NTC: Our garlic and onion flavor alternatives are ‘very, very cost-effective versus some of the cheapest raw materials on this planet’

28-Jul-2013 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 09:12 GMT

By exploiting plant by-products for precursors to in-demand flavors, Natural Taste Consulting’s (NTC) has come up with natural, sustainable, and highly cost-effective options for a variety of foods – but how are they doing this?

Speaking with FoodNavigator-USA at the recent IFT Annual Meeting and Expo in Chicago, Markus Beba, VP of sales and marketing for NTC explained that there is a huge demand for natural ingredients and flavors are a big part of it.

“Have a look at the world’s population, over the last century we have quadrupled the world’s population. If everyone wants natural ingredient then where will it lead it us? Predictions are that there will not be enough raw material would be available.”

“Garlic and onion are two of the key raw materials for the whole food industry,” explained Beba. “Most of the supply is coming from China. But local demand is growing in China, so there will be less onion and garlic available for the rest of the world.”

The global market for garlic powder is approximately 10.5 million MT/ year with China producing 80% of the world's needs, while onion powder is about 75 million MT/ year with India and China producing 45% of the world's needs.

The solution…

David Johnston, NTC’s VP of innovation, said the company’s approach has been very simple: “We accept that there are certain plants out there where only part of the plant is actually exploited. We have identified these plants as being rich in precursors of garlic and onion, and then all we need to do is find a clever biochemical way, a natural way, of transforming the so-called by-product into garlic and onion aromas that we know and love.

“Because the raw materials are relatively inexpensive and we have great controls of our processes, the end product is very, very cost-effective versus some of the cheapest raw materials on this planet.”

FoodNavigator-USA recently gave the industry the inside scoop of these new ingredients ahead of their launch at the IFT Annual Meeting and Expo, and Beba said the response from the industry, “has been unbelievable because it’s brand new and nobody has done it this way before, and when you taste the product, it’s like fresh onion and garlic, and even in cost-of-use terms we can beat onion and garlic powder.”

Johnston added: “We’ve had the Chinese visiting our booth (there are many attending the IFT here) they couldn’t believe the freshness of the product, and they could not believe for a second that it was cheaper than the products grown in their own country.”