Diana Food (part of the Symrise Group), a leader in natural ingredients for Food & Beverages, announces that the company has organized and instituted on June 24 a new training session specifically for farmers located in the French Alps who supply fruits for baby food.
The program, which focuses on best practices for soil biodiversity, is designed to improve the quality and yield of the key crops used in baby foods.
Many farmers follow traditional agronomy practices passed down from previous generations, with limited awareness of how a deeper understanding of the nature of their soil can improve output. With this training, Diana Food agronomists are able to show farmers the role soil plays in producing fruits and vegetables that capture all the inherent goodness of their terroir. By combining this new technical knowledge with the farmers’ traditional methods, yield quality is very high.
According to Aurélie Pellé, Global Fruit Product Line Director at Diana Food, “Consumers are looking for products for their babies that are as close as possible to homemade. They want baby foods that are natural, clean, and simple with no added flavours, colours, or preservatives. This is why agronomy is so important to the category. Growing the best, cleanest fruits and vegetables allows minimal processing and an end product that is very close to what nature intended.”
Diana Food offers a large range of baby food ingredients that support the specific nutritional needs of children in the age groups of 6 months to 3 years, beginning with the introduction of solid foods into the diet. Fruit product streams include banana, apple, and strawberry; vegetable streams include carrot, tomato, and spinach. Diana Food production sites are FSC 22000 certified, which enables the company to provide ingredients that meet the health and safety standards this category demands: very low levels of contaminants, low microbiology levels, and low levels of chemical contaminants and foreign bodies.
Consumer demand for organic ingredients is extremely high in the baby food category, with organic products more prevalent in the market than any other category. The Diana Food Baby Food portfolio meets this demand, with organic certification compliant with the European, American and Chinese markets.
Excellence in agronomy is at the foundation of Diana Food’s value proposition. Thanks to the company’s historical know-how, expertise and global network of agronomic experts, Diana Food is able to select the best varieties and the best growing conditions in order to maximize the potential of the species. With proximity to farmers and producers, Diana Food agronomists are fully involved in the cultivation cycle, guaranteeing traceability, transparency, and sustainability of agricultural practices. This expertise and experience from farm to fark makes Diana Food a trusted partner for developing wining solutions for Baby Food manufacturers.