Evolution of flavor & taste: Health is crucial driver to innovation for Symrise
27 Oct 2023 | Symrise
Regine Lueghausen, vice president of global marketing for Food & Beverages at Symrise, discusses the company’s expertise in flavor and taste as well as its foray into health and wellness, a trend that has been proliferating since COVID-19. She also highlights how sustainability is a key pillar of Symrise’s strategy as it looks to strengthen its capabilities beyond flavors.
This is Elizabeth Green reporting for Food Ingredients First.
I'm speaking with Regine Lughausen from SimRse.
Now taste has been at the core of Regine's professional career in over 20 years in the food and beverage industry.
Today, Regine is vice president of global marketing for food and beverages, and she will speak about the company's expertise in flavor and taste and other directions the business is moving into.
So welcome Regine.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
Firstly, I'd like you to share some insights on the company's journey starting from flavor and taste if possible.
Absolutely.
Taste is really at the core of our company's identity.
150 years ago, one of our founders has synthesized.
The first vanolin from natural sources, and this really marked the foundation of the taste industry as we know it today.
At the time, it really enabled food and beverage professionals for the first time to create taste solutions at industrial scale.
And then another key milestone was in the early 2000s when the former company Harmann and Reimer and Rogou merged to become SIMRS and we went public on the German Stock Exchange in 2006, which was the biggest IPO on the European market that year.
And we've continuously developed, since then, another.
The key milestone was then less than 10 years later that we integrated the Diana Group in SIRS, and this really expanded our offering also in terms of natural ingredients and -being solutions, both for consumers and for pets.
And we have further developed since then and lately we have expanded also in the health area, now rounding up our offer as an augmented flavor house offering taste, but also nutrition and health solutions to our customers.
Fantastic.
That really sets the scene.
So where is SimRice heading now?
Are you moving into other areas of F&B development?
You mentioned, nutrition.
Yeah, absolutely.
In nutrition, we are expanding and we have been very active all through our existence also in chicken proteins, so classic proteins, but we're also expanding our offer in the plant-based protein space.
We're offering chickpea solutions here, for example, and also vitamins and minerals.
And we're also expanding into health lately.
We have been active in health but are expanding this capability.
And here we're specifically focusing on health actives that have been sourced from nature and that have been backed up by science.
And one of the latest launches that we're particularly proud of is our Pre-Bioranne launch.
This is a Natural cranberry extract.
And you might be familiar with cranberry as a pried and tested ingredient for female health, specifically to counteract, urinary tract infections.
But this natural cranberry extract also contains very polyphenols, and, these deliver extensive gut benefits.
So this is one of the areas.
That we are expanding with currently.
OK, fantastic.
Obviously health and wellness is a, a huge market, what other kind of other key trends do you see happening in the health and wellness space that are now impacting areas of your business?
Yeah, we've seen a really heightened awareness for health and -being in general, and that's no new news.
This already existed pre-pandemic, but this is even more relevant now after COVID, and we see that consumers increasingly tend to see food almost as preventive medicine.
And this has given rise to a lot of fortified products, and here taste solutions come in again because we can help to make those good for you products taste great.
Because lots of these products, when you add fiber or vitamins or minerals, could have some unpleasant offnotes.
They could be bitter or they could be astringency.
And we can help to mask those unwanted offnotes and to make those good for you products really taste great because we would want consumers to benefit from these products and also to repurchase them.
So taste plays a key role here.
The same that we see also for plant-based proteins, we see a rise of new formats here, we see more premium products in plant-based products.
And also here, our SIMLife solutions for taste balancing can help to make these products really taste great and appealing.
Fantastic.
And what about the need for sustainability then?
What does sustainability mean for you as a business and how does that also impact SIRS and the way that you work?
Yeah, sustainability really plays a key role for us.
And it continues to be relevant for today's consumers, our customers who are the manufacturers, but also, the whole sima strategy.
So we're very closely aligned with the United Nations sustainability goals, the so-called SDGs, and our efforts encompass the entire value chain.
And if we, for example, zoom in on responsible sourcing and responsible production.
Some examples here are that our agronomist teams all around the world work very closely with our long-term farming partners to make sure that we adhere to these principles and that we also anticipate and and counteract the environmental challenges that arise from climate change.
Because climate change, of course, limits our resources.
We have a growing population, we have an aging population, and food security is really high on our list.
So we address this through a very rigorous sustainability roadmap and some of the activities we do in this area are centered around regenerative agriculture and soil health and all of these efforts enable us to be a resilient partner so that we can do our bit to contribute to food security.
At the same time when we're talking about sustainability, we also minimize our carbon footprint so we continuously work on better sourcing, improved production, and even better shipment of our goods.
Fantastic.
So lots going on there, in terms of sustainability.
So, another interesting area, that we always love to talk about is, flavors.
So what are some of the key trends that you see dominating the flavor scene right now?
Absolutely, those trends of health and -being impacting also the flavor space.
So here, specifically the taste balancing area, making those good for you products taste great, and also, the innovation we see happening in the plant-based space, are, what we see driving most of the flavor, novelties here.
Fantastic.
So looking ahead to 2024, what can we expect from SimRice, in relation to flavors next year and beyond?
Yeah, I think looking at 2024 and beyond, you can expect us to deliver against our company motto, to always be inspiring more.
So to serve our.
Customers as an augmented flavor house and please count on us as the go to partner for taste, but also nutrition and health to make sure that we can develop winning products and taste, nutrition and health solutions together with our partners and customers and ecosystem allies, yeah, for today and for tomorrow.
Fantastic.
Thank you very much, Regine.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
