Just in time for FIE, the Hamburg- based ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies presents a new product in its range: Cranberry Seeds from Ocean Spray.

Seeds are all the rage because they give food texture and provide valuable nutrients. The new Cranberry Seeds from Ocean Spray go one step further: with their bright red color, they are also a visual highlight, and turn every product into an eye-catcher.

The red color is one hundred percent natural and comes directly from the fruit. The seeds also provide valuable fiber and omega-3 fatty acids, and consist of 20 % plant-based protein. In this way they enhance food not just visually, but also functionally, and give it a crunchy texture.

Ocean Spray Cranberry Seeds offer a wide range of possible applications, e.g. in snacks, baked goods, muesli and granola bars, yoghurt and salad toppings, spice mixes, smoothies and drinks.

They are harvested from the flesh of ripe cranberries, from which they are separated using a physical process, and then dried to the desired degree of moisture.

The seeds are a by-product of cranberry production. By making them usable, Ocean Spray is able to utilize the entire fruit – a further step towards sustainability for the company.

The Hamburg ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies has expanded its range to include selected organic products. The new additions to its portfolio include organic cranberries from Ocean Spray. Organic is all the rage: The proportion of organic products in the range of European food manufacturers is growing steadily. German consumers appreciate this: According to a GfK survey, the share of organic food in total food expenditure in Germany rose from 3.3 percent in 2010 to 5.6 percent in 2017.

The GfK study also found that every fourth new product in 2017 in beverages and food was organic. Ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies also sees organic as a growth market, especially in the dried fruit, nuts and snacks segments – but also in beverages. The specialist for natural ingredients based on fruit and nuts recently added a few selected organic products to its range.

Organic Cranberries from Ocean Spray

Since the beginning of the year, Bösch Boden Spies has offered the cranberries of its partner Ocean Spray in an organic grade as well. They are available deep-frozen, concentrate or as dried berries. The trendy red berry provides colorful and tasty accents in organic mueslis, granola bars, drinks, ice cream, trail mixes, salad toppings and other organic snacks. Also new to the Bösch Boden Spies range: organic passionfruit ingredients from Quicornac – available as direct juice and concentrate – as well as organic tomato concentrate from Morning Star (as 28/30 or 30/32 Cold Break and Hot Break pastes).

They complement the organic ingredients that are already in Bösch Boden Spies’ existing portfolio, such as acerola from Niagro (juice concentrate, puree and frozen), Goldenberries (Cape gooseberries – from Terrafertil, dried), banana from Banalight (puree and frozen) and pineapple from Fruitlight (NFC) and blueberries from Les Bleuets (frozen).

Sustainability has long been an important aspect of corporate governance at the Hamburg-based ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies – for example in its selection of suppliers. Now the company intends to systematize and further expand its efforts. To this end, the raw materials expert has launched an inhouse sustainability initiative. Its cornerstones are membership in the ZNU (Centre for Sustainable Management) of the University of Witten/Herdecke, and the appointment of Dorota Kollien (32), Director Quality Management, as Sustainability Officer.

The Hamburg company already obtained an initial overview of its status quo in matters of sustainability in April by performing the “ZNU Sustainability Check” at company level. It evaluates existing activities and highlights potential for improvement and possible courses of action. Based on these findings, all business processes across the entire value chain will now be reviewed in detail in the months ahead, and optimized and systematized with a view to a more sustainable business management. The aim is to identify areas with optimisation potential and to stimulate a continuous improvement process there, also in dialog with customers, suppliers and service providers. As a trading agency, Bösch Boden Spies wishes to take responsibility and contribute to a more sustainable handling of social, economic and ecological issues.

This initiative is being managed and driven forward by Sustainability Officer Dorota Kollien in close coordination with Managing Director Dirk Schmidt, who oversees this area within the company. Kollien, who heads the Quality Management department at Bösch Boden Spies, is currently undergoing training at ZNU to become certified as a sustainability manager.

Approximately 60 companies in the German food industry are members of the ZNU sustainability network. Bösch Boden Spies joined the network in May 2018.

bolasco and Bösch Boden Spies to do business under single brand from now on

The Hamburg-based food ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies is repositioning itself: as of today, its innovation subsidiary bolasco will be completely incorporated into Bösch Boden Spies GmbH & Co. KG, and all services delivered by bolasco Import GmbH will be managed by Bösch Boden Spies Import GmbH. All bolasco employees are part of the Bösch Boden Spies team and will contribute their “functional fruit solutions” expertise to the 360° approach of the fruit ingredients supplier’s portfolio of products and services. For the Hamburg-based company, the integration represents an important step towards providing its services to business partners and customers in a bundled – and thus improved – way.

Holistic approach, efficient processes, and innovative ideas

By integrating the subsidiary, which was founded ten years ago, Bösch Boden Spies GmbH & Co. KG can now provide one-stop service for its traditional business with natural fruit ingredients, the marketing of their functional advantages, and the development of innovative applications. This integrative approach makes for an even more attractive offering and highly efficient processes. The in-house ideas incubator, the Ingredient Technology Center (ITC), analyzes the worldwide markets in coordination with the Business Development department – always with the needs of consumers and manufacturers in mind – to identify trends at an early stage and develop pioneering product ideas. With this approach and its extensive expertise, the company is positioning itself as one of Europe’s leading import and service agencies for food ingredients.

Six business units

From now on, all of the company’s more than 100 employees are part of one of Bösch Boden Spies’s business units: Development, Quality, Sales, Import, Finance and Logistics. With this set-up, which besides providing a clear structure enables smooth workflows and the shortest possible communication paths, the long-established company does justice to its transformation into a full-service agency.