Vanilla is one of the world’s most popular spices and an important ingredient in a wide range of products, from chocolate and perfume to pharmaceuticals and agricultural aids. Vanillin is an aromatic compound extracted from vanilla pods after the harvesting, fermentation and curing process, but with the market concentrated in the hands of a small group of suppliers and extreme price volatility, the risk of delays or inconsistent batches is high. At AromataGroup, we have already responded to strong market demands and to the needs of our customers, developing a flavouring solution that replaces the vanillin in the recipe at a 1:1 ratio, so that the formula remains unaltered and there is no need for a new validation process for the finished product.
However, the growth of clean-label trends and the increased consumer interest in organic, Fairtrade and natural foods has led to the widespread cultivation, processing and application of vanilla extracts and vanilla beans in food and cosmetic products worldwide, driven mainly by the demand for products free from artificial additives and flavourings – key target consumer group are naturally Millennials, who are also very concerned about the cultivation sustainability and raw materials traceability.
The main application markets in the F&B sector remain bakery products, ice cream, frozen and spoonable desserts, with an increasing interest in certified origin vanilla and distinct, unique profiles, linked to a growing consumer sophistication. As a result, in addition to Bourbon vanilla (Madagascar), which accounts for the largest market share, Mexico vanilla, Tahitian vanilla and Indonesian vanilla are emerging – other producing countries such as India do not yet have a sufficiently well-defined profile to form a category of their own.
At AromataGroup – as well as in the most recent Italian acquisition of the Nactarome group, FIAS – we can boast decades of expertise in producing not only hydroalcoholic extracts and vanilla tinctures with certified organic and Fairtrade origin, but also in developing and offering a full range of natural and 95:5 natural flavourings, both liquid and powder, to meet all application, as well as organoleptic and consumer requirements.
Our expertise in vanilla starts with a controlled and certified supply chain, passes through processing and transformation skills, and leads to sensory expertise, which allows us to map extracts and flavourings based on specific organoleptic identifiers, such as “beany”, “floral”, “fruity”, “creamy”, “smoky”, “caramel/ maple”, to identify the best reference for the application and end market of our customers’ products.
