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“Meat extract with real meat is revolutionary”
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Monday, 04 June, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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 Established in 1995, PT Foodex Inti Ingredients is one of the leading manufacturers of food seasoning and food ingredients in Indonesia. With its vast product portfolio, the company aims to be a reliable partner for various industries such as noodles, snacks, and processed meat industry. Currently, the company provides food ingredient solutions to six product categories i.e., seasonings, meat extracts, flavour ingredients, functional ingredients, sauce & condiments and ready-to-eat products. The production process of the company is according to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Halal Assurance System by the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI). The company, an exhibitor at Fi Asia, Indonesia (Oct 3-5, 2018), will be displaying its old and new offerings like snacks range, sweet seasoning, drink range, sauces and paste, savoury seasoning, premix seasoning and lot more. Richard Kusuma, sales director, PT Foodex Inti Ingredients, in an email interaction with Harcha Bhaskar, talks about innovation taking place in food ingredients industry and growing demand in the food service sector. Excerpts:
What are the innovations taking place in your company? When will your new products be out?
At Foodex, we are currently focussing on value addition of mother crop products such as garlic, onion and chilli. Our vision is to make sure that these flavour ingredients are consistent in terms of organoleptic, price and quantity supplied to our customers.
We are going to launch this product at Fi Asia in October 2018.
Tell us about the company infrastructure. From where the machines are brought, what are their types and capacity?
At Foodex, we have three focussed pillars to support the daily operations. They are sales, R&D and manufacturing departments. We bought our machines from multiple sources - Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia. We have our technical personnel who can customise the machines to support our operations.
We currently have meat extraction machines, retort, and various dryers - microwave, vacuum dry and spray dry. We also have roaster, grinder and siever for customisation of flavour ingredients. At the end, we have blending machines with various capacities to mix those ingredients.
What is your product portfolio? Who is your target audience?
We have natural extraction for meat products i.e., beef, chicken or seafood.
Also, we have unique flavour ingredients garlic, onion and chilli that we roast and toast naturally.
Lastly we have seasoning with Indonesian and international taste and retort ready-to-eat meal solution.
We are currently supplying to noodles, snacks, meat processing and food service industry.
From where are the raw materials procured? Is the company into contract farming?
We are currently procured globally as long as they are Halal vendor. Our vision for the next several years would be to utilise local Indonesian products and our South-East Asia neighbouring countries. When needed we can co-develop with our vendors whether they are local / from overseas.
How has food ingredients sector evolved over the years? What are the trends noticed by you?
Food ingredients grew bigger and more specific per customer’s segment. Now, most of our customers are focussing to a more natural solution. They would like to buy food ingredients just like what they use at home. Meaning, more natural, less additives / preservatives, less salt / sugar.
What are your views on Indonesia’s food safety law?
Food safety in Indonesia is very different than other surrounding countries. There are safety regulations that are strictly forbidden in Indonesia, but other countries still can tolerate. Take food colouring, for example: yellow / tartrazine – In Indonesia, tartrazine is banned, because of its suspected negative impact on health.
So to protect the consumers, it’s prohibited for snacks company to use tartrazine in their products.
Tell us about novel/revolutionary ingredients in the market.
From our observation, meat extract with real meat is truly revolutionary. Back in the days, many flavour house / ingredient houses were using soy or yeast to create beef, chicken or seafood. They just add top note, so it will smell just like the meat products.
Now with meat extract technology, meat ingredients are truly extracted from real meat source. To create boil / grill / fry note – we do not depend on top note; but we can use different types of drying such as microwave / vacuum dry or spray dry.
Tell us about supply of your products.
We currently supply to multiple segments, i.e., noodles, snacks, meat processing and international food chains.
What are the customer-centric products made by you?
At Foodex, we give our customers’ ability to customise and request products that suit their profile need. From there, we will make the effort to create a product that is suitable to their palate and taste. We will work with customer’s speed and to achieve their target launching date.
How much is technology playing role in development of food ingredients market?
Technology plays the biggest role in our food ingredients market. We equipped our R&D with the latest food trend and technology.
Which sub-segment in food has more demand for flavours?
Food service has the highest demand for food flavours. Specially with their LTO – Limited Time Offer taste which usually launched only for three months. Here our R&D and marketing capability are being tested so our client can have a rolling innovative menu every quarter.
Natural Vs Synthetic. How safe it is for production, application, and consumption?
We believe that natural product will be preferred option for customers in the next 5-10 years due to health reasons. In the past, Indonesia focussed mostly on price with acceptable taste - hence preference towards synthetic ingredients by food manufacturer. With rising economy, customers are more aware and conscious on what is listed in the label.
Working with natural products has its own challenges especially in terms of consistency in application and this is where we as manufacturer could add value - for example, transforming natural products into easy-to-use powder form whilst maintain the flavour profile.
Are you into export? If yes, to which country and what products?
We are currently exporting to the Middle-East, Africa, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and we would like to focus on India, Vietnam, and the Philippines. We currently export our seasonings, natural extract, and several flavour ingredients products.
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