sponsored content

A question of taste: Creating fast flavour formulations for North America

In March 2020, a major bakery manufacturer approached IMCD to work on a high-priority new dairy flavouring project for their wafer cookies. This was precisely the sort of challenge that excited the Technical Flavour Specialists in the IMCD North America technical sales team.

The flavouring segment is incredibly dynamic. Customers demand an ever-increasing variety of new tastes and flavours, or increased precision and nuance of existing flavours. Recognising the opportunities that such demand creates, manufacturers are keen to provide customers with that experience and the race is on to be the first and best to do so. As a result, flavourings have grown to become a 24 billion USD per year industry.Selling flavours is also highly specialised. Flavour houses differ according to the portfolio of flavours, differentiation in volume capacities and sustainable sourcing levels. Manufacturers have strict demands too, evaluating flavours according to tonality, documentation and sustainability, as well as the distributor's ability to produce the necessary volumes and adhere to specific restrictions and regulatory compliances. 

In March 2020, a major bakery manufacturer approached IMCD to work on a high-priority new dairy flavouring project for their wafer cookies. The smaller Canadian flavour houses they traditionally worked with struggled to find the right flavour profile due to the significantly higher level of complexity involved in dairy flavours.

They were looking for a more extensive supplier capable of meeting their volume and demand. Having already invested heavily in a new plant and machinery for the new product, they needed a solution fast.This was precisely the sort of challenge that excited the Technical Flavour Specialists in the IMCD North America technical sales team. IMCD represents several best-in-class suppliers worldwide. However, the customer had strict parameters, such as the dairy flavouring had to be oil-soluble and could not use propylene glycol, commonly used as a carrier in most flavours. The customer needed a sample in two weeks, so our Technical Flavour Specialists got to work.Fast forwarding the flavour 

"We were working with a super tight timeline and the customer's R&D team was very particular in their requirements. We had to get it right on the first round of samples," explains Technical Flavor Specialist at IMCD US Food & Nutrition, Sina Vakill. "But we loved working on this project. Knowing that, with such a large brand, we would see the product on shelves everywhere made it very rewarding."

Through close collaboration with our local flavour supplier, we were able to work through our vast flavour portfolio and vet out existing flavours, so a brand new flavour did not have to be developed, allowing us to meet the tight timeline. The result was a sample that met the taste and documentation requirements, all within the strict timeline.

The results have been outstanding for all the companies involved. The customer was delighted with their sample and is set to ramp up full-scale production of their wafer cookies using our dairy flavour solution. Meanwhile, this project has demonstrated IMCD's expertise in the area. The customer had never worked with us before, but we already have a second project together in the pipeline.

Read More