Trends pushing everyday health and wellness R&D innovation
16 Oct 2017 | Valio
This is Lucy Gunn at Anuga 2017 and I'm here at the Valeo stand joined by Pavel Salminen.
Valeo is a company that has, a 110 year history and has always put a lot of, investment and time into R&D projects.
Now, Pablo, could you maybe tell us a little bit about the consumer trends that are really pushing you to innovate further within the company?
Yeah, Val has always been investing a lot into R&D and currently what we can see in the marketplace is that, that, that consumer is looking more and more for products that are good for themselves, so driven by their everyday health and wellness, and this is really what Valio is basically, trying to put a lot of effort into.
So the 120 product releases that we do yearly in our domestic markets, most of them are really driven by some sort of a Consumer health benefit.
And, some of the most important areas that we're working currently on are, first of all, success story on our protein products.
So really having a good quality protein that everyday people, basically, not your gym rats, but basically the people who, who just want to have nutritious food, the moms and pops, and we're basically targeting our protein products for that group and really delivering on taste.
And quality of protein, and then also variety of products that are suitable for their everyday usage occasions.
So whether it's boosting their other meals or just having snacking products, but again, it can be indulgence, but it can be also just everyday cooking approaches.
Another place where, where Valo is doing innovation at the moment is, is the sodium reduction.
Sodium reduction for us is, Balsa.
We worked on it for 8 years and we have now launched within the last couple of years products in our domestic markets as as our home markets around products where we've been able to cut down up to 50% of the sodium added to the product by just utilizing the natural milk minerals in these products.
Again, why it took such a long time.
It's all about.
Labor delivery, and it's all about making products that are really good for everyday use and where people can enjoy just their normal lifestyle, but then again, do something good for themselves and cut down the, the hidden sodium in, in the foods.
Another area which has been for a long time, our, our, our, our spearhead in, in, in the markets is the lactose-free.
So, Julia has been working on lactose-free products since the late 70s and really the last 20 years has been a very high growth era for us for the lactose free opportunities and we basically launched more than half of our 1120 launches a year.
Lactose-free products currently, but, recently, we have also started to work on the lactose-free solutions for, for both food service as as the ingredient clients.
And we can see a lot of growth in this free from space and also the lactose-free links to the gluten-free movement, which has already grown in several markets.
And what people and, and companies can do.
There with our ingredients, they can basically create lactose-free, unique solutions for the, for that special space in, in the retail.
And of course, this is a really great way to grow the value of not only dairy, but also bakery, also confectionery, and so forth.
So all of these industries are our clients and we're looking actively to, to get more business in that area.
Thank you very much.
Now I believe you actually have, we have a product with you today that is really kind of jumping into that flexitarian or vegetarian consumer trend.
Would you be able to speak a bit about that?
Absolutely.
So Valia launched a year ago in Finland.
Launched this product called and it is basically based on milk protein and utilizing all of our expertise basically to build a product that is friable and suitable for everyday cooking.
So basically that friable minced version that we came up a year ago.
That was a huge hit, and we became the market leader in Finland in that, and, it is great for your chili con carnes and, and all your home cooking for family, and it's been a really big hit with the kids and, and so forth, just for the fact that it, it really just works in everyday cooking and delivers on taste.
And this is our patented.
Technology and this year, we, we, we expanded the range and, just 4 weeks ago, we launched, friable strips in Finland.
So this is really something that you can do your fajitas with and just really quickly take this on the pan and, and utilize it instead of chicken or beef, and, and you can flavor it your, your own way.
And again, the, the, the whole, story behind this that we took a long time to develop.
To deliver on taste and deliver really on the functionality, and this is absolutely fantastic product.
It's been rolled out to Sweden now and it's already proving to be a big hit over there and we're looking for expansion in 2018 to other European markets with this one.
And again, this is very unique to our company and it's patented technology behind it, so we're excited to take forward this.
Excellent, so something to look out for.
Absolutely.
Thank you very much.
