Global flavour powerhouses will lift the lid of new zest for food production as manufacturers race to improve efficiency at the Gulfood Manufacturing 2019, to be held in October in Dubai, UAE. The largest food and beverage processing and packaging show in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, will return for its sixth edition from October 29 to 31 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Growing food safety and waste concerns and a desire to get produce to market faster and more affordable are now driving innovation and impacting the equipment producers choose in a fiercely competitive F&B market. The event will address these and other industry issues with the latest in processing technology on show across 81,000-sq-m of exhibition space, said a statement from the organisers.

Tailored networking opportunities afforded at the event will also shape the industry’s future, with sector-wide collaboration crucial to meeting the challenges, according to Swiss flavours manufacturing powerhouse Givaudan. The firm is making its Gulfood Manufacturing debut this year, aiming to use the platform to seek out partners to “co-create and innovate”.

Antonoine Khalil, Givaudan’s commercial head –Middle East and Africa, believes said: “Some of the challenges we’re seeing include changing consumer attitudes towards ingredients, origin, labelling, authenticity, sustainability, health and wellness. Consumer attitudes have significantly evolved in recent years – not only in mature markets – and we need to respond with speed, efficiency and new solutions.”

“Affordability in developing markets where consumers are becoming more conscious about how to spend their money is also another key issue. We are stepping up our efforts to tackle these challenges as part of a global innovation ecosystem, while leveraging our market-leading knowledge and expertise for scalability to drive the necessary speed, efficiency and new solutions,” Khalil added.

Another Gulfood Manufacturing debutant from Switzerland, Firmenich, a leading privately-owned fragrance and flavour company, will be demonstrating its innovations for fat and salt reduction, MSG

replacers, taste enhancers and alternative ‘green’ protein solutions amid the trend for sugar reduction and going ‘natural’, which is driving technological innovation.

Thoger Larsen, VP Flavors IMA, Firmenich, said: “In tackling today’s malnutrition crisis, our latest technology TastePrint can reduce up to 100 per cent of added sugar naturally while keeping an equal taste experience. This year alone with our taste modulation technologies we removed 215 metric tonnes of sugar from products.”