SUPPLIER NEWS

DS Smith has announced it has hit seven of its key sustainability milestones—including meeting targets on the circular economy, forest management, community engagement, and water management. The company’s 2021 Sustainability Report revealed that over the last year, it had trained all 700 designers on the circular economy—enabling it to build circular design principles into hundreds of thousands of packaging designs for customers. All of DS Smith’s forests achieved forest management certification and the company maintained its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for all of its sites, meeting the highest sustainable forestry standards on the market.

ADM announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Sojaprotein, a European provider of non-GMO soy ingredients. Established in 1977, Serbia-based Sojaprotein has sales into 65 countries, offering a wide array of non-GMO vegetable protein ingredients for an extensive list of European and global customers in the meat alternative, confectionary, protein bar, pharmaceutical, pet food, and animal feed segments. The company had more than $100 million in sales in 2020.

Bühler, Cargill, Givaudan, and PURIS have joined forces to help accelerate start-ups who are innovating in plant-based proteins. Together, they have created the Scale It Up Innovation Challenge with the aim to bring sustainable, protein food products to market quicker. The four participating companies are all active in the production of sustainable, plant-based protein food products to meet evolving consumer needs, each focusing on differing parts of the value chain and each bringing their unique expertise to the challenge. The Scale It Up Innovation Challenge will provide resources, mentorship, and expertise to the challenge winners.

Green tea industry powerhouse ITO EN, well-known global suppliers of authentic, organic ceremonial green tea and matcha powder, has chosen to partner with another respected global green tea leader, Taiyo International, to supply high-quality matcha to the food, beverage, and supplement industries in North America. Based in Japan, ITO EN has been producing authentic, flavorful, and highly nutritious tea for more than 50 years. The company has a longstanding tradition of honoring tea’s cultural heritage, producing great tasting, sustainable tea, and matcha powder with unmatched health properties.

CREMER OLEO, part of the Hamburg-based CREMER group of companies operating worldwide, is expanding its global trade and production activities. A Global Management Board, made up of three international CREMER manager, will now be managing all business areas across the group that deal with vegetable oils and fats. CREMER OLEO offers sustainable raw materials for cosmetics, food and feeds, pharmaceuticals, fuels, and technical applications.

Eriez has announced the opening of the newly expanded Eriez Service and Repair Center, located at the company’s Wager Road plant near its corporate headquarters in Erie, Pennsylvania. With double the footprint size of the previous Service and Repair Center, Eriez says it offers improved turnaround times for in-house repair and rebuilds of even the largest equipment. This will help customers to be proactive about scheduled maintenance and realize up to a 40 percent savings when comparing rebuilding to buying new equipment.

FlexXray has announced a significant growth investment from Warburg Pincus, a global growth investor and Tilia Holdings, a Chicago-based private investment firm focused exclusively on the food and nutrition supply chain. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. FlexXray is a provider of x-ray inspection services focused exclusively on food safety. FlexXray assists leading food manufacturers with regulatory compliance and food safety issues by identifying and removing foreign contaminants from food.

Flavorchem and Orchidia Fragrances have launched their new co-branded website as a reflection of the company’s innovation and positioning to better serve the changing needs of local and global clients After rebranding both divisions in January of 2019, the family-owned business made the strategic decision to move to a single, co-branded website that represents both Flavorchem and Orchidia Fragrances. The dual branding reinforces the direction of the company’s evolution, which is bringing both divisions closer together. The increased alignment of the two divisions leverages the strengths of both brands and allows Orchidia to better leverage the scale and resources of Flavorchem.

Kalsec celebrated the opening of its newest facility with a dedication ceremony on Thursday, July 22, 2021. The Don Berdahl Center for New Technology is named in honor of Dr. Don Berdahl, who retired as the company’s chief technical officer in 2019. Kalsec has invested over $10 million in the project, which will support deeper collaboration with its customers to deliver on consumer demands for natural and sustainable foods and beverages.

Kemin Industries has selected Rebecca Lucas to serve as director of research and development (R&D) for its human nutrition and health business unit. Lucas previously spent 10 years at Kemin, building expertise in the company and its industries through roles in R&D, marketing and strategic acquisition. Since 2018, she has been with MedPharm Iowa—owned by Kemin President and CEO Dr. Chris Nelson—where she helped launch the state’s first licensed manufacturer of medical cannabis. As technical development manager, Lucas supported a line of 14 products, advocated for legislation that increased patients’ access to medical cannabis, boosted physician and community outreach efforts, and advanced expansion efforts for MedPharm Iowa outside of the state.