From quinoa couscous to green banana chips; organic ghee to unfiltered olive oil, FoodNavigator rounds up some of the most interesting products we saw at this year's SIAL in Paris.
From quinoa couscous to pulse rice; organic ghee to unfiltered olive oil, FoodNavigator rounds up some of the most interesting products we saw at this year's SIAL in Paris.
“The idea was to marry two products from two very different cultures – North Africa and South America – and the result is very satisfactory,” said Amine Khalil, director of development at Moroccan company Dari Couscous, which has been producing wheat-based couscous and pasta for 25 years.
“We set up a project with the premium Ecuadorian company, Mama Quinoa, to develop this new product. We [Dari Couscous] had already developed barley couscous so this was a natural part of our innovation strategy, and we are launching it here at SIAL.”
After importing the raw material from Mama Quinoa, Dari mills the grain into a flour and transforms into couscous at its BRC-certified factory in Rabat, which has a capacity to make 200 tonnes of couscous a month.
The final product contains 100% quinoa and retains the characteristic nutty flavour, Khalil said.
“The advantage is that this cooks in just five minutes and can be used like wheat couscous but it has the nutritional benefits of quinoa, which contains over 15% protein.
“It is on-trend because it is healthy, nutritional and original, and consumers are looking for originality. It contains no additives and preservatives.”
Khalil said the product was available to customers and consumers worldwide but it expected to see most demand from Europe, the US, Latin America and Dari’s home market, Morocco. It also plans to launch an organic version.
Korea’s World Institute of Kimchi (WIKIM), a branch of the Korea Food Research Institute, was set up to broaden expertise on kimchi fermentation, identify new product development potential and expand export opportunities.
It picked five different kimchi manufacturers from Korea to present their products.
“Kimchi is trending right now because it is still relatively new,” Sun Ok Kim, WIKIM representative said. “Before it was Japan but Europeans are interested discovering foods from other Asian countries. It is also natural and free from MSG, colours and flavours and contains healthy probiotics.”
Traditionally, kimchi is made by fermenting white Chinese leaf cabbage with fish sauce, red chili powder, garlic and onion, Sun Ok Kim explained. In vegetarian versions, the fish sauce can be replaced with salt and in certain regions of Korea, carrots are used or other vegetables are used.
Korean company Miwami scooped up a SIAL innovation prize for its kimchi jam, which it says "brings out kimchi's own spicy & sour taste".
Italian company Pedon scooped up a SIAL innovation prize for its rice-shaped blend of pulses.
“It has the same texture as rice but an earthier taste as well as more fibre and protein and fewer carbs,” said Carla Casagrande, Pedon marketing. “It also cooks in nine minutes and is good for children because of the small shape. This is an innovative product because it allows for a new way to eat pulses.”
Pedon transforms the pulses into flour, mixes it with water and, then using the same production process for pasta, shapes the paste into rice.
The nutritional profile of the final product is the same as whole, unprocessed pulses.
One pack retails for around €2.50 and is already available around Europe after being launched this summer.
Pedon manufacturers the final product in Italy but sources the raw materials from various countries.
Tunisian olive oil processer C.H.O. has made a name for itself in Europe in recent years with its Terra Delyssa brand, an extra virgin olive oil that is mechanically extracted and available in conventional and organic.
This year saw it launch a new brand, Origin 846, which uses hand-picked olives that are cold-pressed within hours of being harvested.
The logo and name references the Carthage queen Dido who is said to have founded the ancient city of Carthage around 846 BC.
Origin 846 launched in the US and Canada earlier this year, where the recommended retail price is around $12 to $14 (€10.50 - €12), and is now looking to expand into Europe.
Chris Fowler for C.H.O. North America told us: “Terra Delyssa is a great, everyday olive oil but there is a trend among consumers today for raw and unprocessed foods so we decided to launch this unfiltered, raw olive oil. It keeps all the polyphenols and antioxidants that can otherwise be lost during the filtration process.”
“All olive oil is healthy so this is for consumers who want to go a little bit further with an unprocessed oil,” she added.
Both Terra Delyssa and Origin 846 use a blend of three olive varieties that grow well in the North African climate – Chetoui, Chemlali and Arbequina – in varying quantities.
Parent company C.H.O., headquartered in the Tunisian town of Sfax, was established in 1996 and produced around 40 million litres of olive oil a year. It has both B2B and B2C divisions.
Dutch start-up Ghee Easy sells an organic range of ghee, a traditional cooking oil in South Asia made by removing the milk proteins (lactose) from butter.
Although ghee is mostly saturated fat, it is increasingly finding favour among ‘clean eaters’ who see it as a less processed alternative to refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) oils. Ghee is also associated with traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine.
Ghee Easy has seen its year-on-year growth double in the past few years, something its CEO and founder David Klingen puts down to confusion over healthy fats and consumers' curiosity in cooking with new products.
“People want to learn about fats that are traditionally used elsewhere and people are open to cooking with new things,” he said.
Read our full interview with Klingen here.
Dutch company Pauls’ Quinoa started off selling whole quinoa grain before developing bars and ready meals. At SIAL, it was launching its latest product, a range of breakfast cereals.
Organic, gluten-free and available in three flavours – plain, honey and chocolate – the cereals are minimally processed and have simple ingredient lists ranging from one to five ingredients.
“Most breakfast cereals have crazy amounts of sugar in them but ours don’t. The honey version contains 85% quinoa and 15% honey,” said Wouter Van Heugten, purchasing manager at the company.
The company is involved in an agronomy research project with researchers at the University of Wageningen in order to improve the agricultural techniques of farmers, help them identify resistant quinoa varieties and optimise crop yields.
“The idea is to not have monoculture but crop rotation that is good for the soil’s health and also the farmers’ income,” said Van Heugten, adding that the company is not certified fair trade but gives the farmers a fair price and “builds partnerships with the farmers”.
The breakfast cereals have a recommended retail price of €4 per pack and are already available in Casino and LeClerc in France.
Paul’s Quinoa ready meals and seeds are listed in Sainsbury’s in the UK.
“The market for potato chips in the UK is declining simply because it is so big,” general manager for exports at Grace Foods George Phillips said. “These plantain chips and green banana chips are seen as an alternative so that gives them an advantage. And although we don’t position them as healthier than potato chips, they are higher in protein and fibre.”
The chips are fried in palm oil (olein), and one 85-g pack provides around one quarter of the recommended daily amount of fibre (6 g or 24%) and 30 g of fat (47% of the recommended daily intake), one half of which is saturated.
Although Grace also manufactures a low-fat and low-salt version, Phillips said this does not sell as well.
The company currently sells around two million packs a year and is seeing around 20% organic growth a year.
The UK remains its biggest market where it sells in all major retailers, but it has recently started selling in Holland through the Jumbo chain, and Germany.
Although the company’s origins are Jamaican, Grace sources the ingredients for its plantain chips principally from Colombia, where it has a BRC-accredited factory, as Jamaican output only covers its domestic needs.
One packet sells for around 89 p in the UK or €1 in Europe.
Finnish plant-based brand Gold & Green claims it has managed to mimic the nutritional profile of meat by blending pea, fava beans and oats to get the right amino acid balance.
It sells its range of plant-based meat alternatives (available in pulled oat, sausage, burger or meatball format, for instance) in Finland and Sweden.
According to Liisa Tervinen, design manager, the patented production process is “natural and mechanical”.
The company was founded in 2015 and sales were so strong it built its own factory within the first year, Tervinen said. It recently built a second factory in Sweden to serve export markets and has the capacity to fully scale up production, she added.
In 2016, Finnish manufacturer Paulig acquired a 51% stake in Gold & Green.