Launching new vanillin products to meet global needs – Solvay
03 Jan 2018 | Solvay
FA 2017.
I'm here joined by Peter Browning from Solvey.
Solvey has launched two new vanillin products.
Peter, could you talk us through them and maybe tell us a bit about the market trends that have informed your innovations?
Yeah, sure, Lucy.
I think maybe there's two market trends that we'd like to talk about this morning.
The first one is being really evident at food ingredients here and that's the switch to natural.
But we're seeing a huge consumer interest in natural food ingredients, natural claims on packaging, and that, that, that's one of the trends that's driving our innovation.
That maybe the second trend is, is, is a macro one, which is around feeding the world's population.
There's an increasing need for protein, driving an increasing mix of an improving mix of foodstuffs, and that's leading to some constraints on the side of animal-based proteins or traditional proteins, and so what we've seen is a really quite impressive rise in the usage of alternative proteins from vegetables, pea, soya.
And these, these proteins have specific characteristics which we believe that our innovative products can help resolve.
So could you give us a bit more detail on the products themselves?
Yeah, sure.
So, the first of the products we're launching is a natural vanolin-based product.
Produced from our organic raw material, a GMO free raw material rice, which is manufactured through a ferment and fermentation and enzymatic process to yield vanolin, so, so that that production stream gives us the ability to market the product as a natural from a European legislation point of view.
And it enables our customers to make a natural claim on their label, meeting the needs that we talked about from the consumer point of view.
That's great.
Now, in terms of actually the, the, the, the manufacturing of it, the production of it, I believe you've upped capacity in, in recent times.
Yeah, sure.
This is a market which is experiencing very dynamic.
Growth.
So today, the global capacity for this type of material is around 60 tons.
But we've seen projects that will require a far greater need than that.
So we've made the decision to proactively invest in a further 60 tons to doubling the global capacity to meet those projected project needs.
So, so for us it's, it's, it's a really quite substantial investment in the future of this technology and being able to satisfy our customers and the move to natural.
Absolutely.
So you're already speaking a bit about alternative proteins.
Could you tell us about a bit bit more?
What, what sort of applications or products with this, these products be specifically suitable for?
A, a, a great example of sports nutrition, you know, you, you go, you go down the gym, you work out, you build your muscle, and then you, you want a nice protein shake at the end.
That's the type of things that these vegetable proteins are being formulated into, because people want the protein, but they also want healthy protein.
Now an issue with these novel types of protein is they tend to have bitter off-note tastes.
And so that that reduces the consumer experience in consuming the protein, and a really, attractive facet of vanolin is that it can mask those tastes without giving a pronounced vanolin taste to the article.
So what we've, we've done here with the second of our launches is a formulation again based on natural valolin to support the first trend we talked about, which takes the edge off of the protein bitterness and which gives a smooth, lingering, attractive taste without overpowering the food formulation with vanolin, so the idea really is not to provide flavoring.
But simply to provide a neutral taste experience which our customers can build upon, to give the consumer the taste profile that they want, so that that's the second innovation that we're bringing to the market today at the at this fair.
As you, as you mentioned, significant investments in, capacity, new launches, it seems like you're doing a lot in the innovation space as, you guys have just launched an, innovation platform.
Sure, of, of course, that the whole food and nutrition market is driven by innovation, driven by new consumer needs, so the ones we talked about earlier being a couple we're really interested in.
And and so for us it's important to support our products with er tools and techniques which enable our customers to use those effectively to serve their customers.
And that's what this new innovation center is all about.
So what it does is we're using these products, we're building taste and aroma profiles, we're formulating, And we're providing pilot solutions to our customers who would be the big F&F companies that enable them to bring their solutions to the market more rapidly and more efficiently.
So we're in no way have the plan to become an F&F company.
That that's really not what we are.
We're an ingredients supplier.
But, but providing building blocks by providing performance concentrates that our own customers can use easily, cost effectively to resolve their problems.
We think we can help them move their innovation forward, and that's what this new century is all about.
Fantastic, thank you very much.
Thank you, Lucy.
It was really great to talk to you.
