The Symrise Global Culinary Team has launched the Joy of Authentic Food Initiative which helps food manufacturers create the unique food experiences their customers demand by capturing the best of science and nature. Noah Michaels, Senior Chef and Culinary Team Leader, stated that the global Joy of Authentic Food program is part of a natural evolution that is taking place in the culinary arena.

Consumers, especially the influential Millennial demographic, want to have “real” food experiences. They are watching cooking shows that highlight ethnic and local food, going on citywide tasting treks, shopping at local farmers’ markets and attending interactive chef-hosted events.

These consumers go out of their way to know wher their food is coming from, engaging with the farmers, bakers, butchers and artisans.

The Joy of Authentic Food is a collaborative, multi-leveled working approach with peer to peer partnership at the heart of it. Symrise says this is illustrated by the company’s three-year journey to elevate the Culinary Center to the high standards Symrise had set.

“In addition to completely rebuilding our culinary facility, an increased staff that includes two certified research chefs, have come together to bring exceptional culinary capabilities to support our customers,” Michaels says.

“Our culinary flavor experts participate in an integrated concept development process, aiming toward long-term partnerships with customers by combining nature – the commitment to source only the highest quality natural raw materials – with science – our technological expertise that allows us to interpret and translate these into new flavor concepts.”

“We are dedicated to helping our customers discover, build and deliver the Joy of Authentic Food in their products, significantly supporting them through our industry leadership in high-performance herb, spice and vegetable flavors – the core elements in creating authentic food that delivers incomparable joy to consumers.”

The Culinary Center’s flavor professionals employ the company’s complete Authentic Food culinary toolkit to bring innovative solutions which deliver the Joy of Authentic Food to customers. The toolkit features solutions for clean labeling requirements and positive claims, superior supply security and regulatory and quality assurance.

“Our analytical expertise, sensory modeling, flavor design and culinary application capabilities provide exceptional product development support for our customers,” added Michaels.

Brazilian expansion

Meanwhile, Symrise is also expanding its market position in Brazil through the acquisition of Citratus Fragrâncias Indûstria e Comércio Ltda.

Symrise and the current owners of Citratus have signed a purchase agreement with respect to all shares of Citratus Fragrâncias, a producer of fragrances located in Vinhedo, close to Sa~o Paulo.

Citratus is looking back to 26 years of very successfully serving the Brazilian market for small and medium-sized fragrance customers. It is running a modern development and production facility in the city of Vinhedo, only 45 minutes away from Sa~o Paulo.

In addition, it maintains sales representations throughout Brazil. Over the years, Citratus has built well-established business relations to fast-growing, local customers in the fragrance industry as well as to important suppliers of natural fragrance raw materials.

“Brazil is a growth engine in Latin America. We have been growing above average there for years, particularly due to fragrance applications,” says Achim Daub, Global President Scent & Care within Symrise Group. “The acquisition of Citratus is thus a logical step. It fully supports our strategy of increasing our presence and position in emerging markets.”

“Through the acquisition, Symrise will become the market leader for small and medium-sized customers. We will benefit from even better access to new customer groups, additional production capacities and further raw material supply.”

Symrise has been present in Latin America for more than five decades. The Group is serving its customers in Brazil through own production and creation facilities in greater Sa~o Paulo as well as in the Amazon region through its facility in Belém, Pará.

Both parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the acquisition and the transaction is expected to be completed next January.