Solbar's Bontex says "Bonjour" to French market

03-Mar-2011 - Last updated on 14-Mar-2017 at 05:35 GMT

Solbar has launched its steam textured soy protein Bontex on the French market in a bid to help manufacturers cater to consumer desire for natural products.

The Israeli ingredients firm has sold Bontex in many countries around the globe for the past ten years, but the French market has not previously been a priority.

“We decided to focus on the French market after making research and found that this market knows how to appreciate natural food ingredients. We saw an opportunity and a big potential,” said Alex Shnaiderman, marketing and communication manager at Solbar.

“The French market is definitely more ready for innovative ingredients like Bontex. The ready meals category has become a significant part of the daily meal of the French people in the last few years,” said Shnaiderman.

Not only does Solbar sense the timing is right but it has also “achieved a good understanding and good contact with the right customers,” said David Kraus, global application manager at Solbar.

Bontex’s first outing in France was at SIRHA, the European catering show in Lyon last January, with its French distributor MSM Casing.

At the event Kraus presented the soy protein by using two different food applications: a meat-free bolognaise sauce; and a cookie with high protein and fibre content and no fat.

The company said it has received good feedback from manufacturers who witnessed the demonstration of the product’s texture and its organoleptic properties.

“From the feedback that we currently have from most of the customers we approached, we found quite a lot of interest mainly in sauces and ready meal. But there was a big interest in some others: sweet, goods and some bakery ingredients and other ready meal type of product,” said Kraus.

Food application

Bontex has previously found its biggest use as the chunks in instant noodle products. But because of its numerous dietary characteristic – low sodium and high protein content, gluten and oil-free – it is now applied in wider food recipes such as bakery, snacks, meat, soups, sauces and ready meals.

“It can really help producers of many different kind of foods, to increase the nutritional and textural quality of their products very easily,” said Kraus.

According to Kraus, Bontex is unique because it involves high temperature of steam that is agglomerating the protein. The texture of the ingredient is maintained even after hydration so that flavour and colour are fully blended into the product, the company says.

The steam texture protein can be found in five different sizes. Each size targets a specific product; for instance bigger pieces of the ingredient are likely to be used in meat or hamburger.

Bontex can also be used as a substitute for meat.

“[Manufacturers] could either reduce the amount of meat in the product and substitute some of the meat with Bontex or even do a totally vegetarian product- based without meat,” said Kraus.

Solbar was founded in 1967 and has its headquarters in Ashdod, Israel. Global revenue in the year ended June 2010 was NIS 333,266,000 (c US$90,306,99).