Givaudan is a Swiss company that manufactures flavors, fragrances and cosmetics – and they’re working to help companies commit to the global plant-based food transformation. We got to chat with the company’s Global Director of Front-End Innovation, Rahul Shinde, about their current projects.
Don’t forget to check in with Givaudan at this summer’s Future Food-Tech Alternative Proteins summit!
Joey Thurman: Swiss manufacturer of flavor is fragrances and cosmetics, Givaudan, is helping companies make the commitment to be a part of the global plant-based food transformation. Joining us today is the company's global director of front end innovation, Rahul Shinde. Rahul let's start with an easy question, what is Givaudan?
Rahul Shinde: Thanks for having me here. Givaudan is a purpose led organization. Our purpose is creating for happier, healthier lives with love, for nature. Let's imagine together. What that means is that we really want to get closer to the consumer focus on their needs, desires, while being responsible in providing those solutions in the most sustainable manner.
For that, we have been investing heavily in innovation in consumer learning. And through all of that what we are trying to be is human by nature. So I'm really excited to be here talking to you more about how we are working in the plant based category as well.
Joey Thurman: I love that we all want to be happier and healthier and human by nature, so that's great. It sounds like you have a lot of moving parts to your company. How do the different departments interact with each other to create the most delicious, nutritious and sustainable solutions for your customers?
Rahul Shinde: Yes, for that we always lead with the consumer. For us the consumer experience is the biggest part of the story. So we have our wide portfolio of products divided into different categories like, feel good experiences, does good experiences, and imagine as the future. In each of those, we have different focus areas from a taste and sense perspective to health and nutrition perspective.
As well as keeping door open for creating new experiences as we learn more with the consumer. For that, we have global teams that develop new ingredients through consumer discovery. And there are regional local teams that work very closely with our customers to understand their needs and the consumers to understand all the insights. And putting it all together through collaboration with our end customers is all how we work on it together as a team.
Joey Thurman: That's great. I'm feeling good. It's helping the company it's helping the consumers, you're listening to those customers. Now what specific services do you offer to those customers in the plant-based market?
Rahul Shinde: Specifically for a plant-based market, we have what is called end to end concept development that we work with our customers on. That means starting with the consumer insights, working with the customer to understand what is the gap that they're trying to fill? What is the challenge they're trying to overcome?
And using that to create concepts and solutions that take into account are the technologies that are available in the marketplace, including juvenile technologies. And see how all of those work together and from there taking it all the way to a [inaudible 00:02:52] plan scale up and all the way to commercialization.
So we partner with our customers throughout that journey from initial concept, all the way to taking it to the market. And for this, we have variety of centers, like I mentioned, regional centers. But we also have invested in capabilities like, exclusion capabilities in some of our sites in Kiental, Switzerland, as well as in Singapore.
And there are new sites coming all across the world that where we will have exclusion capabilities, application labs, kitchens, flavorist. All the technical expertise will be there to be able to support these customers on the journey to create great tasting nutritious products.
Joey Thurman: You guys are solving problems across the world. Now a few years ago, Givaudan launched MISTA to support companies in the food industry. How's that going?
Rahul Shinde: MISTA is a great example of how we do procreation and collaboration with not only startups. But with other members as well that are part of the ecosystem. What we created MISTA for is to create a better future of food, which is more abundant, sustainable. As well as being able to work collaboratively to create a better food system.
For that we have now expanded MISTA significantly in the last four or five years that it has been in existence. So we have now 40 active members at MISTA which includes the large corporations like [inaudible 00:04:17]. As well as medium sized, well funded companies who are doing really well, like Brightseed and [inaudible 00:04:24].
And startup members who are going to be at the future food tech, even themselves as well. All working together to see how we can create this better future of food collectively through collaboration and co-creation.
Joey Thurman: Now Givaudan has teamed up with several other industry giants including Buehler, Cargill, and PURIS, to launch the scale it up innovation challenges. Why are programs like this so important specifically in the alternative protein sector?
Rahul Shinde: The reason these are important is because what we noticed when we are looking at this space is that there's a lot of investment that is coming in early stage companies. Where it's about helping them create their concepts, helping them create their solutions. And of course, all of us were already supporting these companies in this phase.
What we noticed is that the next phase when the products are ready and you're going to market, there is not enough support to be able to commercialize and really make a big impact at the marketplace. And so what we thought is, "How can we do a better job in this space by combining the resources from these large companies like Cargill, Buehler, PURIS, and Givaudan.
And see how we can support these startups in going to the next level. And that's what we have been doing with the scale it up challenge. We had a very, very good challenge last year, where we had great participation by numerous startups. And from there, one of the winners, which nowadays is actually going to be at the future food tech show.
Presenting their product, and also is scaling up the solutions and bringing it to customers as we speak. So we are very excited to see that collaboration working so well. And we are looking forward to having more iterations of this version in other parts of the world and the nutrition coming up next year.
Joey Thurman: That must be exciting to see these products come to fruition that you helped out with. Now you are going to be speaking at the Future Food-Tech Alternative Protein Summit. Can you give us a sneak peek of what we can expect from Givaudan?
Rahul Shinde: Through all of these different co-creation collaboration efforts that we have been doing for the last several years, I would be talking about what are the best practices? What has been working? What are the key learnings and how can we all come together and look at each other, beyond our commercial boundaries.
And see how we can collaborate to create much more sustainable future for our planet together, with our capabilities. And help meet the purpose of what Givaudan set out to be, which is creating for happy, healthier lives with love, for nature. And let's imagine together.
Joey Thurman: Thank you so much for joining us today, Rahul. And make sure you connect with Givaudan at Future Food-Tech Alternative Protein Summit in New York this week, June 21st and 22nd.
Rahul Shinde: Thanks for having me here.