Danisco develops organic dairy stabilizers

The move comes after the ingredients firm last week received organic certification for its St Joseph, Missouri blending facility.

Awarded by Quality Assurance International (QAI), the certification allows the firm to market organic versions of its Functional Systems dairy ingredients, designed for use primarily in organic ice cream and frozen desert products.

The stabilizer blends are also suitable for use in cultured organic dairy products, such as yogurts, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, kefir, as well as flavored milks, soy milks and soy yogurts.

"This was a natural evolution for our company.

The organic industry has grown significantly, and dairy is one of the highest movers in the organic market," said Danisco USA's dairy industry manager Jennifer Lindsey.

"There's obviously a demand out there, and many of our customers are moving more and more into organics, so we've been getting increasing requests for organic ingredients," she told FoodNavigator-USA.com.

However, the move has not been without its challenges.

Some ingredients used in dairy stabilizer blends, such as monodiglycerides, cannot by their nature be organic as a result of their derivation or the processes used to obtain them.

Consequently, the firm had to conduct significant research and development work to achieve the same functionality in organic blends with the use of limited recourses, explained Lindsey.

Danisco USA has currently received organic certification for 17 new stabilizer blends, and said it has more in the process of being certified.

Many of these new blends are organic equivalents of existing conventional ingredients offered by the firm.

However, some of the blends are "brand new" , said Lindsey.

All blends produced at the facility are also certified kosher.

The new ingredients, which are the first organic blends of their kind to be offered by the company, are currently designed only for the US market.

Danisco already produces an organic locust bean gum and an organic vanilla.

The firm said it is "looking at" supplying organic versions of several other ingredients for food and beverage applications, but these are still under consideration.