Fi Europe opens its doors
Thousands of visitors flocked to France’s Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre yesterday as Food ingredients Europe 2015 opened its doors.
With more than 1,400 international exhibitors showcasing ingredients, innovations and solutions in food and natural ingredients, packaging and processing over three days, there’s plenty to see.
With a focus on healthy indulgence possibilities, Beneo is demonstrating how its ingredients can be used to create indulgent products with improved nutritional profiles and no loss of taste, creaminess, body or mouthfeel.
Beneo’s Dominique Speleers says, “There has never been a better time to start thinking about reformulating existing products or creating new ones for consumers aiming to successfully manage their weight.” In keeping with this, product concepts on display in Paris include a low glycaemic chocolate mousse with the company’s sugar Palatinose (isomaltulose) and cookies with fat reduced chocolate filling that uses its rice starch Remy DR.
Univar Food Ingredients is also showing manufacturers how they can respond to the latest consumer trends – such as sugar and salt reduction, gluten-free positioning and protein enrichment – with various food and drink samples available on its stand.
Gluten-free concepts include a chocolate muffin using the Precisa Bake GF texturising system and Homecraft pulse for added protein content; as well as a high fibre banana and pecan cake featuring Hi-Maize starch. In addition, the ‘Univar Colada’ is a particular highlight of the stand. Delivering a twist on the famous cocktail, with pineapple, coconut and optional rum, Univar’s version contains added whey protein isolate and amino acids, demonstrating how extensively protein ingredients can be applied.
Ashland Specialty Ingredients is another exhibitor focusing on the rise of gluten-free foods at the show, revealing how its Benecel HPMC hydrocolloid can improve the volume, softness and crumb structure of gluten-free products.
“Rapidly growing demand in Europe and throughout the world is giving rise to new opportunities to use highly functional hydrocolloids to improve the eating experience for all consumers of gluten-free baked goods,” explains the company’s Maxine Weber.
Elsewhere at the show, Solvay is debuting its Vanifolia and Vanifolia Bean natural flavour brands in addition to its broadened Govanil functional flavour range.
Tapping into another of this year’s major trends – that of ‘naturalness’ – Solvay’s Jean-Pierre Cuif comments, “We are taking another big step ahead in the value chain of fully natural flavours in line with natural consumer trends and natural labeling regulations.”
With a vanilla taste, Vanifolia provides organoleptic and functional benefits to bakery, confectionery and instant powder drink applications. The new Vanifolia Bean experience combines the qualities of Vanifolia with the added benefit of a natural flavour based on genuine vanilla bean extract.
If you’re at the show, please take a moment to visit Food & Drink Technology – alongside our sister titles Confectionery Production and Dairy Industries International – on stand 7N106A. Please also return to our website tomorrow for a round up of day two’s highlights.
