The German firm has previously used external suppliers for spray drying, but has now decided to invest in an in-house spray drying system that is engineered to cope with sensitive products, and to enable drying to take place even in humid weather conditions.
Managing director Michael von Laer told FoodNavigator.com that the investment will being a capacity increase of around 50 per cent for the company. The system can dry up to 3000 tons of yeast extract, autolysates and MOS products a year.
He explained that there are several reasons that such an investment makes sense at the present time: Firstly, there has been a gradual increase in demand for yeast extracts, especially from Asia and North America. In the food sector, the move towards clean label foods and a tendency to switch to alternative taste enhancers to monosodium glutamate is a significant factor.
What is more, Leiber has previously relied on external suppliers for spray drying, and market trends have meant that it has not always been easy to secure the capacity needed.
“Spray drying capacity in Europe is very, very tight,” von Laer told FoodNavigator.com. He explained that for the last few months, many of the spray dryers available have been booked out for milk powder; during the crisis milk powder demand was down but it is now starting to creep back up again. More generally, though, von Lear said the trend towards convenience foods means there are more ingredients requiring spray drying.
Next step for Leiber
In addition, von Laer said the investment – of a single figure million euro amount – marks the next stage in development for Leiber which, although 50 years old, has only been active in yeast extracts for the last 10.
While it takes a while to gain a serious foothold in a new market, it has steadily been building quality and volume sales, and has now reached the level where such a move is “economically interesting”.
As well as supplying yeast extracts for food, Leiber also supplies the nutritional supplement, animal feed, and biotech industries.
The installation of the system, which is currently being commissioned and is expected to be put into action this summer, will also mean up to 13 new positions will be created at the production site in Lower Saxony and in-house know-how will be developed.