foodstuff

no 1/02
no 1/00
Lyckeby
foodstuff
Polish sausage
explores new
routes p. 2
EU calls for traceability
5
She knows what you eat!
6
Fibre– the natural ingredient
8
www.food.lyckeby.com
The Polish
poultry industry
cans p r e a d i t s w i n g s
Poultry is conquering the Polish table – a chicken leg or
a turkey breast are more often chosen over a pork cutlet
or a fillet of beef. Traditionally it is the latter dishes that
have dominated.
TEXT JÖRGEN OLSSON PHOTO SIMON CYGIELSKI
P
oultry consumption is increasing strongly in
Poland. The annual rate of around 16 kilograms
per person is higher than in the EU countries.
“Poultry has become established on the
Polish food market and is in an excellent position
for continued growth,” says Dr. Hanna Szalkowska,
Director of Development at Drosed, Poland’s largest
manufacturer of poultry related foodstuffs. She receives
us in her office in the small town Siedlce, some 100 kilometres east of Warsaw, where the Drosed headquarters
have been the last 40 years.
The Drosed process is complex, encompassing all parts
of the production chain. It starts at breeding, moves on
through slaughter, working, production and refinement and
finishes with distribution. The annual slaughtering comprises around 65 000 tons poultry, including chickens, turkeys,
geese and ducks. The end results are both fresh products
such as poultry hams, sausage, liver paste, brawn and patés,
as well as various tinned products.
Nutritious and easy to prepare
Polish consumers are increasingly demanding foods with
higher quality and nutritional content. In addition, the
increased tempo and rising number of working women
have combined to create a demand for food that is easy to
fix, highly nutritious and even available in a varied range.
Health factors are playing an ever-larger role in the consumer choices. As poultry is recommended by Polish
physicians, dieticians and nutrition physiologists, demand
2➞3
for poultry products increases as Poles seek to eat right
and protect their health.
It is primarily younger consumers who reject cutlets,
sausage and other pork products in favour of wings or
ready-cooked dishes, most of them poultry-based. Sales
of fresh poultry parts has also increased greatly, while
provisions and tinned products using poultry have a
faithful consumer group. Of late, Drosed’s
range has been expanded to include
nuggets, chicken burgers and
ready-cooked dishes.
Gdansk
Warsaw
Germany
Czech
Republic
Siedlce
Belarus
POLAND
Katovice
Ukraine
Slovakia
relations
Eating lots of pork is an old Polish tradition. But the consumer patterns are changing, in much because the younger consumers want more
poultry. Drosed has won ground with a series of ready-cooked chicken dishes. Another top-seller in Poland and outside is this chicken paté.
Drosed/Siedlce
Drosed is more than 40 years old and is the largest
actor in the Polish poultry industry. The company
uses hens, turkeys, ducks and geese, delivering both
fresh parts and refined products such as patés, pies,
sausage and ready-cooked dishes.
The company has facilities in Siedlce, Torun,
Tomaszow Mazowiecki and Miedzyrzec Podlaski with
a combined labour force of some 1 800 persons.
The main owner is the French corporate
group LDC.
››
www.food.lyckeby.com
Dr. Hanna Szalkowska is director of development
at Drosed. As product development is one of
her functions, she keeps a close eye on both the
competition and on market trends.
››
Drosed is licensed to export to the EU, sending
geese and ducks to Germany and Holland, as well as
chicken to England. The feathers are sold in Japan.
Work is ongoing to develop export to countries like
the Ukraine, Russia and Azerbaijan.
The Siedlce facility may seem a bit old-fashioned on
the outside. But the company has installed fully modern
lines, systems and equipment for both slaughtering and
quality control. Drosed has every reason to view the future
positively – last year sales grew by nearly five percent and
the company is secure in the fact the Poles, just like most
everybody else, prefer their own, domestic foods.
Dr. Szalkowska co-ordinates the technological work
at Drosed and is deeply involved in development. She
participates in industry lectures and marketing meets,
keeping up to date by reading industry journals. In constant contact with the marketing division, she follows
new trends at various food fairs in Poland and elsewhere.
“Everything points to an increased desire for poultry
meat over both pork and beef,” she explains.
Naturally the company has an ongoing dialogue with
wholesalers and large store chains in order to follow trends.
Privatisation and French investment
Tastes from all around the world
Students and full-time workers are an interesting target
audience. Because they do not wish to put too much time
into cooking, Drosed has developed a series ready-cooked
dishes that are expected to be top-sellers. They have long
shelf-life and need only heating.
“The flavours and sauces span the globe, borrowing from
Thailand, Mexico and China,” says Dr. Hanna Szalkowska.
The company became private ten years ago initiating a
completely new phase. Today Drosed is a corporate group
led by Chairman of the Board and CEO R. Pietkiewicz and
supported by French capital. The Drosed Group includes facilities in Siedlce and Torun, plus the companies Sedar in Miedzyrzec Podlaski and Poldrob in Tomaszow Mazowiecki. The
company has been listed on the Polish stock exchange since
1994 and in 2000 gained an important capital infusion with
the involvement of the French company LDC, one of the
largest poultry producers in Europe.
Drosed and Lyckeby Stärkelsen
Collaboration between Drosed and Lyckeby Stärkelsen’s
Polish agent Carlestam began a decade ago. For six
months, Drosed has been using a structural fibrebased product specifically designed for their
needs.
“The goal is to retain the excellent product
structure. This fibre helps us ensure that the
consistency we and our consumers want is
what we get. The result is increased sales of
both our paté and our brawn,” explains Dr.
Szalkowska.
The success with the brawn and paté has led
to other uses. Today Drosed has two projects
under development where the Lyckeby Stärkelsen fibre plays an important role.
“We are trying to use it as part of cold-cut
chicken ham and intend to try it with sausages as
well,” finishes Dr. Szalkowska.
4➞5
health
& safety
EU focus
Affe©
on t r a c e a b i l i t y
EU rules are being sharpened to require that every ingredient in food must
be traceable to its manufacturer and distributor. The decision was taken by
the EU ministers of agriculture and the foodstuffs producers have been given
until January 1, 2005, to develop routines for satisfying the new rules.
TEXT SARA BERNSTRUP NILSSON
W
hile the traceability requirement is not new,
so far it’s only applied to separate types of
goods, such as meat. The news is that all
ingredients in the manufacturing chain are now
included. The goal is to make it possible to recall
all products that contain an ingredient that for
some reason is substandard.
Stefan Ernlund is a lawyer at the National Food Administration where the responsibility to ensure compliance
with the new law lies. He has already received several
requests for information from the industry seeking directives for how to follow the new rules.
“So far no one knows how to implement the traceability
requirement. The new ordinance provides a theoretical
framework without any information on how the practical
aspects are to be designed,” he says. “I’m counting on yet
another EU proposal eventually. Based on that, the
member states will be able to develop their own routines.”
While the law is a much stricter one, Stefan Ernlund
believes that the effect will vary in practice.
“Most foodstuff companies will be forced to review their
routines. On the other hand, I know that there are some
who already have well developed routines for traceability.”
The demands for a sure system for scrutinising our food
were made in connection with the scandal about cadaver
meal in the mid-1990s. January of this year saw the approval
of the new European ordinance (178/2002) by the ministers
of agriculture. Now the Department of Agriculture has to
review the Swedish laws and Stefan Ernlund is certain the
laws will be hardened.
“In this case, the EU ordinance supersedes our Swedish law.”
Lyckeby Stärkelsen and traceability
Lyckeby Stärkelsen introduced the so-called cultivation journals
as early as the beginning of the 1990s. Here the farmer writes
down everything he does from when the potato is planted to
when it is delivered. The farmer benefits from the journals. The
information is also used for such tasks as discovering possible
unsatisfactory state of affairs, and is also useful when it comes
to tracing the raw material to its origins.
Once the work with extracting the starch begins, the deliveries from the various farmers can no longer be kept apart,
meaning that the traceability ceases on the detail level. It is
however possible to use the markings on the packaging in the
store to find out where and when the starch was processed.
The modified starch is produced in batches, and can be traced
from the customer backwards through the process to the raw
material.
www.food.lyckeby.com
Food is
a question of d e m o c r a c y
“Future foodstuffs customers are fat, free, angry and healthy!”
Christina Möller pulls no punches. After 32 years in the foodstuffs industry, with
22 of them as head of the Coop Provkök test kitchen, she knows Swedish eating
habits and buying patterns better than we do ourselves.
And she believes the coming generation is filled with strong individualists
who know how to make demands.
TEXT JÖRGEN OLSSON
“I
n the future, the foodstuffs industry has to learn to
listen to the customer and to be completely
honest,” she continues. “From having been controlled by the industry, development in the foodstuffs
companies like ours will be impelled by the
consumers.
A look into the shopping carts is enough to show which
way we are headed. Christina Möller takes more than one
look. She has access to detailed information about customer
purchases since 1992 and knows exactly what can be found
on Swedish dining tables.
“Swedish dinners consist to 85% of ten dishes – falu
sausage, pizza, pasta and minced meat. The old Swedish
plain fare is almost non-existent. Very few will take the time
to make braised ‘high ribs’ any more. In 1960 a housewife
would spend two and a half hours every day preparing food.
Today we’re down to twelve minutes! The only thing the
industry can do is to accept it. What we must do is produce
intelligent meal solutions.”
Food Meccano
Christina Möller describes these intelligent solutions as
construction kits or ‘food Meccano’. They can consist of
ready-made stir-fry vegetables with a touch of Swedish root
vegetables, plus strips or cubes of meat or fish and flavouring.
“It’s important for families to eat prepared food together,”
she says. “It’s so important that it’s a question of democracy,
of creating community, but also about increasing the
knowledge and understanding about the sources of the
food.”
Knowledge about food and cooking has gone down.
Studies have shown that women between 18 and 34 are the
female generation with the least knowledge. The explanation
can be found in equality movement of those born during the
1940s. When women entered the labour market, the
traditional passing down of know-how from mother to
daughter was interrupted.
6➞7
Young men in expensive kitchens
“On the other hand, we’re seeing more and more men in
the kitchen. Their model isn’t mother, but the TV chefs.
They build luxurious kitchens like never before, but they
use them mostly for special occasions like dinner with the
guys and special feasts. Everyday food has low priority.”
The Coop Provkök employs 20 persons divided into three
functional areas. The Food and Recipe Information section
writes 1 000 new recipes annually, produces cookbooks,
carries out studies, answers the consumer telephone and
take care of a recipe databank. The Sensory section tests
products and describe taste, appearance and consistency for
around 6 000 products annually. Finally, the Function
Testing section tests everything that isn’t food, such as
waffle iron, frying pans, detergents and much more.
Changing eating habits
It is vital for Coop to keep track of trends and to try
predicting developments. A step in this process is a careful
mapping of Swedish eating habits. One such fact is that the
proportion who don’t eat breakfast at home is growing,
opening up for new products.
“What we’re seeing here are snackbars with the same
energy content as a serving of porridge and milk, but
handier in every way.”
Everyday five million lunches are served outside the
home.
“This is a golden opportunity to serve nutritious food.
The interest for healthy, quality food is large and the field is
wide open to the producers. However, it’s important to
prove that the food actually has the effect claimed.”
Large interest, small knowledge
When it comes to eating dinner, Christina Möller perceives
a conflict between the interest in food and what we
actually eat.
“On the one hand there is an immense food interest.
portrait
Christina Möller
Head of Coop Provkök
since 1980, prior to that
marketing manager for
the Consumer Association in Göteborg since
1970. Family: Married,
a daughter, two grandchildren. Leisure interests: Skiing and golf.
Favourite books:
Crime stories.
Favourite dish:
Mashed turnips
and boiled pickled
pork.
Today’s and tomorrow’s food buyers have a wide choice. The increased
awareness about quality and health brings with it increased demands,
among which are the necessity to improve convenience foods. Swedish Coop
believes that intelligent meal solutions are the song of the future.
Proof is in the cooking programs on TV and the market for
cookbooks and food magazines. On the other is the fact that
it’s been a long time since we ate this poorly on weekdays.
There is no status in cooking every day – emphasis is on
weekends and special occasions.”
It ought to be natural for the food industry to satisfy the
eating habits of this new age. New products have to be
developed and she thinks that progress varies in the industry.
“The chicken producers have done well. There are poultry
products in all shapes and for all tastes. However, the
provisions companies have a ways to go. They have to learn
to shred, chop, skewer …”
Coop and the future
How then does the Coop Group think? The company has
400 stores, 43 supermarket, 17 000 employees, a turnover of
30 bSEK and a strong influence on Swedish eating habits.
“We have plans up to 2010,” says Christina. “We don’t
think that Swedes will become vegetarians, though we
believe that there will be more vegetables eaten with
obvious conclusions.”
Coop believes in beans, peas and lentils.
“But it can’t be too hard. No one has time to soak and
cook beans, so we’re looking at ready-cooked, marinated
ones.”
But a piece of meat will remain and then mainly lamb and
beef.
“That piece of meat has to be totally honest, in which case
people will be willing to pay a little more,” thinks Christina
and continues by prophesying problems for pork and poultry
producers: “They are too large and are surrounded by
problems.”
Coop Provkök is working with the Trondheim University
to develop foods based on seaweed and algae.
“I think we’ll eat more of that kind of food. But everything
comes down to accessibility,” she continues. “For instance,
tang can be either marinated or dried.”
Food for every lifestyle
One strong trend is towards soup, though not today’s powder
or noodle varieties, but rich, handsome and satisfying soups
with exciting accessories like Parmesan chips or olive bread.
“Bread is also a food of the future. We’re talking about the
concept of ‘bread as a plate’, but not with today’s fatty stews,
but with fresh vegetables, meat and fish.”
On the dairy side Christina Möller is convinced that
Swedes will shortly accept the milk drinks that have been
popular abroad for a good while.
“It’s a lifestyle product, something you take with you and
sip from now and then.”
In general she, and Coop with her, believe in a development which has us taking food from further and further
down in the food chain.
“We simply can’t afford to continue to transform vegetable
in the stomach of animals and then eat the animals. And
what’s important for the meal of the future is not only the
nutritional combination, but also the social happening
surrounding it and the knowledge about how the food is
produced.
www.food.lyckeby.com
Potato fibre
– the n a t u r a l i n g r e d i e n t
Potatoes have many uses and its starch has enabled the development
of many new types of food. Now the fibre part comes to the fore,
contributing its ability to bind large amounts of liquid quickly.
TEXT BENGT JAKOBSSON
P
otato fibre is a naturally functional ingredient that
is becoming an increasingly significant part of
developing new foodstuffs products. Such
potato-based products have a low allergenic effect
and thus are becoming more important as foodstuffs
allergies increase.
Potex potato fibre is a granulate with a particle size of
around 0.5 millimetres. It has been around since
the mid-1980s and its range has now been
expanded by the addition of Potex Crown.
This is a finely ground variant that
enables the Potex fibre to be used in
new applications not previously
possible because of colour and
structural limitations.
In a previous article, we have
Ingredients
Trial 1
described how the injection of
Phosphate
1.0
a brine-solution where one
POTEX
CROWN
ingredient is the fibre-based
Potato starch
product Lyckeby PM 50
Grill spice
2.4
enhances prepared chicken
products. Another way to obtain
Salt
0.6
improved quality and yield is
Water
24.7
tumbling. Trials of chicken fillets
Chicken
100
has achieved large positive effects
when Potex Crown was used in
combination with starch and phosphate.
As shown in the diagram to the right, the
yield was improved from around 75 percent to
over 100 percent. The content of the tumbled fillets
is shown in table 1.
The combination using phosphate is especially advan-
8➞9
tageous, but should it be necessary to avoid phosphates, a
mix using citrate provides a fully acceptable result.
Potex has also demonstrated large benefits in both sausage
and forcemeat products. The latter gain in ease of use,
structural stability and yield at an addition of 0.5-1.0 percent,
resulting in an improved economy. Not only does Potex own
a capacity for absorbing liquids, but even dispersions of fat and water. This means that
Potex serves as an emulsion stabiliser
in for instance sausage batters.
Stable premixes consisting of fat
and water up to 8:8:1 (fat:
water: fibre) can be prepared in the cured meats
and provisions industry.
Trial 2
Trial 3
Control
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
2.4
2.4
0.6
0.6
24.7
24.7
100
100
2.4
100
Yield %
120
100
80
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Con.
functionality
Potex has shown itself significant in both emulsion
sausage and sausage with coarser texture. Among the
advantages are reduced moisture leakage in vacuum pack
and lower frying shrinkage, both for whole and sliced
sausage.
When used in fish and poultry products there has been a
problem with Potex showing up as small particles. Using
Potex Crown obviates this problem without any loss of the
positive characteristics.
Potex can accept a lot of processing. As a natural product, it can replace additive listed ingredients. There are no
problems with low pH, high salt content, sterilisation and
freezing. Use together with other products can result in
some interesting synergy effects – trials with chicken have
shown that the effect is enhanced when Potex is combined
with starch and/or phosphate.
Other applications showing similar effects include
stabilisation of low-fat yoghurt and the injection of brine in
ham.
Potex can replace or supplement soya protein in certain
products where the soya used alone results in a somewhat
compact structure. The fibre provides a shorter one. This
characteristic is also useful in such products as mayonnaise
where it is difficult to obtain the desired structure in
low-fat variants.
It is also worth mentioning that several low-fat concepts
currently on the market build on using such products as
potato fibre.
Potatoes are wonderfully versatile. Their starch
has played an important role in developing new
foods. Their fibre is just as useful – the Lyckeby
Stärkelsen Food & Fibre products Potex and its sister
innovation Potex Crown expand the possibilities in
such foods as chicken, sausage and forcemeats,
low-fat yoghurt, ketchup and fish.
Recepie for
Norwegian
“Fishburgers”
White fish
44.4 %
Milk
44.4
Potato starch
8.0
Potex Crown
1.0
Salt
1.6
Phosphate
0.2
Spices
0.4
www.food.lyckeby.com
M I C R O LY S
•
POTEX
•
OPASET
•
MEETEX
•
TRECO
M
Enormous potential
in s t a r c h a n d f i b r e
Fibre and starch can be found in a number of advanced foodstuffs
applications. And there is more to come.
Magdalena Bergh, Director of Development at Lyckeby Stärkelsen,
has polished up the crystal ball and offers a look at the future.
This is what starch granules from high amylopectine barley looks
like under the microscope.
“I
Sought after characteristics
“Gelling is interesting for various emulsion applications, such
as in liver paté and different dairy products,” says Magdalena.
Today potato fibres form the mainstay for meat products, in
much because of their coveted ability to bind water and to
lend a fullness and substance.
“Now most of the development is happening in dairy
products, but there is a lot left to do.”
10 ➞ 11
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n health, the potato fibre is already useable as a
prebiotic support for the bacterial flora in the large
intestine. Another direction is to use the fibre as a
carrier of other components and ingredients that need
to be released in the intestine,” explains Magdalena
Bergh.
When it comes to future of barley fibres, it is already well
known that the high level of betaglucane owns a capacity to
lower cholesterol levels. The traditional application is in bread
and breakfast cereals. Possible future uses include applications
in cured meats and provisions where some research results
have already been published. One interesting characteristic of
barley fibre is its strong ability to form gels, something that
could be very important in such products as liver paté.
Tomorrow’s emulsifier
When it comes to starches, she sees a great potential in drinks.
Today the oil-based flavouring agents found in such products
as soft drinks require a component that will cause the flavouring to mix in water – an emulsifier. The emulsifier of the
future may well be starch-based.
“Today the most common emulsifier in drinks is gum arabic,
but there is also some starch-based products,” Magdalena
Bergh continues. “Gum arabic is an expensive product when
compared to starch.”
“An important area for Lycke Stärkelsen Food and Fibre is in
general low-fat emulsions, where we have great knowledge. An
example in this area is low-fat mayonnaises,
Another priority area is using starch in dairy products.
“Here we’re well on our way!”, Magdalena Bergh says.
Acting Group CEO for
Ly c k e b y S t ä r k e l s e n
Sven Norup has been acting Group CEO for Lyckeby Stärkelsen
since March. He is the working Chairman of the Board of
Sveriges Stärkelseproducenter, the association that owns the
company, and will act as CEO until a new one has been recruited.
His predecessor, Klas Ralvert, will work with special projects
within the company during a transitional period. At New
Year he will become CEO of Culinar, a part of the Lyckeby
Stärkelsen Group.
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MEX
•
M A R I B I N D • E M O LY S • LY G E L • S W E LY
Still better service
on our homepage
The service on our homepage is taking yet another step up, in
part by becoming more interesting and by making it easier to
access information. One reason is a partially new technical
structure that enables rapid updating. In addition to news
and corporate facts, you will find a lot of information about
our products and applications on food.lyckeby.com. More
than that, there are certificates and testimonials, plus the
customer paper in PDF-format.
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Environmental and
quality certification
Lyckeby Stärkelsen Food & Fibre AB has been quality certified
in accordance with ISO 9002:1994 since 1991. At this time
we’re working on adapting that certification to the new standard ISO 9001:2000. One of the big differences between the
old and the new standards is that the customer is placed at
stage centre, in part by measuring customer satisfaction. The
goal is to complete the transition audit in November, at the
same time as the environmental control system ISO 14001
comes on line.
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Vi s i t u s i n J a p a n !
The large IFIA Fair (International Food Ingredients Asia) is
scheduled for May 14-18 in Japan. The fair venue is the congress centre Big Site in Tokyo.
Lyckeby Stärkelsen
will be there
to work with
our distributor
Mitsui to show the
whole range of
potato fibre and
modified starch.
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GEL
news stuff
The many sides
of starch
When we process potatoes here at Lyckeby
Stärkelsen Food & Fibre we’re talking
about making use of their natural
characteristics. We use careful methods
to reveal the desired functions of the
starch and add meticulous documentation and tested methodology to ensure
safety and traceability.
It is the natural versatility of starch that enables it
to be used in so many different types of foods. There is starch in
ketchup and mayonnaise. It’s used to replace fat in yoghurt and
as a binder in sausage and forcemeats.
Not enough with that, for with our more advanced fibre-based
products chicken becomes juicier, pates firmer and milk drinks
creamier – everything according to need and demand.
In this issue of Lyckeby Foodstuff we offer two examples of
how modern starch and fibre products can be used successfully
by the growing poultry market. In Poland we have been working
for several years now with our Polish partner Carlestam AB in a
successful collaboration with market leading Drosed.
The Potex fibre and the new Potex Crown open additional
possibilities for chicken producers to develop their products
further in order to satisfy consumer demands for freshness and
taste.
All of us do eat, which is why we have given the floor to one
of Sweden’s foremost food experts. Coop Forum’s Christina
Möller knows exactly what can be found in larders, refrigerators
and on the dinner or lunch table. And more – she has the recipe
for how producers, wholesalers and retailers can meet the
demands of the future.
We’re part of that development and hope to be able to
contribute many useful tips and ideas, both in this and future
issues of Lyckeby Foodstuff.
Hans Berggren
Managing Director, Lyckeby Stärkelsen Food & Fibre AB
Lyckeby foodstuff
Editorial board Hans Berggren, Bengt Jakobsson,
Ingela Asplund, Jörgen Olsson (editor)
hans.berggren@lyckeby-starch.se
bengt.jakobsson@lyckeby-starch.se
ingela.asplund@lyckeby-starch.se
jorgen@wirtenmedia.se
Project management Wirtén Media AB, Lund
Address Lyckeby Foodstuff,
Lyckeby Stärkelsen Food & Fibre AB,
SE-291 91 Kristianstad, Sweden.
Print and prepress Trydells, Laholm.
Translation Transförlag
food.lyckeby.com