Naturex is planning a major new drive to highlight how its extensive range of fruit ingredients could help manufacturers inject growth into the market for premium quality indulgent products, such as cakes, biscuits, confectionery, desserts and other treats.

The Avignon-based company produces a wide selection of processed fruit ingredients in a variety of formats, including powders, granules and crisps, as well as extracts.

Naturex believes its ingredients could help manufacturers gain an edge in the highly competitive market for sweet treats by creating product concepts that meet demand both for enjoyment and quality – as well clean labels and improved nutrition content.

“Indulgence is very big business. For example, sales of sweet bakery products such as cakes and biscuits were worth €8.56 billion across Western Europe in 2011, according to Mintel. Clearly it is a very large market indeed, and a great opportunity," says Antoine Dauby, Marketing Director at Naturex.

“However, it is also a very competitive market and growth opportunities can be hard to find. In fact, Mintel figures show that year-on-year growth in the sweet bakery category between 2010 and 2011 was only 1.3%. Further, Mintel forecasts that the market will grow just 1.6% in 2012," Dauby says. 

“These market conditions mean it is very important for manufacturers to create excitement among shoppers by finding a point of difference that adds value to their proposition. Our ingredients can help companies do this by improving their recipes in a way that is in tune with the trend for more natural and healthier products, enabling them to achieve standout with indulgent concepts," he says. "Our ingredients taste great, offer excellent colour attributes and they are completely natural. They are also very easy to incorporate into a range of indulgent recipes with no formulation problems.”

Naturex is to turn the spotlight onto new indulgent applications for its fruit and botanical ingredients at this year’s Health Ingredients Europe exhibition, which takes place in Frankfurt from 13-15 November 2012. Live on its stand (E6), master chocolatier and pâtissier Mickäel Azouz will create a series of innovative indulgent products using ingredients from Naturex’s portfolio. Visitors will be invited to discover how Naturex ingredients can bring a wide array of benefits to fine food products, including increased fruit content, specific flavouring notes and the addition of active extracts rich in polyphenols and vitamins.

“Visitors to Health Ingredients Europe can come to our stand to see for themselves what a difference our ingredients make to indulgent recipes. Innovation and great taste are key to success in indulgent categories, and our fruit ingredients can make both of these a reality for manufacturers everywhere," Dauby says. "In addition, Naturex ingredients provide excellent colouring properties and they enable consumer-friendly labelling – all with a unique French touch.”