FDBusiness.com

Expert natural flavour creators Omega Ingredients have reported a ten-fold increase in revenue from their vanilla flavours and extracts, truly showing the monumental impact the vanilla crisis has had on the food manufacturing industry. Sales of Omega’s fully-traceable Madagascan Vanilla kiiNote® (an extract made using Vanilla Pods), as well as their 100% pure and natural Madagascan Vanilla Flavour are at a record high, with applications stretching across ice cream, beverage, baking and confectionery products.

With prices of vanilla continuing to hover at up to $600 per kilo (compared to previous prices of just $20 a kilo) the FMCG trade is looking for high quality alternatives to vanilla, with many businesses priced out of using the raw ingredient. This increase in growth for Omega also demonstrates that the end consumer appreciates the discernible taste of quality vanilla and the known provenance, so is prepared pay a little more.

Working with real vanilla beans, Omega develop their own natural vanilla extract and use this to create their natural vanilla flavours, ensuring customers can produce clean label descriptions on pack e.g. containing “100% natural vanilla extract” or “Natural Vanilla Flavour”. With prices of vanilla holding steady at the higher rates per kilo, using Omega’s extracts and natural flavours has also enabled customers to “future-proof” their products against any further price instability.

Imitation non-natural vanilla flavor will often contain vanillin, a main component of vanilla beans but being non-natural, may be derived from petroleum products via chemical synthesis or indeed as a by-product of wood pulp processing. Omega uses only natural vanilla extracts or naturally produced vanillin in all their flavours.

“Since vanilla prices started to soar two years ago, we have seen the industry struggle to find a practical and cost-effective solution to satisfying demand for vanilla-led products that maintain the same level of quality consumers expect. We’ve been honoured to work with many manufacturers on incorporating our vanilla kiiNote® and flavour into their products, with the sales team noticing an increased demand for provenance-led vanilla flavours in particular. With transparency in the industry more topical than ever, it is this clarity, and the ability to fully clean-label products that have been the drive behind the surge in our vanilla sales,” comments co-founder and leading biochemist Steve Pearce.