Membrane technology adds value to natural flavours
the arrival in Europe of new facilities that ramp up production of
natural extracts produced through pervaporation, a membrane-related
technology that produces value-added flavours, reports Lindsey
Partos.
Scientists at the Dutch Agrotechnology & Food Innovations (A&F) institute, a unit of Wageningen University, are behind a drive to provide flavour houses with natural foodstuff flavours of high concentrations and fresh authentic character, using a flavour isolation process that has a high selectivity towards specific volatile compounds.
Against the backdrop of the highly competitive natural flavour segment, pervaporation could provide the added-value needed to gain an edge on competitors working in the soaring functional food market.
The €819.9 million European and US fruit and vegetable extracts and powders market is on course to grow 4.5 per cent annually, reaching €1.07 billion by 2009, estimate market analysts Frost & Sullivan. Strong growth is linked to the consumer's desire to improve health and prevent disease through food and beverage consumption.
Compared to competing technologies, the A&F scientists say, crucially, the novel extraction method that uses a silicon-based polymer in the membrane system, is less harsh on the natural foodstuff.
"This membrane technology does not use organic solvents, like hexane, currently in wide use for extracting flavours but which bear the danger of contamination," Dr Jeroen Willemsen, at the A&F institute, explained to FoodNavigator.com.
The process also means flavour houses do not need to inflict high temperatures, currently used in many cases, when carrying out extract removal.
"We started the method at a laboratory level about 10 years ago but now we have a pilot facility to provide customers with enough of the natural extract to carry out application studies. This is a first for Europe, although it is possible in the US," said Dr Willemsen.
The new pilot facility at A&F for pervaporation can handle raw materials in 1m3 volumes, producing one to several litres of the concentrated extracts necessary for food application trials.
"The technology offers producers of, for example, fruit juices, beer, herbal and flowery extracts as well as coffee and tea, to market extracts that are qualitatively superior compared to existing products," adds the scientist.
For the food industry, the term 'value-added' more often than not translates into a rise in costs. Willemsen claims that calculating for various applications, the pay-back period for a firm's investment in pervaporation can 'range from a reasonable six months to three to four years'.
The institute offers potential users of the process a one-stop-shop techno-economic feasibility study, with actual implementation carried out by the system constructor/membrane producer Norit.
Still early days for this extraction method in Europe, according to Willemsen there is one large company in Holland, a fruit juice concentrates firm, currently using the technology.
