Martin Bauer Group/Plantextrakt at the Food ingredients Europe 2009 - Herbal extracts offer multifarious properties

The Plantextrakt business unit of the Martin Bauer Group celebrated the premiére of its new product concept at the Food ingredients Europe (FiE) in November 2009. The Martin Bauer Group drew the attention of trade fair visitors to the multifarious properties of herbal extracts with its SUPERHERBS concept.

The Plantextrakt business unit of the Martin Bauer Group celebrated the premiére of its new product concept at the Food ingredients Europe (FiE) in November 2009. The Martin Bauer Group drew the attention of trade fair visitors to the multifarious properties of herbal extracts with its SUPERHERBS concept. The fantastic flavour, additional functional benefits and higher product value combined with reasonable manufacturing costs convinced the trade public, who were able to try some examples of the beverage recipes for themselves.

"Herbal extracts have been used in food and beverages all over the world for many centuries. The number of manufacturers who use the multifarious benefits of herbal extracts is growing all the time," according to Oliver Hehn, Product Manager at Plantextrakt. "We developed our SUPERHERBS product concept with this in mind and presented it to the trade public for the first time at the Food ingredients Europe in Frankfurt." Many manufacturers from the food and beverage industries discovered the diversity of taste offered by herbal extracts and the vast range of possible applications. There are three factors, which make up the secret of the SUPERHERBS concept's success: unique taste, additional functional benefits and cost-optimised production combined with a higher product value.

Taste as a success factor
Beverage manufacturers, dairies, producers of baby food and confectionery ? the visitors to the stand all agreed that taste is the most important factor when it comes to the success of food. In this respect, the herbal extracts from the SUPERHERBS concept won visitors over with a taste experience that many consumers regard as being familiar but far from ordinary. "We developed numerous beverage recipes and invited visitors to taste them in order to demonstrate the diversity of tastes offered by SUPERHERBS," the Product Manager explains. These recipes included a milk drink with black tea and ginger extracts, as well as natural coconut flavouring, and a "near water" beverage with extracts from balm mint, grape seed and peppermint. "Apart from presenting our products," Oliver Hehn continues, "we were able to talk to visitors and show them how they can use SUPERHERBS to meet the individual requirements of their customers and score extra points among consumers with delicious product ideas."

Added value included
The Martin Bauer Group also presented recipes for products with additional functional benefits, including a yoghurt drink containing hibiscus, pomegranate and grape seed extracts, and a juice-based drink with hibiscus and peppermint. After all, the SUPERHERBS concept also offers the right herbal extracts for the broad spectrum of functional foods. The high ORAC values determined in the course of testing provides evidence of the high antioxidant potential in the herbal extracts on which the concept is based. "Having already established that rooibos and green tea extracts positively support the skin's regeneration process during a study last year, this year's study primarily focused on hawthorn, cistus and jasmine extracts," the Product Manager explains. "The results show that these are also capable to improve cellular vitality and the renewal process of the skin."

High product value with cost-optimised manufacturing
Taste and additional functional benefits were not the only reasons for the interest focused on the SUPERHERBS concept at the Food ingredients Europe. "In economically challenging times, it is important to present innovations that are not only interesting in terms of price, but also improve the value of a product," Oliver Hehn explains. "This is where the SUPERHERBS concept comes in: the addition of herbal extracts enables products to be positioned at a higher level in the juice-based beverage sector, while the improved formulations offer a means of maintaining or even lowering the costs involved."

The Martin Bauer Group sums up
"Manufacturers who count on herbal extracts are able to distinguish themselves from their competitors to a greater extent, and are ultimately more successfully in the market," says Oliver Hehn. "It will be exciting to see what new product ideas we will be developing with our customers in the very near future."

SUPERHERBS won the trade visitors over: the herbal extracts combine fantastic taste with diverse additional benefits and are also suitable for manufacturing products of a particularly high quality.

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