The top 10 most-read food and beverage supplier stories list this year features updates on plant-based ingredients, innovative packaging, alternatives to aid with sugar reduction and much more.
Click through the gallery to see them all.
The top 10 most-read food and beverage supplier stories list this year features updates on plant-based ingredients, innovative packaging, technology to aid with sugar reduction and much more.
Click through the gallery to see them all.
Cargill launched its Radipure pea protein in January this year, with the hope of extending into various product categories across the Asian protein market, claiming this ingredient to be exceptionally flexible for usage in new product formulations as a result of its neutral flavour and high solubility.
The peas used in this product are produced in China, and the processing technology that the firm created to maximise neutral taste and high solubility was also developed locally.
“Generally, pea protein has a ‘beany’ taste when it is added to most finished product formulations, and if solubility is not high enough, there would be residue that sinks to the bottom of products such as high-protein drinks,” Cargill Texturising Solutions Managing Director and Go To Market Director for Food Ingredients Franck Monmont told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“With this new processing technology we’ve developed, we’ve solved these problems. The special tech covers areas like homogenisation and extraction, and allows the extracted protein very high solubility [so it won’t leave residue] as well as a low, neutral flavour so it is easy to formulate new finished products.
“This neutral, low taste profile is very important for product formulation, because if the protein carries any off-taste, this will need to be masked with other flavours, which carries another set of challenges."
Read the full story here.
UAE’s food and beverage manufacturer National Food Products Company (NFPC) launched its Oasis brand of drinking water in sustainable Tetra Pak carton packaging in March, the first water brand in the region to do so.
The water is available in 330mL carton packaging, and started sales in all major supermarkets from mid-March 2020, at a retail price of 1.5 AED (USD 0.41). The launch was announced at the Gulfood exhibition in Dubai.
Rodney Reynders, the cluster leader for sustainability (Greater Middle East and Africa) at Tetra Pak told FoodNavigator-Asia, “Research shows that consumers are very much aware of the impact packaging has on the environment."
"The new carton package will give consumers a choice to have a package made mainly from renewable resources, with a lower environmental impact that other types of beverage packaging.”
According to Reynders, the carton is mainly made from paperboard, a renewable material made from wood, that is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
“There are also layers of polyethylene and aluminium that protect the product from light and oxygen.”
While the packaging is not bio-degradable, it is fully recyclable.
Read the full story here.
DuPont’s food and beverage arm launched a snacking campaign in January focused on research into ASEAN consumer trends and identified seven food and beverage concepts to zoom into within this.
The campaign, dubbed ‘Snack it Right’, was spread across all countries in the South East Asian region. The value of the region’s snacking market is expected to hit US$22bn by 2023, from US$14bn in 2018.
“The campaign recognises a potential in the ASEAN market and identifies a trend that is particular to an ASEAN consumer’s eating journey in a day and their unmet needs and demands when it comes to snacking,” DuPont Food and Beverage ASEAN Sales Director Vikki Paterson told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“We also recognise the different [snacking] needs across consumer archetypes, for example, we have Millennials who are looking for a snack that can provide sensorial enhancement, versus a Mom who might be looking for a more nutritious and satiating option during the day.”
The campaign was focused on seven different food and beverage concepts based on data from DuPont’s own internal consumer research. These were: A baked cracker, a cookie with layered fillings, yoghurt coated wafers, two types of plant-based drinks, a lactose-free milk with oats and a milk coffee with fibre particulates and nata de coco.
“Our goal is to be a strategic partner with food manufacturers who are looking to capture the growing and untapped markets in ASEAN and provide consumers with products that suit their lifestyle and stage of life and to fulfil their snacking needs,” Paterson added.
“These concepts will benefit food manufacturers as they have been developed based on careful market analysis, extensive customer and consumer research and [science-based] innovation with an enriched nutritional profile, taste and texture.”
Read the full story here.
In August, alternative protein firm TerViva announced the world’s first organic and Fair for Life pongamia bean supply chain in India, with aims to tap into consumer demands for plant-based and sustainable products.
Although it is based in the United States, TerViva has opted to establish its new world-first organic and fair trade pongamia supply chain in India primarily due to the tree’s long history in the country as well as the massive potential benefits for local communities.
“Pongamia trees are indigenous and well-known to the Indian subcontinent [where they are often for land restoration] due to their resilience to flood and drought conditions, ability to sequester carbon and replenish soil health,” TerViva Founder and CEO Naveen Sikka told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“[We have now] established a network of local farmers [in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha] to provide a secure, socially responsible and transparent supply chain of pongamia beans."
Read the full story here.
Singapore-based aquaculture firm Barramundi Asia revealed plans earlier this year to complete its land-based and coastal nursery in Brunei by the end of 2020, working towards its goal of achieving 50,000 tonnes across its farms by 2030.
Last year, the firm secured land and sea leases totalling more than 6600 hectares in the waters off Brunei Darussalam. The site will farm barramundi and when completed, will have a capacity of 36,000 tonnes by 2032.
Tan Ying Quan, the firm’s senior business development manager, told FoodNavigator-Asia: “Barramundi Asia has started setting up our growing operations in Brunei and we will be developing our land-based nursery, sea nursery and grow-out farms progressively over a period of four to five years.”
He said the company’s short-term goal was to produce more than 11,000 tonnes by 2023 across its Singapore, Australia and Brunei's farming sites.
Tan told us the firm’s multiple farming sites in Australia and Singapore, coupled with sustainable farming practices can help meet the food security needs of the region.
Read the full story here.
Japanese flavours and fragrances giant Takasago International revealed a completely halal production focus for its latest factory established in Indonesia earlier this year, in a bid to strengthen its presence in the South East Asian market.
The facility is located in West Java, Indonesia, and involved US$25mn of investment to complete. According to Takasago, this was the company’s first local production factory, and its biggest investment in the country so far.
“Indonesia represents a significant opportunity for Takasago to improve its share in the Asia-Pacific region,” Takasago International (Singapore) Managing Director Andy Arguelles told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“[It is] the biggest market in the [region], and Takasago has made a significant investment [here] to enable us to further strengthen our presence in this growing market.”
According to World Population Review, Indonesia currently has the world’s largest Muslim population of some 229 million, comprising 87% of the country’s total population and 12.7% of the total global Muslim population.
In line with this, Takasago has made this new facility a 100% halal one, a move that will likely help it better assimilate to local demands and requirements.
Read the full story here.
China-based sucralose manufacturer JK Sucralose announced investment in a research institute and factory for its half-sugar project back in February, to be completed within 2020.
Half-sugar is a combination of sucralose and white sugar, that is five times sweeter than sugar. The RMB 200 million (US$30 million) investment comprised funds for research, formulation and increasing production efficiency.
The company hoped this project would help to achieve and meet the goals of the government-backed Healthy China 2030 Initiative.
“By reducing the sugar consumption of the people of China, we hope to reduce the rate of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity within China, which is currently on an uptrend. At the same time with this project, we hope to promote a healthier China while preserving the balanced sweet taste of sugar in everyone’s lives,” Alex An, CEO and founder of JK Sucralose told FoodNavigator-Asia.
The new factory is expected to increase the company’s sucralose production capacity from 1,000 to 4,000 tons per year.
Read the full story here.
Singapore healthier sugar firm Nutrition Innovation rode on consumer demand for healthier, less-refined products, especially post-COVID-19, to launch in several new markets as well as push a new commercial sugar variety earlier this year.
Along with Malaysian partner Central Sugars Refinery (CSR), Nutrition Innovation’s low-GI sugar marketed under the brand Better Brown has seen massive success in Malaysia, capturing 33% of the local brown sugar market.
Better Brown is a healthier, non-refined version of cane sugar produced using Nutrition Innovation technology to retain antioxidants and release energy into the body more slowly to prevent weight gain, obesity and corresponding health issues.
Its processing retains natural molasses and caramels, making it 10% sweeter than regular brown sugar but with more aroma and flavour, and as such consumers are also generally advised to use 10% less of this sugar, said Nutrition Innovation CEO Matthew Godfrey.
“Better Brown has managed to capture 33% or one-third of the local brown sugar segment in modern trade (hypermarkets, supermarkets) by offering a healthier version of crystalline raw sugar that is priced comparably to regular sugar – 1kg of Better Brown is RM3.80 (US$0.91), whereas regular sugar is around RM3.00 (US$0.72) per kg,” he told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“This is also due to current consumer demands for healthier, less-refined, lower-GI alternatives, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak where a lot of people were eating at home and doing home baking too."
Read the full story here.
Stevia firm SweeGen told us in September that it had set its sights on China as a major new market due to the local government’s Healthy China 2030 public health goal, which looks to significantly reduce sugar consumption in the country.
According to formal documentation on the Healthy China 2030 movement, the government aims to cut local sugar consumption by at least 17% compared to 2012 numbers – so the goal would be for Chinese consumers to be consuming not more than 25g of sugar per person by 2030, as compared to 30g previously.
“At present, China consumes approximately 15 million tons of sugar annually, [but] sugar intake is expected to decrease because of China’s ‘Healthy China 2030’ initiative,” SweeGen Vice President of Sales Luca Giannone told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“[As a result of this initiative as well as evolving consumer trends], achieving good health, wellness and weight management are on the minds of most consumers in China when choosing their snacks and beverages.
“[So] with this ongoing consumption upgrade happening among the majority of consumers in China, [we believe] more and more local CPG brands will join the global trend of sugar reduction, [calling for the need for alternatives such as stevia].
“SweeGen aims to reduce sugar and artificial sweetener [consumption], which is a major goal in the ‘Healthy China 2030’ objective - [our stevia sweeteners] can replace up to 100% of sugar, fructose or artificial sweeteners in many food and beverage applications.”
Read the full story here.
The plant-based industry in Asia faces multiple bureaucratic and policy challenges ahead, but the key to ensuring continued growth lies in ensuring products’ taste, price and nutrition are at least equal, and ideally better, than meat products, according to a panel of experts.
Even though the plant-based sector in Asia has been seeing rapid growth over the past few years and is expected by many to emerge as ‘the future of food’, there is still a long way for the industry to go before becoming mainstream – and this journey, though mainly initiated with environmental and ethical concerns in mind, will need to focus on product development to achieve significant growth.
This was agreed upon by the expert panel which convened at the Plant-Based Innovation edition of our Growth Asia 2020 series in November, which comprised of Alex Ward (Givaudan Head of Regional Innovation APAC), Michelle Lee (DuPont Asia Pacific Regional Marketing Leader), Eugene Wang (Founder of Sophie’s Kitchen), Tao Zhang (Co-founder of Dao Foods International) and Varun Deshpande (Managing Director of Good Food Institute India).
Keynote speakers for the session also included PepsiCo R&D Global External Innovation Lead Dr Tan Siow Ying and Eat JUST CEO and Co-Founder Josh Tetrick. The session was hosted by FoodNavigator-Asia and NutraIngredients-Asia Editor-in-Chief Gary Scattergood.
According to Deshpande, although in the early stages of development the plant-based sector was very environmental and ethically-driven, going beyond this stage will need stronger focus on the actual products.
“In India for example, and likely elsewhere too, the early adapter cohorts were thinking about the animals and the planet, but now we’re past that early stage and the focus needs to be on taste, price and nutrition,” he said.
“We need to appeal to the mainstream, wider consumers and the only way to do this is if the products cost the same or less and taste the same or better – otherwise, no one is going to care whether the ingredients used are plant-based or not.”
Read the full story here.
