Global agricultural processor and food ingredient provider Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is continuing its run of enhancements by buying up Chamtor, a French producer of wheat-based sweeteners and starches. Adding the French producer to its portfolio strengthens ADM’s position to meet the needs of customers in Western Europe, according to the company which confirms the acquisition is now complete.

This acquisition is the latest is a series of improvements from ADM focusing on its global sweetener and starch footprint.

“France is well-known in Europe for its wheat production capabilities, and is a key destination market for starch-based products. The Bazancourt plant is ideally located at the heart of the cereal market and within reach of customers across Spain, Germany, France and Benelux,” said Pierre Duprat, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa. 
 
“We are excited to add our global capabilities to an already-strong business so that we can together meet growing customer needs throughout the region.”

The French facility, which produces glucose, starch and proteins from wheat, is the most recent in a series of enhancements to ADM’s global sweetener and starch capabilities. 
 
In 2015, ADM purchased full ownership of corn wet mills in Bulgaria and Turkey, and a 50% stake in a wet mill in Hungary. Last year, the company acquired a sweetener and starch facility in Morocco, and announced expansion plans for the Turkey and Bulgaria plants.
 
And in June, FoodIngredientsFirst reported how ADM is constructing a new high capacity state-of-the-art flour mill in Illinois, US, to keep pace with the increasing demand for flour throughout midwest US.
 
This came hot on the heels of another deal. In April ADM and Medsofts Group completed their previously announced transaction, and launched ADM Medsofts, a 50-50 joint venture that offers commodity merchandising, transportation and delivery services to customers in Egypt.

“With increasing demand for sweeteners and starches in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, ADM is expanding in the region to ensure we meet those growing customer needs,” Duprat continued.

ADM, Market Leaders & Innovators
ADM was showcasing samples recently at IFT17 in Las Vegas and FoodIngredientsFirst was there to find out more about some of the innovations.
 
Mark Rainey, VP Global Food Marketing, ADM, (pictured below, right), described how projections for yogurt sales are expected Click to Enlargeto be strong in the coming years, despite the fact that there is a decline in consumption. 
 
“From a US standpoint we’ve seen that the yogurt market is obviously very strong and projected to be, from a sales standpoint, US$7.7 or US$7.8 billion coming from US$6.2 billion in 2010.”
 
“Even as strong as it is, per capita consumption has actually been declining so the shifts are interesting.”
 
“wher the innovation is coming from is Greek; the interest from consumers is for more of a European style, thicker and more premium.”
 
“That was a bit of the inspiration for this yogurt, called Orchard Fruit Yogurt.”
 
ADM - which acquired Wild Flavors in 2014 - also recently completed a consumer based study to discover the attitudes towards sweeteners and sweetening in the US. 
 
“This is a rather interesting consumer based study from an attitude and usage perspective on sweeteners and sweetening in the US with about 2,500 consumers.”
 
“A little over 70 percent of consumers said that they were either very or somewhat concerned about the added sugars and the types of sugars used in products, including yogurt. 
 
“So the challenge was; how do we deliver a great tasting yogurt, that’s clean and clear label and also doesn’t have added sugars.”
 
“A great way for us to deliver that is with an ingredient that is familiar in Europe and that is being launched in the US called Fruit Up.”

Rainey explains how that although Fruit Up has been marketed in Europe by Wild for many years, it’s a new concept for the US market and the timing is perfect.
 
“It’s new to us in the states; and it’s very clean and clear label, low glycemic.

Labeling really depends on the finished application. We work closely with our customers on how best to label. Typically, it can be labeled as ‘from fruit’ or ‘fruit based syrup’.”
 
Another key product from ADM is its monk fruit brand, which again is relatively new and has some synergies with stevia; it can used to help create an improved flavor. Both stevia and monk fruit can be combined. 
 
“March was our official launch when stevia and monk fruit were introduced at the same time. We do a lot for a natural taste, modification perspective to help mask some of those off notes that some consumers might find objectionable when using stevia.”
 
“ADM has a long legacy as a market leader and innovator in plant-based protein and this a great way to showcase the coming together of ADM and Wild from a flavor modification perspective.”

by Gaynor Selby