GNT will open up an interactive “colour lab” for its plant-based EXBERRY^® concentrates at Food Ingredients Europe (Frankfurt, 28-30 November 2023).

EXBERRY® Colouring Foods are edible concentrates made from non-GMO fruit, vegetables, and plants using physical processing methods such as chopping and boiling. They are available in more than 400 shades from across the whole rainbow and can be used in all food and drink categories.

At FiE 2023, GNT (stand 3.1G140) will showcase EXBERRY® concentrates’ versatility by inviting attendees to colour their own dairy, confectionery, and non-alcoholic beverages at special application stations.

The company’s dedicated in-house experts will also be available throughout the event to provide insights and advice into how EXBERRY^® can meet consumer demand in different regions around the globe.

Petra Thiele, Managing Director at GNT Europa, said: “EXBERRY^® allows manufacturers to achieve vibrant shades in almost any application while maintaining completely clean and clear labels. Our special ‘colour lab’ will give FiE visitors the chance to experiment with the possibilities for themselves and discover the incredible potential of our plant-based concentrates.”

Based on the concept of coloring food with food, EXBERRY^® concentrates are classified as food ingredients rather than additives in the EU and many other parts of the world. They are also suitable for vegan, halal, and kosher diets.

To ensure the highest level of quality and year-round availability, GNT has a vertically integrated supply chain, with cultivation and harvesting monitored by GNT’s agricultural engineers.

Doehler, a global producer, marketer and provider of technology-driven natural ingredients, ingredient systems and integrated solutions for the food, beverage and lifescience & nutrition industry strengthens its portfolio in red fruit and vegetable ingredients and extends its market presence in the USA and Asia with the acquisition of SVZ.

Doehler, a global producer, marketer and provider of technology-driven natural ingredients, ingredient systems and integrated solutions announces the acquisition of SVZ, subject to regulatory approval. This strengthens Doehler’s portfolio of natural red fruit and vegetable ingredients and its global market presence, expanding the operations in the USA and Japan.

SVZ is known for its high-quality purees, concentrates and ingredients of sustainably sourced vegetables and red berries. With production sites in the USA, Spain, Poland and Belgium, SVZ has established a strong global presence and successfully built a base of premium customers in the food, beverage and lifescience & nutrition industry. SVZ’s experience and operational excellence perfectly complements Doehler’s sourcing, production and supply chain capabilities. With this acquisition, customers will benefit from an even broader ingredient portfolio and larger raw material base.

Consumers’ interest in healthier nutrition creates a rising demand for ingredients that offer better nutritional value and superior sensory experiences from sustainable raw materials. SVZ’s portfolio contributes to this trend by offering a variety of low-calorie, high-fiber and nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable ingredients that enhances the overall nutritional content of food and beverages. SVZ’s products seamlessly integrate with Doehler’s portfolio of natural ingredients and ingredient systems.

About SVZ
SVZ supplies high quality fruit and vegetable ingredients to food and drink manufacturers around the world. Its long heritage in agricultural supply and accredited sustainability initiatives ensure a consistent, premium quality ingredient supply. With more than 100 years’ experience in the global fruit and vegetable agribusiness, SVZ represents quality leadership throughout the whole supply chain. Headquartered in Breda, SVZ has state-of-the-art production facilities in Belgium, Poland, Spain and the US, where it has built strong partnerships with local growers to ensure fruit and vegetables are cultivated, harvested and processed to the highest standards.  Strategically positioned at the heart of the fruit and vegetable supply chain, SVZ is committed to enacting positive, sustainable change in the fruit and vegetable ingredient industry by Growing better, together.

Sponsored Post – The South Tyrolean fruit processing company VOG Products has come up with new organic products, for example Demeter-certified juices and purées. Quality is also guaranteed by the source, because the raw products originate solely from the company’s own members.

When consumers are looking for safe, monitored and healthy food, they like to buy organic products. This is also reflected in cultivation: for example, Assomela, the association of Italian apple producers, is forecasting record organic production in Italy this year – 197,402 tonnes and an increase of 4 per cent compared to 2021. The same is true for VOG Products: here, the quantities of organic raw products delivered have doubled in the last three years.

VOG Products is a trend-setter on the organic market and has continuously been expanding the organic range: along with juices, concentrates and purées, – also available in practical small-format packaging such as the “Bag-in-Box” – the South Tyrolean organisation of producers also offers organic-quality frozen fruits, cut and canned fruits.

Compliance with the highest organic quality standard is always guaranteed: following the Bioland partnership and the certification obtained last year from Bio Suisse, the largest organic organisation in Switzerland, VOG Products has recently also become Demeter-certified. Demeter is the oldest organic association in Germany, whose criteria for food processing go far beyond the requirements of the EU Regulation on Organic Farming.

Origin as an additional guarantee of safety

“Our organic range is diverse – but one thing always remains the same: every product and every package contains our expertise in the organic sector, which has grown over the years,” emphasises Christoph Tappeiner, CEO of VOG Products. “We source our organic raw materials solely from our members in South Tyrol and Trentino. With traceability back to the origin and close monitoring along the entire production chain, we meet the highest safety and quality standards, something that customers and consumers in the organic sector value greatly”, says Tappeiner.

In addition, the sun-drenched hills are an ideal location for the best organic apples. The raw materials come from within a radius of no more than 70 kilometres. The producers are organic farmers by conviction and manage the mostly small family farms close to nature and with a lot of heart. VOG Products is closely linked to the producers, especially since the fruit processing company based in Laives is owned by three organisations of producers from South Tyrol and Trentino and 18 South Tyrolean cooperatives. On this basis there are around 6,000 families of fruit growers, many of whom recognised early on the enormous potential of organic cultivation.

South Tyrol does, in fact, play a leading role in the organic sector at European level: organisations of producers based in the region and VOG Products members VIP and VOG are the largest producers of organic apples in Europe. What is significant is that almost every fourth organic apple in the EU comes from South Tyrol.

Together with its affiliate Stern Ingredients México, the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe based in Hamburg celebrated the enlargement of its production plant in Mexico City and is intensifying product development at the adjoining Technology Centre. The research facility will in future focus on dairy products, beverages and deli foods, too. The plant has two new production lines for food ingredients, and with 4,000 tonnes additional production capacity it will contribute to the group’s success in Latin America. After the facility in Malaysia, this is the second plant to be opened by the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe this year.

By placing greater emphasis on the development of applications in the field of dairy products, deli foods and soft drinks such as juices, nectars and concentrates, Stern Ingredients México, an affiliate of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, is now consolidating its position as an ingredients expert for the food industries of the Americas. The new focus of the long-established facility in Mexico will complement the already successful development of enzyme systems under the trade name SternEnzym, stabilizing systems (Hydrosol), vitamin and mineral complexes (SternVitamin) and flour and bakery applications under the brands Mühlenchemie and DeutscheBack – the latter specializing in typical regional products based on maize and wheat. Following the “custom fit” approach of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, leading food technologists develop the above functional systems for dairy products and beverages at this state-of-the-art applications laboratory. Furthermore, the owner-managed family business from Hamburg regards the generation of new information on applications at the research centre in Mexico as an opportunity to extend its technical services to North, Central and South America. It has also invested in the plant’s QM laboratory in order to conduct microbiological analyses, heavy-metal detection and a wide range of trial applications according to the latest scientific standards.

With around 100 employees and a total annual production capacity of 10,000 tonnes of food ingredients, Stern Ingredients México is the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe’s biggest plant outside Germany. On the one hand, the additional production capacity of 4,000 tonnes will help to meet Mexico’s increasing home demand, and on the other it will open up new export markets.

Döhler Group and Passina Group have reached an agreement on the acquisition of Concentra Europe BV with its Dutch and German subsidiaries by Döhler Group. The proposed transaction has now been filed with the relevant antitrust authorities and is conditional upon their approval.

This transaction marks a step where customers will benefit from a more complete offering and improved efficiency of the combined businesses in a global market that is characterised by volatility, as well as the challenges and opportunities of supply and demand. Döhler Group and Passina Group believe that this step has created a path towards further growth in the market, while simultaneously strengthening their respective positions, specifically as reliable suppliers of tropical and natural plant-based ingredients for the global food & beverage industry.

Concentra Holding AG, owner of the brand name Passina, will focus its future activities on its core business; the production and commercialisation of passion fruit products, including passion fruit juices, concentrates and derivatives. Maintaining its high quality standards, it will place additional focus on the development of innovative new products and solutions.

New IFU Recommendation (#13)

The IFU methods of analysis commission has approved a new recommendation, authored by Dr. David Hammond, on the use of DNA methods for the authenticity analysis of juices.

The juice analyst has a number of conventional methods available to check if a product has been prepared from a mixture of fruits. These include the use of HPLC for the pattern of anthocyanins in red/black juices (IFU 71, flavonoid glucosides in citrus juices (IFU 58), or generalised polyphenol screening (IFU Rec. 11). With the introduction of the 1H-NMR profiling method a few years ago this has offered another rapid and modern approach to look for mixtures of fruits.

Procedures to check for the presence of one fruit in another often target a specific component that would not normally be seen in the labelled fruit. Typical examples of this would be sorbitol (IFU 79), to check for apple and/or pear addition in a non-sorbitol containing fruit, such as strawberry or raspberry, or tartaric acid (IFU 65) for grape addition to another juice. Although these markers provide very good approaches for these specific types of addition they do not answer all questions, which means that there is still a need to develop more specific procedures for other fruits.

Nature has provided us with perhaps the ultimate marker for a particular fruit species, its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). An early and on-going major application of DNA based analysis is in criminal investigations. This was introduced around 30 years ago and has been significantly developed and improved over the intervening period.

This new recommendation gives an up to date overview of the analysis and how it can be applied to the field of authenticity.

Hydrosol now offering trend-forward concepts for fruity refreshment drinks

The market for refreshing beverages is growing around the world. The main drivers in the category are fruit juices and fruit juice drinks, which are seeing disproportionate growth. Hydrosol’s new all-in compounds let beverage manufacturers as well as dairies benefit from this growing demand. Its Stabifruit functional systems contain all the important components for making refreshing fruity drinks, and offer many advantages over concentrates.

Fruit juices and refreshing fruity drinks have a very positive image with consumers. According to research by Innova Market Insights, flavour and health benefits are the most important sales arguments from consumers’ point of view. Fruit juice manufacturers must meet increasing consumer demands while at the same time addressing various production challenges, from growing cost pressure to requirements placed on storage of concentrations, to guaranteeing the optimum product quality. There are also regulations concerning enrichment with vitamins and minerals, as well as the increasingly frequent calls to reduce sugar content, which negatively impacts the mouth feel and viscosity of drinks.

With its Stabifruit line of all-in compounds, Hydrosol offers an attractive solution. Since these functional systems are in powder form, they have high storage stability along with optimum logistics. Unlike with fruit juice concentrates, there are no expiration date issues. Water-free formulations are microbiologically safer than juices or concentrates. In addition, with no water there is less weight to transport. These are measurable cost benefits for users. In addition, these powdered products can be used by manufacturers who were previously not part of the fruit juice industry, and so do not have the specific machinery park.

Naturally the compounds are free of preservatives. They are easy to use, and with just small dosages give refreshing fruity drinks with appealing mouth feel, colour, flavour and viscosity. Individual components can be used flexibly depending on customer wishes. The fruit content is variable. Sugar content can also be reduced without impacting the quality of the beverage. Cloudiness stability is also important, i.e. keeping particles suspended in cloudy drinks. The unusual cloudiness stability of Hydrosol’s formulations has been demonstrated in scientific testing. Hydrosol’s close collaboration with its sister company SternVitamin is an advantage for customers, since it makes it possible to enrich the all-in compounds individually with vitamins and minerals. This gives manufacturers a custom beverage concept from a single source.

A wide portfolio of fruit flavours is available, including favourites like orange, peach and mango as well as special flavours like raspberry, banana and currant. That means that the new Stabifruit line of all-in compounds provides the basis for a wide range of fruit drinks whose mouth feel, colour, taste and viscosity leave nothing to be desired, while offering substantial economic, logistical and production benefits.

Company will be branded “Prodalim Italia”

Prodalim Group, one of the worlds’ biggest suppliers of raw materials and solutions in the beverage industry, announces the completion of the full acquisition of IFB srl.

IFB is a blending house located in the port of Livorno in Italy.

The company, that was founded on 1994, is a major supplier of juices, concentrates, multi fruit blends and compounds that focuses mainly in the Italian market.

In 2016, Prodalim acquired a minority stake in the company, and has now completed the full acquisition of the company.
Tsahi Berezovsky, prodalim CEO: “IFB has a great team and it is positioned perfectly to become the biggest supplier In the Italian market and its surroundings.

We are certain that by integrating IFB completely into prodalim, and leveraging on Prodalim standards, network of customers and suppliers, and our R&D capabilities, we create real synergies, that will bring great benefits to our customers in Italy and the neighbor countries.

The acquisition of IFB is a major part of our strategy to be as near as possible to our customers and to offer them the best solution in terms of service, efficient logistics and great flexibility.

Prodalim has created a “logistical triangle” stretched between Rotterdam, Valencia and Livorno, and we can reach each customer in Europe with an optimized and efficient solution.

This year our accelerated growth strategy, both organically as well as by acquisitions in Europe and North America will be a major part of our corporate focus. We will continue supplying our worldwide customers best of bread services and solutions.”

SVZ, a leading supplier of premium fruit and vegetable ingredients, is celebrating 150 years of expertise at this year’s Fi Europe. The company will be showcasing its premium portfolio of high-quality, natural fruit and vegetable purees, juices and concentrates.

SVZ’s wide range of ingredients, from raspberry and strawberry purees to spinach and carrot concentrates, is cultivated in the world’s finest growing regions for a variety of applications, from beverages and baby food to dairy products and baked goods. Visitors to the stand can sample SVZ’s natural and nutritious ingredients, either on their own or in the form of a specially-made cocktail, while accessing the agro supply chain, sustainability and applications knowledge of the SVZ experts.

An increasing number of consumers demand healthy and clean label products that are traceable too. “At FiE 2017 we will not only be discussing our passion for and dedication to premium fruit and vegetable ingredients and our long-standing sustainability credentials, but also how our portfolio and expertise can help food and beverage manufacturers today. From clean label, natural and minimally processed to healthy and reduced sugar, consumers have more demands than ever before and we are well-placed to help our customers meet these needs with innovative, natural formulations.” explains Johan Cerstiaens, Sales Director at SVZ.

SVZ, stand 08.0L50, Fi Europe, 28-30 November 2017, Frankfurt, Germany