Stern-Wywiol Gruppe founds Planteneers
Hydrosol, a subsidiary of Germany’s Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, which specializes in stabilizing and texturing systems, has grown to become one of the key players in the burgeoning market for plant-based alternatives.
Its product portfolio has expanded, and last year this was incorporated into the newly-founded Plant Based Competence Center. Now, Hydrosol’s unit for plant-based has become an autonomous company, Planteneers.
The new subsidiary will be led by Hydrosol managing director Dr Matthias Moser.
“We intend to continue to grow with both companies,” Torsten Wywiol, CEO of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, said.
“With that in mind, it will be important to focus on each of their strengths, and further build on them for both brands with the appropriate strategies in each case. That’s the reason we separated the plant-based field out of Hydrosol. To put it differently, our former ‘plant-based baby’ has grown up and is ready to strike out on its own. We’re bundling its capabilities in a dedicated company.”
Moser said, “The category of plant-based solutions for alternative forms of nutrition has already attained remarkable scale. But it still offers significant further growth opportunities, which we can make much better use of with a dedicated company and a focused strategy.
“Through intensive research, creative ideas and tireless pioneering spirit, at Planteneers we intend to play an active role in shaping the future of the industry. We’re definitely moving beyond just stabilizing and texturizing. At Planteneers we’re concentrating on the development of trend product concepts in the growth categories.”
The focus is on plant-based alternatives to meat, sausage and fish products, dairy products and deli foods, as well as hybrid products.
Hydrosol will continue to work in the field of stabilization and texturing of trend products for the dairy, meat and deli foods industry, as categories like free from, clean label and lean label continue to see steadily rising demand.
Spoonshot looks at food trends
Food innovation intelligence platform Spoonshot has teamed up with international Food trendologist Liz Moskow to predict and interpret the food trends that will impact menus, product development, and consumer behavior into 2021.
The result is “8 Biggest Food Trend Predictions for 2021 and Beyond," recently updated to reflect consumer behavior during COVID-19.
"Both slight and dramatic changes in society, technology, the environment, the economy and in the political landscape shape trends in consumer behavior,” Moskow, who also serves as principal at Bread & Circus, said.
“Typically, these factors shift steadily, over the course of several years, manifesting changes in how people purchase and consume food and beverage products. When COVID-19 hit, it caused and continues to drive dramatic changes in the way people view engage in purchase food and beverage. The entire trajectory of consumer behavior changed almost overnight.”
The eight predictions are:
- Sugar Rush
- Garbanzo: Good to Great
- CBD Adjacent
- Climatarians Are Coming!
- “No Bones” About It, Carob Will Make a Comeback
- Fats Forward
- Everything in Moderation (that old standby)
- Ghosting Restaurants to Ghost Kitchens
Elopak presents sustainability story at Dairy Innovation Summit 2020
Elopak’s director sustainability Marianne Groven this week addressed the Dairy Innovation Summit 2020.
Speaking on sustainable packaging innovations for the sector, her presentation was entitled ‘The Role of Packaging: Leaving your product unchanged and the planet unharmed.’
Groven shared Elopak’s sustainability story, covering the company’s achievements to date and targets for the future.
“Within the sustainability area we have already achieved quite a lot. We started with environmental reporting back in 2008 and over 10 years we saw a 70% reduction in our GHG emissions, due to for example the sourcing of renewable electricity. We have also avoided emissions due to the use of renewable PE offering… and we have also compensated for our all our company emissions since 2016,” Groven explained.
She stressed the strong focus on ethical business conduct, both internally and across the supply chain.
“Our solution has less plastic than bottles. We are based on good wood. We are low carbon. We are renewable and we are easy to recycle… This is what we call Packaging by Nature,” Groven said.
She explained why beverage cartons offer a good alternative to plastic bottles, drawing on the latest research and explaining how Elopak is working to reduce its environmental footprint further to help consumers make conscious choices.
Groven presented the findings of recent Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) looking at the environmental credentials of cartons, demonstrating how they outperform PET, including PET with recycled content. A 2018 study cited shows in the case of UHT milk, cartons result in 70.7% less CO2 emissions and in the case of fresh milk 83.6% less CO2 emissions in comparison to disposable PET bottles.
Groven stressed the role of innovation in delivering solutions for the future and helping the company to achieve further reductions in environmental impact, while maintaining food safety. She also set out some of the key trends driving the move towards more sustainable options.
“What we see is that more and more frequently consumers choose environmentally friendly packaging,” Groven stated.
She gave examples of dairies moving from plastic bottles to Elopak’s Pure-Pak carton with Natural Brown Board, such as Levmilk Dairy in Slovakia and Saaremaa Dairy in Estonia. She also gave the example of Norwegian dairy, TINE, which has moved from a white carton with a cap to a Natural Brown Board carton without a cap, resulting in a carbon footprint reduction of around 40%.
Groven also highlighted the recently launched Pure-Pak Imagine, the company’s most environmentally friendly carton to date. Available in Natural Brown Board and with no plastic closure it contains 46% less plastic than a typical carton.