Enhancing the environmental and health performance of our solutions depends on our ability to incorporate sustainability into every aspect of the development of new products. We consider the impact of our oils from plant to brand.
We work continuously to integrate greater environmental performance into the innovation processes, so we may improve the impact of our solutions.
Over the last decade, product criteria have been focused on functionality and meeting health and nutrition needs. However, product development trends today are also influenced by climate change, resource efficiency, less processing, and natural products.
Innovations in sustainability are often deeply embedded in our solutions, but not always very noticeable. Nevertheless, we have continued to progress on resource efficiency and reducing waste.
For example, our solution COBAO™ Pure is a cocoa butter that improves the shelf life of chocolate products, which is less processed than other products with a similar functionality. This enables customers to create products with less environmental impact, while reducing waste at the same time.
Processing with better resource efficiency
Processing is another crucial improvement area when it comes to meeting market demand, both in terms of our own and our customers’ production.
Many processes in the food industry are characterized by relatively high resource intensity, such as energy and water. New innovation projects at AAK will be measured up against these parameters and it is our role as an ingredient supplier to make sure that new products and processes do not create an adverse or unexpected impact.
”Plant-based oils are, in essence, renewable products, storing solar energy in the plant in a format that is then available for humans with minimal conversion cost”, says Karsten Nielsen, Chief Technology Officer at AAK. ”Year after year, it is our obligation to cooperate with our stakeholders in the best possible way to minimize the resources used in this conversion and lessen our impact on the environment.”
