Natural and healthy confectionery set to stay, says Kerry

And newly appointed end use market manager for confectionery at the company, Tom Schmedes, argus that: “Natural ingredients have played a major role in this, attracting consumers to the category with natural positioning that is perceived as being better-for-you.” ​

However, natural ingredients often mean less colourful or flavoursome products in comparison to those using concentrated artificial and nature identical counterparts, he continues. “Therefore colour, taste and mouthfeel optimisation has been a major focus for manufacturers and for us at Kerry,”​ said Schmedes.

He added that focus of Kerry’s recent R&D work in terms of confectionery applications has been on developing added value and cost reducing ingredients as well as more natural fillings, inclusions and flavours, based on its flavour modulation technology (FMT).

FMT, explained Schmedes, aims to achieve flavour stability improvement as well as masking/improving high intensity sweeteners for use in confectionery.

And he claims the supplier’s `One Kerry’ focus has enabled it to align its product development, innovation, technology and marketing strategies to better understand and serve the confectionery market.

“We stand out from other suppliers by providing single point of contact to access specialist knowledge in applications across a broad range of technologies. This in turn allows manufacturers to devote more of their energies to creative product development rather than focusing so much on individual ingredients,”​ argues Schmedes.

And, with the upcoming ZDS Chocolate Technology International 2010 show in Cologne in December in mind, Schmedes told ConfectioneryNews.com that Germany is an important market for the supplier.

“Rising raw material prices, consumer interest in healthier products and a saturated market have led the German confectionery market to decline in both value and volume terms (forecast to be down 0.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively in 2009-2010, according to Euromonitor) but despite this it remains a large and extremely important market. ​

With ingredients suppliers and manufacturers and international operations and R&D facilities based in Germany, it has continued to lead the way in creativity and development throughout EMEA and indeed the world,”​ he added.

And Schmedes claims the ZDS event offers us a unique platform to take part in and speak to the industry directly about issues and challenges faced in the confectionery market.