CSM Ingredients ramps up investments in fats & oils ingredients research & innovation
CSM Ingredients is significantly increasing its efforts towards the research and innovation of the fats & oils segment as it actively invests in identifying and delivering new solutions aimed at promoting sustainability and nutritional benefits to human health.
As a way to meet this lofty ambition, the global player in the innovation and production of food tech ingredients, recently inaugurated a new Innovation Center dedicated to fats, oils and emulsifiers, in Delmenhorst, Germany.
The primary objective of the newly created hub is to deliver innovative solutions focusing on plant-based and sustainable food technologies, and also to attract leading experts in various fields to collaborate and work towards achieving this goal, ranging from specialised researchers to innovative start-ups working in the food tech sector, the company said.
CSM Ingredients’ efforts in process innovation in the production and application of fats & oils focuses primarily in three areas:
- Sustainability: increased efforts to uncover sustainable alternatives to animal products such as specialised margarines to replace dairy fat and butter or oleogels to mimic fatty tissue in vegan meat analogues. Additionally, CSM Ingredients is focusing on discovering substitutes for plant-based oils that have a significant environmental impact during production. For example, the company is exploring new methods of obtaining microbial oils, which are produced by yeast or algae and can be grown using a variety of renewable feedstocks in various conditions. Another approach to sustainability is the use of enzyme technology to replace highly energy consuming production processes and thus having a lower impact on the environment. To do this, CSM Ingredients is partnering with various start-up companies and operates innovation hubs in Germany, Israel, Singapore and the United States.
- Nutrition: considering the World Health Organization’s guidelines affirming that less than 30% of human daily calorie intake should come from fats (avoiding saturated fats) CSM Ingredients’ new fields of research are focused on finding healthier alternatives to saturated fats. In most food applications, highly saturated fats play an important role to texturise and stabilise the products. For example, they give firmness to chocolate or make butter spreadable. CSM Ingredients is looking for solutions to texturise unsaturated, but liquid oils to make food products healthier, but still deliver functionality and indulgence.
- Functionality: The products from CSM are known to deliver functionality and stability to the processes of artisanal and industrial bakery and food production. Although the company is making significant strides in replicating the tasty quality of traditional fats, but with a lower impact on the environment, and better nutritional value, the promise of functionality should not be compromised. An offering that represents both a sustainable alternative and has the potential to provide consumers with a stable and delicious product are oleogels: functional alternatives utilising healthy liquid oils that use a proteins or other components to mimic the behaviour of solid fats.
CSM Ingredients said its investments in research & innovation will support a transition towards healthier and more sustainable products in addition to becoming a “net-positive ingredient tech platform”.
The company also emphasised its main strength in innovation lies not only based on a novel innovation centre for fats oils and emulsifiers, but on a cross-functional network consisting of research centres in Goes (The Netherlands), Bingen and Delmenhorst (Germany), Fort Worth (United States), and its Hi-Food business unit in Parma (Italy).
Aldo Uva, CSM Ingredients CEO stated: “We believe our newly opened Innovation Center in Delmenhorst will serve as a centre of excellence aimed at developing a new generation of innovative food ingredient solutions that will have a positive, sustainable impact on our planet and at the same time will improve human nutrition.”
