The Univar Food Ingredients team is taking a more conceptual approach at Fi Europe 2015 by providing visitors with a taste of success with samples of real ingredients from three of their key supplier partners.
During the biennial FiE show in Paris from Dec 1–3, Univar will be exhibiting at stand 6D9 and serving up food and drinks featuring specialty, innovative ingredients from
- Ingredion, a leading global producer of specialty starches that are used in an extensive range of food and beverage ingredients to improve texture, mouthfeel, shelf-life and flavour
- Novozymes, an expert producer of a wide range of enzymes that help improve emulsification properties
- Fonterra, a leader in dairy innovation with its range of whey proteins and caseins.
'Together with our partners, we are fully in tune with today’s top taste trends and thought the best way to illustrate this was to provide a practical demonstration,' says Simon Atkins, Industry Director for Food Ingredients, Univar EMEA. 'So we will be serving an exciting variety of different product samples during the show, each one showcasing multiple ingredient solutions from the world’s leading producers. There is something for just about every palate and dietary requirement.'
'We have high quality ingredients that complement current key trends in the market, whether it is sugar reduction, sodium reduction, gluten-free, clean label, protein enrichment or lactose reduction,' added Atkins.
This year, Univar is co-exhibiting at the show with Novozymes and the two companies will be serving up lactose-free milkshakes and gluten-free breads containing Novozymes’ innovative enzymes, further supporting two major trends in today’s food industry.
Univar will also be serving specialty burgers during lunchtime, cooked by Ingredion at their nearby stand. Guests will be able to enjoy gluten-free buns, vegan cheese, fat-reduced mayonnaise and other foodstuffs that showcase an extensive range of quality starches. There will be the Health and Wellness Burger, the Indulgent Burger, the Natural Burger, the Free-From Burger and the Save Money Burger.
The burgers are excellent examples of Culinology, the coming-together of culinary arts and food technology. Culinology translates the latest food trends into workable, appealing recipes for large-scale formulations.
'Univar is one of the world’s leading ingredients distributors,' notes Atkins, 'but especially in the food industry, where we are bringing far more to the table than the ingredients. We have a string of value-added services, including not only our own expert food technologists, but a development chef who, under the Ingredion Culinology umbrella, creates innovative and mouth-watering recipes that bring out the best of the materials in our food basket in a state of the art development kitchen in the UK.'
To promote Univar’s expertise in sports nutrition, the company will be holding a fun competition involving a games console at its sports nutrition demo desk. Complementing the physical challenge will be samples of protein shakes and a novel ‘Univar Colada’ cocktail to show how Univar thinks outside of the box when it comes to its recipes. These protein enriched drinks will feature proteins and caseins from Fonterra. The lucky challenge winner will be able to walk away from the show with a tablet computer.
All recipes presented by Univar at Fi Europe will be available in a unique recipe book, which visitors to the stand will be able to take away with them.
Fi Europe will also be the launchpad for the Univar Food Ingredients Product Picker. This innovative tool initially focuses on the Ingredion and Novozymes offering, allowing Univar’s technical team to guide customers through a specific filtering process to find the ingredients that best suit their requirements. Information and products can then be emailed direct to the customer and samples can be ordered, enabling a smooth and easy process for finding the ideal ingredient.
For the last hour of the show on 1-2 December, Univar Food Ingredients will welcome customers, suppliers and friends to its stand, for drinks and canapés while they discuss the success of the show and cement new business relationships.