FDBusiness.com

Being one of the leading suppliers of flavours, botanical extracts and ingredient specialities, Bell Flavors & Fragrances EMEA is making natural ingredients a key focus for 2018. Already presented as a crucial part of Bell’s ‘Flavour & Trend Forecast’, Bell now introduces its new range of botanical extracts created for various applications within the savory, sweet & dairy and beverages category. The new product range is the perfect solution for answering today’s consumer needs for clean label products.

Back to nature: Consumer trends 2018
Consumers continue to push boundaries for clean label products, driven by the ongoing health and wellness megatrend and the search for authenticity in food and beverage products. Agneta Hoffmann, Marketing Specialist at Bell’s Flavor Division, explains: “Authentic eating has not only become a major food and drink trend – it has also pushed the purchasing behavior of consumers to a higher level. Consumers seek for natural and non-artificial ingredients that are constantly driving the strength of clean label within the market. A growing focus on transparency and natural claims underlines the strong need for ingredients that continue to deliver higher value. Therefore, innovations with regard to clean, natural ingredients, such as botanical extracts, are a key focus for Bell Flavors & Fragrances EMEA.”

Botanical extracts on the rise
The rapid shift towards more natural and organic products is expected to drive the global level market growth of botanical extracts within the following years. Botanical extracts can be derived from a huge number of plants or other botanical resources, such as fruits, leaves or flowers and are defined as complex, multi-component mixtures that are used in widespread applications across the food and beverage industry. The usage of botanical extracts in food and beverage products offers great taste as well as natural flavour, together with enhanced organoleptic characteristics and improved nutritional value. Moreover, the advantages in depiction and clean labelling are underlining its growing presence in the market. According to data research about 10% of global food and drink launches are currently listing herbal extracts on pack.

Feel Nature’s Variety – Inspiring clean label solutions made by Bell
The use of botanical extracts in beverages, such as wellness drinks or flavoured water, yoghurt or other dairy products like fresh cheese, next to various savoury applications (e.g. ready meals, sauces and soups) will push boundaries in 2018. With its new concept “Feel Nature’s Variety” Bell is proud to underline its extensive expertise in botanical extracts and showcases a new range of natural extracts especially designed to fulfil the unique requirements of those product categories. The high-quality product range allows for clean labelling and is fully in line with today’s high consumer expectations without compromising on taste.

Whether fruit and vegetable extracts, floral notes or herb and spice extracts – Bell once again proves, that healthy ingredients and innovative taste creations are not mutually exclusive. Highlights of the brand-new range are fragrant rosemary, fresh curly mint and black pepper extract, due to their ability to fascinate within both, the sweet and the savoury categories. Equally exiting will be the ongoing shift towards floral notes – whether it is a rose blossom extract or lavender extract, the fragrant and intense character of floral extracts can contribute to a large extend in creating vibrant, sophisticated taste dimensions. The increasing desire for superfoods also plays an important role within botanical extracts. Ginseng root extract, as one of the staples from Asian culture and cuisine, is making its way into European markets – combining both, healthy attributes and a hint of the exotic.

The whole range of botanical extracts is made of natural raw material and created using selective extraction techniques to capture the true taste and aroma profile of the original source – enabling Bell to combine high-quality products with efficiency and exceptional sensory properties.