Brussels, October 21, 2013--- Solvay announces that its Aroma Performance business unit has won the ICIS* Best Product Innovation Award 2013 for its Govanil™ flavor whose revolutionary long-lasting and intensity of taste allows for a lower use of fat and sugar in pastry, bakery and chocolate food products.
Solvay Aroma Performance has developed a new generation of vanilla flavours named Govanil™ that provides at least 20% more overall flavor intensity than standard vanilla flavors. Govanil™ enables fat and sugar reduction in recipes, providing taste reinsurance, strong cost reductions for industrial producers as well as health improvements for final consumers.
“My team and I are honored to have been awarded this beautiful prize which crowns 6 years of intense research in a strongly developing area: that of true taste intensity and of healthy food,” said Matthieu Helft, head of Research and Innovation at Solvay Aroma Performance. “Vanilla is among the world’s most sought after and best loved flavors due to its unique sensory qualities and ability to bring out the best in other flavors. The Govanil™ range represents a qualitative leap forward, setting the benchmark for vanilla flavors.”
Govanil™ is a global patented innovation integrating Solvay’s expertise in chemical and process engineering (using a new CRF™ technology), food applications (new advanced functional formulations) and marketing within the growing aroma ingredients business. It resulted from a 6-year research and innovation program in Solvay’s Vanil’Expert center that gathers 15 searchers from different backgrounds, including food technologists who assist food customers in developing their new formulas.
Designing vanilla flavors since 1884, the Aroma Performance business unit was the first to synthesize and produce the vanillin molecule on an industrial scale. Solvay is the only producer mastering the whole manufacturing chain in each of its facilities in both Saint-Fons (France) and Baton Rouge (USA) and soon will be operating in China.
*ICIS is a leading global provider of news and information for the chemical and energy sectors.
The Aroma Performance global business unit includes Solvay Group’s diphenol and fluorinated intermediates operations, comprising three main product segments: flavors and fragrances for the food and perfumery markets (with its flagship vanillin and ethyl-vanillin product line sold under the Rhovanil® and Rhodiarome® brand names); intermediates for the crop protection, pharmaceutical and electronics markets; and finally, inhibitors solutions used for by-products of the petrochemical industry.
As an international chemical group, SOLVAY assists industries in finding and implementing ever more responsible and value-creating solutions. The Group is firmly committed to sustainable development and focused on innovation and operational excellence. Solvay serves diversified markets, generating 90% of its turnover in activities where it is one of the top three worldwide. The group is headquartered in Brussels, employs about 29,000 people in 55 countries and generated 12.4 billion euros in net sales in 2012. Solvay SA SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg: SOLB.BB- Reuters: SOLBt.BR).
