OUR BUSINESS
Emulsifiers. It’s our whole world.
At Palsgaard, our world is plant-based food emulsifiers and has been for over 100 years. Just like emulsifiers, we’re proud to say that we play a small but crucial role in delivering delicious foods to a growing population. We also offer our responsibly produced, custom-tailored solutions to non-food markets such as polymers and personal care. And we do everything we can to bring peace of mind – in the form of business reliability and supply chain security – to customers in a broad range of industries.
A century of emulsifier expertise
Ever since our founder Einar Viggo Schou invented the plant-based food emulsifier back in 1917, an agile and entrepreneurial spirit has powered our company forward. Our niche emulsifier experts across nine global application centres collaborate closely with our customers to optimise their production capabilities, explore new trends and drive innovation.
Nexus, Palsgaard's specialised research and development sister company, plays a vital role in this process. Nexus has a significant degree of scientific freedom, allowing researchers to push the boundaries of emulsifier technology. This ensures a steady stream of innovative solutions that benefit all of Palsgaard's endeavours.
Emulsifiers enable the mixing of otherwise incompatible ingredients, such as water, oil, and air. While they make up only a fraction of the finished product, they have a huge impact on its quality, allowing makers of bakery, confectionery, condiments, dairy, ice-cream, margarine, and plant-based food products to produce stable emulsions, prevent oil separation, and control aeration and viscosity.
In turn, this enables the production of endless tasty food products, such as soft, moist cakes, perfectly moulded and enrobed chocolates, and delightful whipping creams. When combined with stabilisers, emulsifiers help ice cream, dairy, and plant-based product manufacturers improve the stability, mouthfeel, creaminess, and texture of their creations. Our emulsifiers and stabilisers also make it possible to produce delicious foods with a longer shelf-life while using fewer resources, just as they support food products with leaner labels, less fats, salt, and sugar and free from allergens.
Committed to responsibility
In 1908, long before Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) was ever a thing, our founder established an enduring culture of responsibility, loyalty, and respect at Palsgaard. This meant caring for and celebrating our heart-working colleagues, their families, and our local communities. It’s a commitment that continues to fuel our drive to make Palsgaard a great place to work.
Being niche experts doesn’t mean we lack ambition. From responsible sourcing to reducing our energy consumption and CO2 emissions, we aspire to be better every single day. And we’re actively involved in initiatives tackling societal challenges like food waste, food safety, and food scarcity. We’ve been a member of the RSPO since 2008, and our full range of food emulsifiers is available with RSPO SG certification.
More than food
Our dual-use emulsifiers also serve as plant-based personal care ingredients and polymer additives, which are rapidly emerging as effective, safe, and sustainable alternatives to conventional additive chemistry. By providing anti-static and anti-fog features, they not only help keep food packaging clean and attractive, but also keep food fresh for longer, and help reduce food waste.
Owned by the Schou Foundation, and with 800+ colleagues in 20 countries as well as six factories on four continents, we reported a turnover of 312 million EUR (2.3 billion DKK) in 2024.