Alland & Robert: Targeting industry-wide needs using acacia as a clean and simple ingredient
06 Feb 2024 | Alland & Robert
Created in 1884, Alland & Robert is a family-owned company based in Normandy, France. The company is internationally recognized as a leading manufacturer of natural gums, and particularly acacia gum. R&D director Isabelle Jaouen discusses the company’s developments in acacia and how the ingredient answers many F&B trends that we see today. She also highlights how it can support Nutriscore labeling across a wide range of food applications.
This is Elizabeth Green from Food Ingredients First.
Created in 1884, Allen and Robert is a family owned company based in Normandy, France.
The company is internationally recognized as a leading manufacturer of natural gums and particularly Acacia gum.
Allan and Robert now exports products on all continents in 70 countries via a network of 40 local distributors.
The company's R&D director Isabel Zhaoen joins us today.
Great to have you, Isabel.
A warm welcome from us all here at CNS Media.
Now, maybe you can start by sharing a bit about some of the most prevalent trends you see across the F&B spaces and how these trends directly affect your business.
Over to you, Isabel.
Yes, thank you, Elizabeth.
Yes, prevalent trends are multiple and affect not only our products and their uses like vegan, vegetarian, keto diets, organic trends, naturalness, etc.
But trends directly also impact us in a more general way with the climatic concerns and the absolute necessity to reduce our carbon footprint.
OK, fantastic.
Now, as we've mentioned, you are a key player in Acacia Gum.
How are you currently innovating in this space?
We are constantly looking for innovations to strengthen the image and the use of our acacia gums, especially in the food industry.
We work every day on the development of recipes to evidence the efficiency and the multiple benefits of adding acacia gums in various and varied matrixes, food matrixes.
We are also continuously working to improve the quality and the functionality of the gums we offer to our customers.
It is as part of this continuous improvement not only on the product itself but also on the process that we are now launching a new range of Acacia gums called Beyond Acacia obtained thanks to an innovative technology that allows us to obtain greatly optimized qualities.
This optimization is based on the conformation and on the granulotry of our new range of Acacia gums.
They are easier to process thanks to exceptional solubility, excellent flowability without generating dust, and process times will be then shortened for many customers, and they will be able to save time and energy.
In addition, thanks to a higher density, the volume of our packaging is smaller, allowing saving in storage and also in transportation.
Mm, right, interesting, thank you very much.
Now we touched on it a little bit earlier, you mentioned the carbon footprint of the company, but what is the importance of improving your processes at Alon Albert and the carbon footprint of acacia gum and your other ingredients?
For many years, Alan and Robert has been committed to sustainability and ethics in our business.
Our commitments are aligned to the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce our carbon footprint and keep global warming below 2 °C.
That's why we took a public commitment to reduce by 20% our global footprint by 2025, and we are on our way to make this commitment a reality.
Since 2020, we started an action plan targeting all our emissions with a focus on the energetic performance of our factories.
We are currently working on our long-term strategy to be a low carbon company and reach and reach net zero, and our new range beyond acacia provides a low, a very low carbon footprint minus 51% direct and indirect emissions compared to regular gum acacia.
Our clients clients are more and more involved in the reduction of their carbon footprint, and we are happy to participate to their increasingly ambitious suppliers programs.
We also work with our own suppliers in Africa to create carbon commitments.
When the whole industry is committed, that's where progress is possible.
But carbon is not all.
We have also other initiatives such as the support of our local communities, especially through our corporate foundation, a reforestation initiative which has been made possible to plant over 16,000 trees in Sahel since 2010 to 2020.
And we also recently obtained the first ever Fair for Life certification for for for gamma cacia, which represents the work we do for ethics in our industry.
Fantastic, some really ambitious, targets that you've already achieved, so yeah, done.
Now, in the, as, as part of the industry, we hear a lot about NutriScore labeling.
So how are you as a company now adapting to improving NutriScore labels?
You know, introduction of kasha ga means food is fully in line with the main dietary recommendations, particularly with a global reduction of sugars and an increase of dietary fibers which are involved in anti-inflammatory responses.
Our R&D team.
Have evidenced that an addition of acacia fiber in a sugar reduced matrix restores its organic organoleptic profile, making it as palatable as a regular product.
In sugar-free formulas, Acacia gum brings mouthful also and fills the gap in texture and substance without calories.
Acacia gum is also a highly digestive soluble fiber whose gut and health benefits have been evidenced by clinical studies.
So in this context, acacia gum is really a great option to formulate products without compromising taste and texture, and in our lab we have successfully reduced nutri score from the letter D to C and even sometimes to B on biscuits and cakes, with a reduction of sugar and an increase of total dietary fiber content.
Everything is done to bring technical support to our customers who want to improve nutritional profile of their products with a cache fiber or a cache gum.
OK, fascinating, thank you very much.
A bit more on food applications I'd like to know, a bit more information on which food applications are you seeing most demand and development for Acacia ingredients.
Is there scope for innovation across other food categories outside of bakery maybe as an example?
Yeah, most demands, true, and, most demands and development are related to beverages and emulsions since many years as they belong to ever changing industries, but there are multiple other opportunities of innovation for.
Dietary food, functional shakes, ice creams, plant-based meat substitutes, biscuits, sauces in order to improve formulations or even to replace other functional agents less reliable or presenting a less favorable image than Acachagu, right.
Last but not least, we also propose other added values to our activities like the implementation of a Fair for Life certification, for instance, but also with the development of organic qualities and acacia fiber ranges to fully answer to current trends.
OK, perfect, thank you very much.
Now, another area of development that we are seeing a lot more of is the mixing of acacia with other hydrocollos to replace animal ingredients like gelatin.
Has this been both a challenge and a success for your business?
Yes, yes, it was a real challenge for sure to answer more to, you know, vegan and vegetarian trends, taking into account environment and animal welfare as and religious aspects too.
We have decided to blend several hydrochloids from vegetable origins, of course, with caha gum, of course, in order to replace gelatin in gummies, marshmallows, and distances to start, and results have exceeded all our expectations, and the texture and the stability of our products are really promising and outstanding.
We just launched this Syndeo jelling that is the blend of three vegetable hydrochloides including akaa gum, and we hope it will convince many gelatin users.
Beyond food, we have also developed new blends of natural and biodegradable gums dedicated to cosmetics in order to replace synthetic texturizers in order to suppress pollution due to microplastics.
OK, fantastic, there's a lot of innovation then going on for the company.
Great.
Now we are also seeing consumers are leaning toward food products with simple, transparent ingredient lists that they can trust, or they feel that they can trust.
How are you adapting and responding to these demands?
We totally answer.
To, to, to, to, to all the consumer needs as we propose multifunctional ingredients fully in line with natural transparency, clean and clear label, we have now the mission to educate consumers as.
Acacia gum stabilizes and improves the final products on a 100% safe way.
OK, great, thank you.
And finally then, how do you predict the Acacia market to grow in the future, and how does Alo Amalbert see its purpose within the space of hydrocolloids today and in the future?
It's difficult to predict with accurate figures, but the cashia gum market is really growing since many years thanks to the current trends.
We are very, very lucky for that.
We can state thatland and Robert provides natural, plant-based, and low carbon solutions for a healthier and more sustainable diet.
And we will continue to work on associations between plants and natural hydrochloids in order to fill not only our objectives but objectives of the food market as.
That's great, Isabelle, thank you very much for joining me and for sharing your insights.
