Locust Bean Gum: Exploring the Nordic Food & Beverage Market
Curious about new food and beverage insights?
Each month, we invite you to visit our LinkedIn page to explore insights about Nexira’s presence in various regions. This month, Anneli Martensson, Area Sales Manager, provides insights into the Nordic market and explains why locust bean gum is the perfect clean label ingredient for food and beverage products.
Anneli has a life-long career in the food ingredients industry working with sales and marketing, always with fibres close at heart. –“I strive to always find the best solution for the customer. If the customer is happy, I am happy”, says Anneli with a smile.
What are the main market drivers in your area?
Natural and pure are important concepts that have been around for a long time. Locally produced is coming strongly. Consumers see “natural” as healthy and many are skeptical towards E-numbers. I think there’s a misconception that E-numbers represent something chemical and artificial and unnecessary in food. When you explain that E-numbers are also used for very natural and gently processed ingredients, there’s seems to be an “Aha-experience”. It is reassuring to know that our ingredients are all natural and gently processed in our plant.
Locally produced – it is a popular trend to buy vegetables, eggs, even meat at the local farmer. Restaurants are eager to express the local origin of every ingredient in the menu – potatoes from X, strawberries from Y, etc. Consumers in the Nordics are paying increasing attention to the origin of the products they buy.
What are the main challenges faced by your customers?
I would say price pressure from the retailers is in high focus. The Nordic countries have experienced high inflation and coupled with a deteriorating exchange rate for the local currencies, Krona in Sweden and Norway, food prices have reached levels that are hard to take for many consumers. Much fruit and vegetables are imported during most of the year at high cost and unfortunately the consequence is lower consumption. But the underlying trends of naturalness, health and sustainable solutions are still there.
How is our naltive™ Locust Bean Gum answering to it?
Locust bean gum (LBG) fits right in as natural with minimal processing sustainably grown and sourced. The growing trend of plant-based products benefits from LBG as a stabilizer.
Prices have become stable and acceptable to our customers.
Labelling is important to the consumer. In Scandinavian language the labelling is benefiting from the nice word “Fruktkärnmjöl” which translates into “fruit seed flour”. This is more often used than the E-number. Also in English, we see many using for example “carob flour” that leads away from the original name Locust bean gum with associations to insects.
What’s more, I feel proud when I explain Nexira’s commitment to humanitarian and environmental work, which is both concrete and lasting. It’s great to be able to show just how committed the company we work for is. Our long-standing partnership with SOS Sahel gives us a real presence and commitment in the field.
What are the main applications for naltive™ Locust Bean Gum in the Nordics?
Ice cream is a super-dominating application category. Innovations around texture and consumer experience are very important, and customers need reliable solutions to meet these expectations.
Many use an optimized stabilization system ready-made from a mix-producer. This often contains a mix of synergistic stabilizers including LBG.
Another important category is dairy light-products with less fat, to keep creaminess and avoid syneresis.
I’m also seeing a lot of plant-based developments, in formulations for which LBG is a real answer to new texture issues.
What do you think makes naltive™ Locust Bean Gum so successful in your market?
I think we have a good and stable position in the market because of high product quality, flexible and attentive service and of course always important – stable and secure deliveries. naltive™ Locust Bean Gum is the perfect solution for food and beverage manufacturers!
If you need more information or request samples, please get in touch with us!
This communication is not intended to the final consumer. It provides scientific information for professionals only. Communications to the final consumer have to be checked according to local regulations in force, since the conditions of use are beyond our control. This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
