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“Growing focus on functionality & taste while maximising profitability”
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Monday, 13 November, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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 Tate & Lyle is a world leader in ingredient solutions for healthier food and beverages. The company partners with customers to provide healthier and tastier choices of food and drink. It specialises in sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification, as well as developing solutions which reduce sugar, calories and fat, add fibre and protein, and provide texture and stability in beverages, dairy, bakery, soups, sauces and dressings. Recently it unveiled the launch of a new formulation initiative called 'Challenge Accepted'. The initiative invites food and beverage manufacturers to submit their most complex product formulation challenges to be addressed by the company’s technical team at Gulfood Manufacturing 2023. Hussam Yaccoub, vice president - sales for Turkey, Middle East, Africa at Tate & Lyle, shares his views on the food and beverage industry, sustainable living, consumer trends, and more, in an email interaction with Kimberley Almeida. Excerpts:
The food and beverage industry has changed over the past few years. Comment.
The food and beverage industry has undergone significant changes in recent years. Consumer preferences and global trends have evolved, with research suggesting that, globally, consumers tend to agree that taste is the most important consideration when choosing what to eat and drink.
Consumers expect more and more from their food, too. The most notable shift has been towards healthier and more sustainable products, with increased demand for plant-based and clean-label ingredients. In turn, food and beverage manufacturers have a growing focus on solutions that deliver on functionality and taste while maximising profitability.
At Tate & Lyle, we sit between food and drink companies and consumers, so we know that we need to have the answers to the challenges and demands of both parties. For consumers, it requires us to have the latest research techniques to stay tuned to what consumers want now and might demand in the future. For our customers, we have to be proactive in partnering with them to navigate the challenges they face with formulating the foods of the future,to provide the right solutions and to help them anticipate and create products that align with consumer preferences.
What types of ingredient solutions has the company created that support healthier and more sustainable living?
All our ingredients and solutions promote healthier and more sustainable living. Our core solutions focus on sugar and calorie reduction, enhancing mouthfeel and texture for sensory enrichment, and fortifying products with fibre, which enable us to cater to consumer demand for healthier and more sustainable products.
Our leaf-based stevia solution is an excellent example of this in practice. In addition to reducing the sugar and calorie content of products, we are committed to achieving our purpose by focusing on the sustainability of the stevia supply chain. For instance, through our sustainable agriculture pilot programme in China, we support efforts to lower the environmental impact of stevia farming by helping farmers to optimising fertiliser use, and guiding application timing and volume. In addition, we are supporting grower education and engagement to improve understanding of soil health through testing.
These efforts, alongside our sustainable corn programme in the US, aim to enable improved land management practices and develop farming practices to support sustainable farmland, maintaining carbon-rich soil for healthier crops and decreased environmental impact.
Tell us about the company's innovative ingredients solutions that add taste, mouthfeel, nutrition, and functionality to a wide range of food and beverages.
Whether it's improving the sweetness of sugar-reduced cake, enhancing the texture of cheese, or fortifying a yoghurt beverage with essential nutrients, we use science and technology to develop innovative ingredients and solutions to help customers to add taste, mouthfeel, nutrition, and functionality to a wide range of foods and beverages.
For instance, we work with customers all over the world to use our low and no-calorie sweeteners to help remove millions of tonne of sugar from people’s diets, add gut-friendly fibres that provide health benefits, use texturants to create smooth, creamy, indulgent-tasting desserts like ice cream, and stabilise foods to keep every mouthful delicious.
What are the challenges faced by the company in this highly competitive industry?
The main competitive challenge we face in our industry is something we at Tate & Lyle view as an opportunity: staying at the forefront of innovation to meet rapidly changing consumer preferences.
We have a tremendous team of food scientists and technical experts working in our state-of-the-art customer innovation centres in the Middle East and Africa region. This high-tech set-up gives us our leading competitive edge in our ability to predict, navigate and lead in responding to ever-changing consumer trends - for our business and our customers.
The regulatory landscape for the food and beverage industry is also constantly changing, particularly related to health and the environment. So, we must navigate it for our business and customers to help them ensure their products meet the latest policies and requirements. Additionally, adapting to global economic circumstances, market-specific shifts and supply chain dynamics are ongoing challenges we proactively address to maintain our leadership position in the industry.
What are the company's long-term goals for sustainability?
The climate crisis continues to be society’s most significant long-term challenge. As a purpose-led organisation, we are working to achieve ambitious environmental targets, including significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions in our global manufacturing network and supply chain, with a commitment to be carbon net zero by 2050.
Our industry is at an inflection point, and the reality is that we all need to do things differently. We also recognise that businesses across the food industry can’t drive change at the necessary scale or speed by working alone, so innovative partnerships are essential to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
At Tate & Lyle, we have identified that supporting sustainable agriculture is the main way we can have a positive impact, so we established farmer outreach programmes for two of our key agricultural raw materials, corn and stevia. By partnering with farmers and expert bodies to take a science and data-focused approach, we’re helping them to secure a sustainable future for their businesses and communities while meeting customer and consumer demand for responsibly sourced ingredients.
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