IDM | Site Report Way more than just emulsifying salts IDM visiting ICL Food Specialties The internationally operating public company ICL is pursuing a new strategy in its food segment by specializing in product stability and texture. The ICL Food Specialties business unit intends to grow particularly in the dairy segment, and with its almost 100 years of experience it wants to support producers of the white and yellow lines in improving the added value. IDM visited ICL in Ladenburg. 8 · 4-5 2016 | international-dairy.com “We engage in development with a view to the consumer which also means that we try and include trends that will become apparent in market products only sometime in the future,” explains Dr. Alexander Smerz, Global Market Segment Lead Bakery & Cereals and Beverages at ICL Food Specialties. “Just anybody can sell ingredients, but we bank on our unrivaled expertise in order to offer tailor-made solutions to our customers.” ICL acquired BK Ladenburg, a producer of emulsifying salts, 20 years ago and since then the Food Specialties business unit has aimed at extending its business as a supplier of stabilizers and texture-enhancing products. “Emulsifying salts currently account for about two thirds of the ICL Food Specialties business volume,” explains Dr. Anne Grünhagen, Regional Market Segment Lead Dairy at ICL Food Specialties. Nowadays the portfolio comprises the whole range of the relevant ingredients and also seasonings for processed meat products. On matters of flavoring and coloring of foods the company cooperates with leading external suppliers. Phosphates and protein When it comes to a complex matter like “milk” ICL Food Specialties has a totally different approach to supplying solutions than other, comparable companies. Grünhagen and Smerz are referring to the basis of ICL (14,000 employees, USD 6.1 bn sales) which is the extraction, processing and marketing of potash, magnesium, phosphorous and phosphates the last two of which are especially used for fertilizers so that one might say ICL is accompanying and securing the “origination process” of milk from start to finish. At a later stage phosphates and milk proteins are combined again so as to bring about a structuring and texturizing effect. When ICL speaks of milk, what their experts actually mean is “protein” on which the activities of ICL Food Specialties are focusing. R&D ICL is banking on research and development in a system of partnerships with and in the interest of customers. The company has hired experts from various fields for this purpose. 70 employees work in Ladenburg for the business unit of Food Specialties, 520 in the EMEA region including those in production. Just recently an excellently equipped food lab and pilot plant were taken into operation where tests can be run even with customers directly involved. (photo: ICL)
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