With almost 20 years of food innovation experience Marc
has a particular interest in nutritional foods. During his many
years in the business, food innovation and the industry as
a whole, has seen a lot of changes. Above all, the image of
and attitude towards fat has gone through some transformation.
From being considered an unhealthy ingredient, the
nutritional and biological importance of fats and fatty acids
has become more and more important.
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Marc Vissers. “For sure, the implementation of the EFSA
nutritional health claim regulation was a big game changer.
It used to be relatively easy to implement new innovative
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became stricter with the implementation and this almost
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The trend has changed somewhat and during the last
couple of years there has been an increase in nutritional
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still requires solid clinical evidence.
Marc has also observed a shift in infant nutrition where
a predominant focus on exactly mimicking the composition
of mother’s milk “on the package” has moved towards a
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as being absorbed and utilized by the body. A very good
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and Frutarom.
Drivers of innovation
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is, of course, the needs and requirements of the company’s
customers. Marc has a global responsibility for innovation
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changing preferences and trends the process is, in the
end, all about listening and talking to customers. And here,
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Managers and Customer Innovation Managers, plays an
important role in the company’s co-development process.
The team has recently launched a new product for the infant
food industry.
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blend, has been launched in Europe”, says Marc. “Together
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brain development of infants and it has been advised that
the concentration of ARA should be at least equal to that of
DHA.”
In mother’s milk, 20 percent of the DHA and ARA
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made possible by AAK’s 2015 investment in a business in
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As seen in the EFSA case, regulation is another important
driver of innovation. Regulation changes often have
immense consequences on the industry. When, for example,
the EU decided to double the minimum level of DHA in
infant foods or when it set very strict limits on glycidol esters,
companies in the infant formula industry and their suppliers
needed to make necessary alterations in order to meet the
new requirements.
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The newly created product development team has had a
positive start and Marc Vissers is optimistic about the future.
The team is currently working on establishing important
relationships with external partners, for example service
providers on novel food regulations and trial facilities for
powder production. The recent product launch for the European
market will later this year be followed by a new concept
aiming at the infant formula industry.
“We are also seeing new opportunities for our egg phospholipid
products”, says Marc. “Today, these products are
mainly used within infant nutrition, but we see great opportunities
for targeting adults and seniors as well and for taking
on new geographical areas. In addition, we have a pipeline
of new exciting projects targeting the nutritional segment
which will mature over the next few years.”