Now Palsgaard was battling against the clock to develop lecithin-free products that could satisfy all these requirements. “Many of our customers operate in multiple locations, from Europe to Africa, with different recipes and process conditions for each region,” explains Hamed, “so we had to learn the effects of the process conditions and fat recipes on the functionality of the new product to be able to support everyone’s needs. We don’t want to produce anything that could create challenges for our customers – we sit in their chairs and think about what they need from us so we can supply the right product to them.”
Leaner, cleaner
With the increasing importance of leaner, cleaner labels, one of the development team’s goals was to streamline the raw ingredients in the new emulsifiers to just two E numbers.
“The first thing we did was make a product with citric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides [E472c], and mono- and diglycerides [E471]. After two months of intense experimentation, we came up with a completely lecithin-free recipe that worked well and was ready to be tested on customer sites. Another two months later, we were sending out samples, with many of our customers using them immediately.”
The results are Palsgaard® 0170, based on RSPO SG-certified palm oil, and Palsgaard® 0172, based on rapeseed. “Our RSPO SG-certified palm oil is readily available and has a far higher yield than sunflower or rapeseed, but for those who prefer to be palm-free, we have also created an option with rapeseed, which is cultivated widely in many regions, including Europe and Canada.”