Eastern promise for freeze-dried ingredients

Freeze-dried ingredient supplier Chaucer Foods aims to expand its business in the Far East and launch into sweet and savoury snacks this year, predicting a boom in the products it supplies.

“Geographically one of our target areas is the Far East, where they are starting to eat more breakfast cereals,” said Chaucer Foods’ sales and marketing director Richard Brewer.
Breakfast cereals are one of the most popular areas of demand for freeze-dried fruit, but Brewer said: “There’s a role for freeze-dried ingredients in the snack food category used in combination with other materials, such as grilled vegetables or savoury biscuits to form healthy snacks.
“In the US, manufacturers are looking at small packs of freeze-dried ingredients aimed at the toddler market, getting kids used to eating freeze-dried products.”
Brewer said some of Chaucer Foods’ latest work had focused on combining fruit and vegetable powders to deliver a concentrated hit of vitamins, proteins and phytonutrients.
The company has launched a superfruits powder blend and Brewer added: “We are looking at peas, sweetcorn and fig, a high fibre powder that enables us to use the protein content of sweetcorn. Processors can use it to create products that allow mums to get green vegetables into kids without them knowing.
“The confectionery industry uses freeze-dried fruits coated with chocolate or yoghurt, which is a big market in Japan already. Our powders are used in bars, ice cream and fun products for kids.”
Chaucer Foods also makes croutons from factories in Derby and Hull and claims that it is the world’s biggest crouton manufacturer. Much of its business lies in export, with sales to 30 countries, and it has processing bases in France and China, while the US is its largest single market.
The company has a turnover of £70M and customers include Unilever, Nestlé and The Campbell Soup Company.