Premium Ingredients has begun marketing Premitex XLB-14012, a new stabilizer for long life liquid milk application, such as tea whitener, which allows producers to considerably reduce their formulation costs, compared to standard solutions.
The company offers food and beverage producers this product under an open formula, with transparency regarding prices and know-how used in its development.
Patrick Berry, corporate VP, head of marketing shares with Food News International the reasons for the decision for an open formula and the impact to the company’s business.
FNI: Why did Premium Ingredients provide transparency regarding prices with Premitex XLB-14012?
Berry: Traditionally, the food powder blends sector has operated in an opaque manner, commercializing formulations under a black box model.
When we say that we are transparent, we mean that our clients can know our costs and exactly what they are paying for because we do not commercialize our formulas as black box formulations, but as open formulas.
We inform clients about our raw material costs, fixed and variable costs, and profit margin.
Additionally, the clients interested in Premitex XLB-14012, or our other products, can acquire the intellectual property (IP) licenses after a short period of exploitation of two to five years, depending on the difficulty in the development of the product.
How is this decision different from what is traditionally practiced in the industry?
Berry: The black box system was designed to protect IP but it hides information to the buyers about the prices and the know-how used in the formulation, making it difficult for them to take highly informed decisions, improve their products, and innovate.
This system allows the commercialization of products that are not technology as if they were, and hides inflated margins which, at the end, makes food expensive for end consumers.
At Blendhub Corp., we believe that bringing more transparency to the food industry will completely change the sector, enabling companies to produce cheaper food stuff, hence allowing more people access to food, which is one of the major problems in our society.
Why does this decision bring a competitive edge to Premium Ingredients?
Berry: Nobody likes the black box.
After initiating this change in our corporation, we did exhaustive market research and we spent two years talking with food producers, raw material producers and anyone involved in the food powder blends sector.
We now know that operating with transparency allows our clients and us to make better products and to find the best providers, increasing the competition in the sector and benefiting everybody.
We want to collaborate with anyone in the industry who wants to create value together with us and commit to transparency with whichever model or purpose they choose, transparently.
FNI: Can you share with us how Premitex XLB-14012 can bring competitiveness to F&B producers?
Berry: Premitex XLB-14012 is a blend with functionality for long life tea whitener.
We offer our clients not only a blend but also a whole business model with our six centers of excellence.
They can use our blends and understand how they work with their products to improve them.
In addition, this is a product designed for long life liquid tea for recombined milk applications, which offers them stability and secures emulsification to challenging formulations, for example, those with high fat low protein content.
It provides a natural and pleasant mouth-feel too and prevents protein agglomeration.
FNI: What should producers consider when working with stabilizers for long life liquid milk applications?
Berry: Producers must look for quality raw materials, processing and the right stabilizer to fit their needs.
For instance, they can look for a good suspension of calcium or a good stability of cocoa particles, so that they need to find the best stabilizer in each case.
Premitex XLB-14012 is a robust system for the whole shelf-life of liquid tea whitener, but we have other equally interesting proposals regarding milk products to meet the necessities of a food producer, for instance, Premitex XLN-14027 for recombined long life milk products, Premium XLN-13059 and Premigum XLB-13059 for chocolate milk or Premitex XLN-14013 for recombined thick cream.
These are all products that we are launching to the market right now, backed by our 15 years of experience in the dairy industry.
