recently, which inspired us to make these concepts using our platform and utilize our upcycled flavors. Thanks to our ability to leverage cascara, it can also bring a nutritional attribute because it has some natural caffeine.”

“We think one of the main reasons an upcycled product might win over consumers is, firstly, because it is tasty and nutritious,” she adds. “Then following on from that, it allows our customers to produce a product that is developed responsibly, with the positive attributes of upcycling.” 

Causse notes that 75% of the ingredients (excluding water) are upcycled in the fizzUP concept, and in the Cascara Energy Shot, 88% of the ingredients used are upcycled. Martinet-Bareau explains: “These are very high levels of upcycled ingredients. However, it is also in our interest that, for example, if our customers were interested in commercializing in North America, this would be an opportunity in terms of the actual certification of upcycled ingredients.”One of the ways to address the pressing need for food waste reduction is through upcycling, using byproducts from typically discarded side streams to unlock their highest value.

One of the ways to address the pressing need for food waste reduction is through upcycling, using byproducts from typically discarded side streams to unlock their highest value.

Beverages gather speed
According to Causse, energy drinks are the fastest-growing beverage type currently on the market. 

“They’re expected to grow by 6% on an average yearly basis from 2023 to 2028,” she notes. So, it’s a highly dynamic category. That’s just energy drinks. If you take soft drinks, for example, this growth is around half that of energy drinks, but it’s still much higher than staple food.”

For IFF, it’s “an exciting category to innovate around, and that’s what customers and consumers expect, giving us a great platform for creativity.”

Causse also cites data from Innova Market Insights, which mentions that the beverage category is one of the three top categories of F&B launches with upcycling claims.

For Martinet-Bareau, “it was a very obvious fit for us to design upcycled concepts in this category,” as “a lot of the trends in the market start to develop in beverages initially,” she remarks. 

Causse adds, “We saw an opportunity with cascara and using it as the base raw material. So, with the expertise of flavors, we made some exciting and rich-tasting concepts.”

“Most cascara beverages today are positioned as tea beverages,” notes Causse, so we wanted to differentiate from that landscape with a carbonated soft drink concept.”

The company has already conducted some consumer research with Gen Y and Z consumers and these prototypes and received “very positive feedback,” Martinet-Bareau tells us. 

“The idea of reformulating a soda-type beverage and making it a healthier drink for humans and the planet with interesting flavors was intriguing to them. Participants also said that they wanted to invest in this [upcycled product], and they felt a close, personal link to it.”

The fizzUP concept is a carbonated soft drink positioned for eco-conscious consumers seeking naturalness from their choices.Collaboration is key 
One key area of innovation for IFF is helping companies upcycle their own waste streams, using the ingredients or products from their food processes. 

“This could be a whey or fiber ingredient, for example, and ultimately, we want our customers to solve their own challenges in value chains,” notes Martinet-Bareau, adding that collaborative partnerships are vital to this development. 

“Upcycling is an area where we need a lot of partnerships. We will not solve the issue of food waste on our own. We are a big ingredient house, but we need to partner with others and are also part of different associations that bolster the food supply chains.”

IFF is part of North America’s Upcycled Food Association (UFA) and Europe’s FoodValley upcycling community. 

“We can overcome some of the barriers linked to the regulation and certification of upcycling. Obviously, there is a lack of awareness about upcycling, but this can certainly be accelerated to boost innovation in development,” Martinet-Bareau concludes.

By Elizabeth Green