Ingredient innovation with consumers
and our customers in mind
Ingredient Functionality
Ingredient functionality, for us, is all about understanding what our ingredients add to the food matrix, in terms of their physical and chemical functionalities. Agricultural products, by definition, are natural and will always have a slight degree of variance. Origin and growth process combined with post-harvest processing will help determine the functionality of our raw materials and our ingredients. Knowing that, we think alongside our customers about how they can best incorporate our ingredients in their end-applications and help them make their ideas and ambitions for new products real.
Natural & Clean Label
Winning the battle for market share starts with meeting our customer’s needs for great tasting, great looking products with an optimal mouthfeel. But great taste, snap and bite, with an appealing product color, do not always match the increasing consumer desire for fewer additives in their food products. This is why we are always looking for opportunities to develop natural ingredients without the use of additives to suit clean label applications. Our nut ingredients deliver incredible texture, taste and nutrition without any complex artificial ingredients.
Several natural ingredients across our portfolio can help you recover missing elements like color and flavor. Take our spices – they can help formulators create a realistic, meat-like color in plant-based alternatives, all while maintaining a clean-label and adding to the overall flavor profile. And then there is cocoa. Cocoa powder can be used as a coloring agent in vegetarian/vegan products: deZaan Fresco Cacao F11FR is a non-bitter, mild cocoa powder that can be used to create fresh chocolate plant-based yogurts.
Another example is the development of our “TrueDark” cocoa powder, whilst staying away from color enhancing additives. And there is more. How we do it? If you work with us, we will share our darkest secrets!
Health, Nutrition & Wellbeing Benefits
Across our portfolio, health and nutrition benefits – both long-standing and emerging – are a common denominator. The nutritional value of our nuts, the macro and micronutrients of dairy, the theobromine and antioxidants in cocoa and the health associations of many spices really form a wealth of opportunities for our customers. We are always looking to see how these benefits can be protected and enhanced during the manufacturing process, whilst still tasting great.
Valorization & Upcycling
With the world’s resources under pressure, we seek to get everything we can from our raw materials. Not only to create value for our farmers, but also to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. This often uncovers new and exciting opportunities. Our sweet and fruity cascara for instance, was developed out of coffee husks, which is the skin and pulp of the coffee cherry fruit. The ingredient is now used for beverage infusions and concentrates across multiple applications to meet the growing trend for healthy indulgence.
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ofi Employee Spotlight: Horacio Bueno and Shannon Arballo, North America
Intro: Internships are often a rewarding and eye-opening experience for new grads. They offer real-life opportunities for you to find out what you would enjoy spending your career doing, outside of just reading about it in a textbook.
Sometimes it shows you maybe the career path you’ve been considering isn’t for you. Luckily that was not the case for two interns at ofi, Shannon Arballo and Horacio Bueno.
Your full name: Shannon Arballo
Your city and state: Fresno, CA
Your job title: Food Scientist
Your functional area (i.e. Finance): Innovation
Q: How long have you been at ofi? (years): 4 years
Your full name: Horacio Bueno
Your city and state: Fresno, CA
Your job title: HRIS Manager
Your functional area (i.e. Finance): HRc
Q: How long have you been at ofi? (years): 6 years
ofi's Carbon Scenario Planner wins prestigious Food Ingredients Europe Award
ofi’s Carbon Scenario Planner (CSP), a new digital tool developed to help food and beverage manufacturers model the impact of different scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas emissions has won the 2023 Sustainability Innovation Award at Food Ingredients Europe in Frankfurt. This is the second year in a row that ofi has been awarded this prestigious recognition, following last year’s award for its Cocoa COMPASS sustainability strategy.
The CSP allows ofi to model the outcome of different decarbonization interventions tailored to local contexts, so it can work with its customers to plan and cost out climate actions. It helps ofi's customers tackle the complex and challenging issue of Scope 3 emissions which occur in a company’s value chain and make up the bulk of the food and beverage industry’s carbon footprint.
Dr Christopher Stewart, Global Head of Sustainability at ofi, said: “We're delighted that Food Ingredients Europe has chosen to recognize the progress we’ve made. For our customers, knowing where carbon emissions are coming from in their supply chains is critical to understanding how to reduce them cost-effectively, and meet science-based climate targets. The Carbon Scenario Planner translates ideas into detailed, robustly modelled scenarios that can deliver long-term greenhouse gas reductions.”
The tool is embedded into ofi’s sustainability management system AtSource, which provides customers with data and insights for use in reporting their environmental, social, and economic impacts. ofi recently used the tool with a global coffee company to whom it supplies Guatemalan coffee beans. It modelled a 32% carbon reduction scenario to help support the customer’s climate commitments, identifying three impactful scenarios: using training for farmers to help them upcycle coffee waste, replacing chemical fertilizer with organic, and providing farmers with semi-mechanized tools to improve yields.
Cultivating the next generation of process engineers
For over a decade, ofi has developed the next generation of process engineers and technical excellence in the Netherlands in partnership with Food & Process Tech Campus of Regio College in Zaandam. Tijmen Hoeve, ofi's Training Coordinator, shares three reasons why we invest in internships and how they add value to our operations and the wider society:
Developing in-demand skills
It all started with a skills gap in the industry. In the Netherlands, we have a shortage of technical skilled occupations such as engineers, ICT, and technicians, and the Covid pandemic hasn't helped the situation either. European Commission reported that in 2022, there is still a shortage of engineers. And to highlight the labor issues on the continent, it announced 2023 as the European Year of Skills.
This challenge also requires long-term support and investment to make a difference. The internship ofi offers, which has been running since 2012, is connected to the Food & Process Tech Campus program. The four-year course, aimed at 17-21year olds, gives students a mix of theory and practical experiences in a real-life setting. Over four years, students can apply their technical understanding in our facilities in Koog aan de Zaan or Wormer.
Investing in the future
Equipping students with the right skills to enter the workforce is a way to help future-proof the industry. Since 2012, ofi has given 5,000 euros annually to the college, which has helped to fund its practical room and the necessary safety equipment and contributed towards the teacher's salary. In some cases, we've even employed some students who have come through the program. It's a great way to develop talent that deeply understands your business.
Giving back to the community
I started my career in the food industry, working in various roles in food engineering. After 12 years of food tech, I channeled my passion into training the next generation of process engineers. Teaching is in my blood. My grandfather was a headmaster, and my father was a teacher, as is my brother, so I felt like a natural next step in my career.
When I moved into education, I helped develop the curriculum for the Food & Process Tech Campus course and have previously worked at the college itself, so I have a strong understanding of what the students need to be successful in the course and to transition into the industry. I'm proud we support a local college, within walking distance of our facility in Koog aan de Zaan. Hear from Zlatan what it's like to be an intern at ofi.
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