Ingredient innovation with consumers
and our customers in mind
Ingredient functionality, for us, is all about understanding what our ingredients add to the food matrix, in terms of their physical and chemical functionalities. Agricultural products, by definition, are natural and will always have a slight degree of variance. Origin and growth process combined with post-harvest processing will help determine the functionality of our raw materials and our ingredients. Knowing that, we think alongside our customers about how they can best incorporate our ingredients in their end-applications and help them make their ideas and ambitions for new products real.
Winning the battle for market share starts with meeting our customer’s needs for great tasting, great looking products with an optimal mouthfeel. But great taste, snap and bite, with an appealing product color, do not always match the increasing consumer desire for fewer additives in their food products. This is why we are always looking for opportunities to develop natural ingredients without the use of additives to suit clean label applications. Our nut ingredients deliver incredible texture, taste and nutrition without any complex artificial ingredients.
Several natural ingredients across our portfolio can help you recover missing elements like color and flavor. Take our spices – they can help formulators create a realistic, meat-like color in plant-based alternatives, all while maintaining a clean-label and adding to the overall flavor profile. And then there is cocoa. Cocoa powder can be used as a coloring agent in vegetarian/vegan products: deZaan Fresco Cacao F11FR is a non-bitter, mild cocoa powder that can be used to create fresh chocolate plant-based yogurts.
Another example is the development of our “TrueDark” cocoa powder, whilst staying away from color enhancing additives. And there is more. How we do it? If you work with us, we will share our darkest secrets!
Across our portfolio, health and nutrition benefits – both long-standing and emerging – are a common denominator. The nutritional value of our nuts, the macro and micronutrients of dairy, the theobromine and antioxidants in cocoa and the health associations of many spices really form a wealth of opportunities for our customers. We are always looking to see how these benefits can be protected and enhanced during the manufacturing process, whilst still tasting great.
With the world’s resources under pressure, we seek to get everything we can from our raw materials. Not only to create value for our farmers, but also to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. This often uncovers new and exciting opportunities. Our sweet and fruity cascara for instance, was developed out of coffee husks, which is the skin and pulp of the coffee cherry fruit. The ingredient is now used for beverage infusions and concentrates across multiple applications to meet the growing trend for healthy indulgence.
Read ofi news
Author | Andrew Brooks | Head of Sustainability, Cocoa, ofi
World Chocolate Day, a day to not only indulge, but to remember the people and landscapes that grow the cocoa that goes into our favorite products. Both are vital to help maintain a sustainable future for cocoa production. That’s why as part of our Cocoa Compass sustainability ambition, we collaborate with our customers and partners on multi-stakeholder partnerships to drive collective action and lasting impact.
Climate change is among the biggest challenges in growing cocoa. In Indonesia, for example, intensive rainfall, drought, rising temperatures, and an increase in related pests, threatens farmer yields and erodes their livelihoods, including those of women and indigenous groups that depend on their crops for subsistence. Yet many farmers struggle to access the support they need to adapt and become more resilient.
A climate-smart agroforestry system is key to addressing and mitigating climate change risks, which is why we co-created the Landscape Approach to Sustainable and Climate Change Resilient Cocoa and Coffee (LASCARCOCO), a three-year partnership with USAID, non-profit Rikolto, the Hershey Company, and the Indonesian Government, to help 6,500 farmers increase yields by 25% and conserve 14,000 hectares by late 2025.
Through the partnership, we have developed a new curriculum to train farmers in Good Agricultural Practices and climate adaption, promoted sustainable agroforestry – where forest and shade trees are planted alongside cocoa and coffee to restore forest covers – and provided farmers with seedlings. It’s already making a difference – in year one of the project, approximately 8,600 individuals were reached directly or indirectly via the program. The LASCARCOCO USAID ofi project has successfully bridged a constructed collaborative action with stakeholders involved in the project such as farmers, forest communities, government, and forest authorities to deliver an agroforestry program.
Good landscape governance is also critical to protect the land and the incomes of the farmers who work it. In Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, we’re working with the Rainforest Alliance and USAID on the Resilient Ecosystems and Sustainable Transformation of Rural Economies (RESTORE) project. This not only promotes regenerative and sustainable cocoa production; it also aims to strengthen Landscape Management Boards (LMBs).
These boards are important because they bring key stakeholders together – community members, local farmers, the Ghanaian Forestry Commission, and COCOBOD – and give the local community a say in how the land is managed. We provide ongoing support and training to LMB members on everything from management and financial literacy to climate-smart farming and forest-friendly enterprises such as beekeeping and piggery.
Whilst we’re proud of the impact we have made so far, there is still much more to do. We remain focused on working with customers, civil society, national governments, and other stakeholders to support farmers and to protect landscapes across origins – so when consumers pick up their chocolate bar or cocoa-flavored treat, they can be confident that it’s been produced in a way that supports people and helps protect the planet.
Author | Billie Elmqvist Thurén | Human Rights ofi Sustainability & Cocoa Lead
Accessible education is an effective way to reduce the risk of the incidence of child labor as well as providing a foundation for protecting children’s rights. Through our Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), we monitor and identify the specific needs of communities across our nine global sustainable sourcing regions.
From providing access to schools closer to home to initiatives that empower cocoa households to be more economically resilient, here are a few ways we are removing barriers for children in our cocoa supply chain to attend school and develop their future potential.
- New 2030 social and environmental targets set for ofi’s global operations which span ~50 countries, building on the existing product-specific strategies for cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices.
- Strong focus on supply chain excellence to enhance supplier engagement, mitigate supply chain risks, and give customers more rigorous, verifiable data for sustainability decision-making and reporting.
- Impact will be achieved in partnership with farmers, governments, civil society and ofi’s customers, backed by clear action plans and methodologies outlined by ofi.
ofi, a leading supplier of naturally good food and beverage ingredients, today unveiled a new sustainability strategy – ‘Choices for Change’ and ambitious 2030 targets.
Global food brands and retailers are facing growing consumer demand for sustainable products, with increasing weather related and other challenges in the food supply chain and significant new sustainability linked legislation coming up. With ‘Choices for Change’, ofi will provide these companies and their consumers with specific choices to deliver long-term impact across four critical pillars: Prosperous Farmers, Thriving Communities, Climate Action, and Regenerating the Living World.
Every 2030 target in the Choices for Change strategy delivers on key customer needs, including:
- Delivering enhanced livelihood support to one million farmers, helping them to be more productive and deliver better quality ingredients.
- Cutting scope 3 emissions by 30% to offer customers verifiable, low-carbon products and ingredients and contribute to net-zero commitments.
- Bringing 2 million hectares of land under regenerative farming practices to create long-term farm resilience and products with verified positive natural impact.
To give customers more rigorous, verifiable data for sustainability decision-making and reporting, the strategy incorporates a focus on supply chain excellence. This brings traceability, data insights, risk mitigation, verification, and in-depth supplier engagement together to enable the right choices and includes ofi’s suite of award-winning tech tools like AtSource - the sustainability management system and its built in Carbon Scenario Planner for planning and costing climate action.
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