Prosur prepares formulation demonstrations for Fi Europe

Prosur will present natural ingredient applications for meat, ready meals, bakery, condiments and beverages at Fi Europe in Frankfurt from 17 to 19 November, using the exhibition to demonstrate reformulation approaches across different food matrices. The Spanish food biotechnology supplier is introducing a GIN Drinks & Food showcase identity for the event. It is a demonstration format rather than a new consumer brand or the commercial introduction of a separate ingredient line. The applications use the company’s established Get it Natural systems.

The Get it Natural portfolio combines food-derived ingredient systems intended to help formulators manage additive use, salt and sugar levels, taste and shelf life. Prosur’s carob-based sweetener systems contain dietary fibre and naturally occurring polyphenols. The functions of conventional ingredients explain why the same substitution cannot simply be transferred from one recipe to another: salt contributes to taste and preservation and can affect protein behaviour, while sugar supplies sweetness, solids and browning in baked products. The Frankfurt formulations illustrate how existing systems can be incorporated into finished foods, with the processing conditions and product specification determining their practical use.

Changing the salt or curing system in a meat snack can affect flavour, colour, texture and moisture content, while cooking or drying conditions and package design help determine microbial control and the intended shelf life. Prosur’s samples will show a formulation approach, but adaptation to an existing production line requires process and storage checks. A prepared meal adds further interactions: sauces, vegetables and proteins respond differently to heating and cooling, and an ingredient dispersed evenly in a liquid sauce may perform differently when the recipe contains solids. The company’s ready-to-eat concepts carry its ingredient systems into those mixed formulations, where the recipe proportions, batch mixing and thermal treatment must suit either chilled or ambient distribution.

The sauce in a prepared meal must retain its intended consistency after heating and cooling; a condiment such as mayonnaise presents a related but more specific challenge because oil droplets must remain dispersed in a continuous phase through filling, transport and storage. Maintaining that structure also depends on the intended viscosity. A changed sweetener or another ingredient may affect the balance, so Prosur’s mayonnaise concepts provide finished samples for flavour and emulsion trials under producers’ own processing conditions. As recipes shift from emulsions to bakery doughs, the same ingredient decisions affect different properties, including dough handling, aeration, colour formation and moisture retention.

Sugar’s contribution to a baked product depends on mixing sequence, proofing and baking conditions, and replacing it can affect browning and the structure of the final product. Prosur’s bakery samples therefore provide a starting point for assessing recipe performance, rather than proof of how the formulation will behave at industrial scale. The recipe also has to be assessed for portion consistency, batch variation and quality over the intended storage period when transferred to a full production line. The comparison extends to beverages, where sugar contributes primarily to sweetness and mouthfeel within a balance of acidity and flavour. Reducing it may also affect the appearance or texture of a drink when dissolved ingredients or suspended material are present. Prosur will use existing ingredient systems in the beverage concepts too, with the choice of formulation governed by each product’s processing requirements and applicable composition and labelling rules.

Visitors will be able to assess the concepts as finished samples at Fi Europe, where Prosur will exhibit at stand 31B100 under the GIN Drinks & Food showcase identity. Simon Claessens, the company’s global director of sales and business development, has described demand for ingredients that combine flavour, nutritional functionality and simpler declarations. The planned tastings bring those different formulation functions into products that can be compared by their taste and texture, while leaving the conditions for industrial production to be established separately.

Any manufacturer taking a sample into development would need to adapt it to its own ingredient supply, mixing and processing equipment, food safety controls and finished-product specification. A meat snack requires a validated preservation and storage approach; a condiment must remain stable through filling and distribution; and baked goods and drinks must retain the relevant functional and sensory properties under their actual manufacturing conditions. Prosur’s November programme consists of these cross-category application concepts, with the underlying Get it Natural ingredient systems already commercially available.