Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2007 - 19

Food Ingredient Solutions

Organics overflow
Availability of organic ingredients continues to grow, yet food processors
should be aware of supply issues, certification and regulations.

rganics is a cottage industry
that has grown up fast, said
Keith Parle, director of functional foods sales and strategic development, Kerry Sweet Ingredients,
New Century, Kas. Sourcing ingredients has constrained the growth of organic products, he added.
"It would be accurate to say there
would be more organic foods on
the market if there were both availability of specific raw materials, and
once they are available a larger supply base of those raw materials," Mr.
Parle said.
Sourcing new raw materials sometimes may be a labyrinth because
there is no list of organic raw material suppliers.
"And frankly that list would probably be outdated in a couple of months
because the market is moving quickly," Mr. Parle added. "So you have to
have some sort of network or a support group, and that comes with some
tenure in the business."
Handling availability issues
The first thing a food processor
should ask organic ingredients suppliers about is availability.
"Organic materials are typically in
short supply, and if you are going to
develop a product that includes an organic raw material, you want to make
sure that it is available," said Cynthia Sasaki, senior research manager
at Kerry Savory Ingredients, Kent,
Wash. "If you end up going commercial with it, you need to know what
the growing seasons are, so that you
don't develop something that you already missed the time period as far as
contracting raw materials."
For the most part, there is greater
availability of organic ingredients
today than in the past, said Kate
Leavitt, director of international
sales and marketing, SunOpta Food
Group, Minnetonka, Minn. However,
shortages of certain ingredient lines
are still going to occur, and availability may be hampered by weather or
spikes in demand, she said.
Brian Sethness, sales, Sethness
Products Co., Lincolnwood, Ill., said

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the company is limited by its raw
material providers.
"There is only one supplier from
which we can get raw material to
manufacture a sufficient supply of organic caramel color," he added.
The company is not only limited
by the raw material available but also
by the processing methods it uses to
make the ingredients.
"Unfortunately, there are so many
limitations on the organic that we
can't make a wide spectrum of organic
caramel colors," he said.
While Sethness Products makes
more than 50 different liquid and 20
different powdered caramel colors for
traditional foods, it has only two liquid
and one powdered organic products.

In addition to learning about availability, the baker or snack manufacturer should ask to see the organic certification for an ingredient, said William
Fenske, vice-president of research
and development for SunOpta. The
processor should know everything
about how the supplier handles its
organic materials.
"You want to understand where
they are getting their supply and to
understand their supply chain," he
said. "Are they buying it from someone else, or do they have total control over the product from when it is
grown through processing?"
Food manufacturers also have to realize certain processes are not allowed
for organic foods, such as using ion

KERRY GROUP

ᮡ Food manufacturers might offer a product such as this organic crisp granola bar, made
with organic high-protein soy crisps, organic extruded soy protein, and organic caramel, then drizzled with an organic apple compound coating.
Milling & Baking News

August 28, 2007 / 19

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2007

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