First day at Food Ingredients

The first day at Food Ingredients Europe in Paris yielded everything from cheese ripening packages, to fermented milk powders on a busy floor. DSM’s Pack-Age is used for cheese ripening in the package, and offers higher yields due to less rind loss, the company says. Unlike traditional plastic packaging, the membrane lets the cheese breathe. Meanwhile, the firm is also working on sugar reduction systems, using combinations of stevia and enzymes.

Over at EPI, the firm’s yogurt powders were on display, and frozen yogurt was being offered. Kevin Laulos notes that fermented powders are not available from every powder producer, thus making it an uncommon product in the industry. It can be used across a variety of formats, from bakery fillings to infant nutrition. The bacteria contained in the products are useful for the growing trend for gut health as well.

Palsgaard is continuing to work on its combinations of emulsifiers and stabilisers for solving problems within the industry, according to Mette Dal Steffenson. One recent solution is for reducing the sediment in chocolate milk, particularly calcium-enriched milk. “It is a growing market and we’re doing a lot of research,” she notes. In ice cream, the firm has developed a couple of videos to showcase how the stabilisers can be used to offset the heat shock that ice creams go through on their way from manufacturer, to store, to consumer. “The Tale of Fredo” shows customers in a humourous way how heat shock affects products.

At SVZ, the vegetable aspect of its portfolio was on show with the company noting that yogurt and ice cream are becoming end uses for vegetable flavours. The customers started with cucumber and rhubarb, and are now moving on to spinach and beetroot, it says. “It can be a stealth approach to getting vegetables into children or people who don’t like them,” notes a representative from SVZ. “Vegetables also offer as clean a label as possible.”

Wednesday promises to be busier as more people arrive for the show.