FDBusiness.com

Sternchemie, an international supplier of lecithin for over 30 years, will present new sunflower lecithins for demanding applications at FIE 2015 in Paris (Stand 6F29), on December. Other specialities of the company are red palm oil, in high demand as a natural food colouring, as well as coconut milk power for cold and hot dishes, baked goods and confections. Multifunctional MCT oils made in the company’s own facility in Malaysia round out the product range.

Using a specially developed process, Sternchemie has long refined the raw lecithin from sunflower seeds to a greater degree than is usual for normal standardisation. By further perfecting the process and using improved raw materials, the company has now succeeded in producing sunflower lecithins that are equivalent to IP soy lecithin in colour and flavour. LeciStar S 200 has a light colour and a mild, slightly nutty sunflower taste, while LeciStar S 300 is also light in colour but virtually neutral in smell and flavour. This makes both lecithins particularly suitable for products that are sensitive in terms of odour and taste, like white chocolate and milk powder.

In addition to universally usable standardised sunflower lecithins, Sternchemie offers hydrolised lecithin with better oil-in-water emulsifying ability. These easily dispersible lecithin variants are especially useful for making baked goods, margarines and half-fat margarines, and for use as baking fat.

In addition to the liquid LeciStar and SternInstant products, Sternchemie offers sunflower lecithins in powdered form, including a de-oiled sunflower lecithin powder with a very high effective ingredient content of over 95 percent, used in the baked goods industry. For baked goods, bake mixes and ready flours the company offers lecithin compounds on carrier substances like glucose and maltodextrin, as well as to customer order. These offer problem-free processing, and are easier to dose and store than standard lecithin.

For instant foods like milk and whey protein powder, Sternchemie offers the sprayable sunflower lecithin Sterninstant 450 S. Thanks to the lecithin the powder containing fat or protein can disperse evenly, and dissolves without problems even in cold liquids. SternInstant improves the application properties of instant protein products like sports drinks and diet shakes, as well as coffee whitener and drink powders with cocoa. It is also excellent for instantising baby food.

Through in-house testing and cooperation with research institutes, Sternchemie determines which lecithins are best for given applications. This specialist knowledge benefits customers, for which the company naturally also develops individual solutions if needed. Sternchemie specialists use applications technological trials to determine how customers can replace IP soy lecithin with sunflower lecithin without altering the characteristics of their products.

FIE visitors can find out about all of the new products from Sternchemie and its sister companies of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe at booth 6F29.