Natural Perspectives at the Symrise Beverage Inspiration Day 2011 in Noerdlingen

In Noerdlingen, everything focused on naturalness in September 2011. Guests from more than 20 countries learned at the two-day event how the trend towards naturalness is influencing the beverage industry and the development of products and continues to develop itself. Oceanographer and filmmaker Céline Cousteau gave the participants food for thought.

Frank von Keutz, Symrise Vice President BU Beverages EAME, welcomed the attendees from all over the world. Also among the participants were representatives of the Symrise management: Dr. Heinz Jürgen Bertram, CEO; Hans Holger Gliewe, Global President Flavor & Nutrition; and Heinrich Schaper, President Flavor & Nutrition EAME.

The speeches and presentations looked at the topic naturalness from various perspectives. These are things that are important to consider when developing new beverages.

Birgit Gebhard, Managing Director Trendbuero Hamburg, discussed consumer trends and presented the latest research results on the idea of naturalness. She highlighted the fact that it plays a particularly important role among high-income groups in Europe, but also in the rapidly growing urban middle classes, for example in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. She concludes that consumers want modern products with natural ingredients.

Oceanographer and filmmaker Céline Cousteau, granddaughter of the famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, gave a speech on how nature influences human societies. We humans, she appealed to the audience, need nature and would be well advised to do more to protect it.

Additional presentations on naturalness were held at various locations around the historic town of Noerdlingen. Marian Blyth, Product Developer at Unilever, shed light on the topic from the beverage industry’s point of view. Joy Hardinge, a lawyer with AJH Consulting specializing in food law, described what should be taken into account when using natural flavors from the EU flavoring regulations perspective. Later on, Erlon Pereira, Vice President Innovation Flavor & Nutrition Latin America, Symrise Brazil, illustrated the many facets of Symrise’s citrus expertise. He covered topics ranging from highly concentrated and molecularly distilled citrus oils to corporate responsibility activities in the citrus-growing region. The company’s location in Sorocaba, Brazil, is in the center of the world’s largest citrus plantations. Here, Symrise makes every effort to handle resources carefully. Innovative new beverage concepts from all product segments were exhibited, and participants were given all the details on Symrise’s Naturally Citrus!®, Fruity Essentials, Taste Modulation, and Botanicals competences.