The mixture does it
What do chips have in common with Sunday roast? Hardly anyone knows the answer better than the food industry experts of Hügli: The right seasoning is what counts. And so they find individual solutions for every taste issue. Their customers now also include sister divisions of the Bell Food Group.
Whether dry or liquid, whether mixture or single ingredient – the Hügli food industry division supplies its customers with a wide range of spicy products. “Compounds” is the technical term for the food components that are used everywhere in the food industry. The so called “snack seasonings”, which for example refine chips or nuts with a wide variety of flavours, are currently very much in vogue. And seasonings for meat products are also among the segments with promising growth potential.
Often, the Hügli team puts already defined desired products into action. For a successful result it is very important to know the customers and their circumstances exactly. The plant on which the end product is produced or whether it is subsequently deep-frozen or heated, can significantly influence the taste.
In addition the food industry division also focuses on the marketing of its own product ideas. “For some time now, we have been increasingly developing trend-oriented concepts on our own initiative”, reports Daliborka Dragojevic, Marketing Manager Food Industry at Hügli. “We are very close to current market trends, such as conscious eating or exotic flavours.”
cialists are currently dealing with are reducing salt and sugar and replacing palm fat with other fats. “The new EU Organic Regulation, which will enter into force in 2021, also presents challenges for us with its stricter requirements for raw materials, for example for various flavour categories and yeast extracts, as well as with is regulations an food contamination. Certain ingredients that are approved as EU organic today may no longer comply with the new rule. Our colleagues from the development and purchasing department are therefore extremely challenged to find adequate alternatives”, explains Daliborka Dragojevic.
How innovative the division works was demonstrated, for example, this June at the “Snackex” in Barcelona: In addition to chips and nuts, pellets from mealworm flour were also used as carrier material for the Hügli spice mixtures. Besides astonished faces of the fair visitors the booth team also received a lot of positive feedback.
For the production of powders, pastes and liquids Hügli has the most modern mixing plant in Europe. In the 40,000 square metre facility in Radolfzell, twelve outdoor and thirty indoor silos hold the most frequently used raw materials. The mixture of the particular recipes are made by an automated process. The factory can realise a sample batch as well as the production of several wagonloads of a product. In supplying its food industry customers, Hügli benefits from two key advantages over many competitors: The company itself is a user of many types of nutritional components and is also in close contact with a large number of food service customers. Based on this wealth of experience, the experts can constantly improve existing products as well as develop new innovations on demand.
And they are nowdoing the same for companies of the Bell Food Group. For example, Hügli produces dressings for Eisberg and Hilcona or seasonings for meat products of Bell. This group-internal cooperation has already replaced a number of third-party suppliers. Again the team has found individual solutions such as a stick package for dressings in salad boxes or the seasoning mixture packaged exactly for one batch of meat production. However, the synergy effects are far from exhausted. And there are already further cooperation projects to work on intensively.
