Ingredients Insight Awards 2013
1 November 2013Welcome to the launch of the Ingredients Insight Awards. We are seeking to honour the food industry’s peers, colleagues and competitors, as well as our core readers and panel members. The candidates have been shortlisted by Canadean Ingredients’ expert research teams, and industry professionals have participated by casting their votes across the following four categories. Congratulations to this year’s winners.
SUPPLY CHAIN CONTROL AWARD
Elderberry extract - BerryPharma
BerryPharma sources its elderberry supply from more than 1,000 growers in the Steiermark region of eastern Austria. The growers are members of a cooperative that has its own cold store where traceability records are maintained, and the fruit is sorted and snap frozen. Up to 8,000t are processed each year.
The Haschberg fruit supplied from the Steiermark region contains three times the polyphenol content of other varieties. This commercial-scale cultivation of former wild-picked berries ensures a high level of quality control for varieties supplied to B2B partners developing health-active consumer products, and builds confidence in the supply chain.
CLEAN LABEL AWARD
Natural emulsifiers - Naturex's apple pectin
Naturex's apple pectins are apple-derived polysaccharide fibres and have excellent emulsifying properties. Instead of modifed compounds, natural pectins come in many formulations where clean-label status is desirable, such as dairy products, shakes, snack bars and desserts.
Naturex also claims that the consumption of pectins aids the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol concentrations, providing that 10g is consumed per meal, which rarely occurs when they are used as an emulsifier.
INVENTORS AWARD
Jacques Mazoyer - Cargill
Jacques Mazoyer is responsible for process and product development within Cargill's texturising solutions business. He leads a team of scientists dedicated to laboratory-based innovation, and the production and development of hydrocolloids.
Mazoyer has promoted innovation in various areas including raw materials, processing, product development and polysaccharide functionalities. He also created a new polysaccharide granulation process in which granulation water is slowly added in the form of ice to create a binding agent. He has discovered specific emulsifying properties of depolymerised pectin that are useful for producing soda and also for encapsulation with cyclodextrin. In addition, Mazoyer has promoted the idea of grafting protein onto pectin, leading to new and interesting emulsifiers, and has strongly contributed to the development of functional fibres from citrus.
Mazoyer has also been involved in a wide variety of process-improvement projects with the aim of producing ingredients from natural sources.
CONSUMER AWARENESS AWARD
Truvia - Cargill
Cargill's Truvia stevia is a great-tasting, zero-calorie sweetener that helps create the taste customers love. It is derived from a natural source, the best-tasting part of the stevia leaf, and backed by over 85,000 hours of food and applications research, as well as an expertly managed supply chain.
The Truvia business has three pillars that support its customer offering: sustainability, market and consumer insights, and expertise.
Cargill's Truvia business was the first to develop and implement a sustainable agricultural standard for stevia, based on agricultural regulation used for other types of crops. This comprehensive standard addresses everything from farmer safety and cultivation techniques to biodiversity preservation.
Understanding consumer attitudes and behaviours is also key. As a result of extensive research, Cargill has developed a set of proprietary tools to help its food and beverage customers to better understand consumer attitudes and behaviours around sweetness. Its unique insights into sweetness led Cargill to create a successful global brand of tabletop stevia - Truvia natural sweetener.
