Small but Smart

Blattmann Schweiz AG, headquartered in Wädenswil on Lake Zürich, is a starch factory with a rather long history. For over 160 years, the company has been producing gluten (from wheat and spelt), glucose and other derivatives mainly for the food industry.

Blattmann AG is rather small compared to the starch industry’s world market leaders. On the other hand, it produces specialties such as organic wheat gluten, organic glucose syrup and clean label starch.

Wädenswil on Lake Zürich – the building that has been Blattmann Schweiz AG’s home since 1856 stands directly on the lakeside road. This is where it extracts gluten from flour and processes the remaining starch to yield glucose syrup or pregelatinized starch. For this it needs 20,000 tons/year of flour. Around 60 tons of flour is delivered every day to the site with its view over the lake. The wheat originates from Europe and America. For most producers, pure gluten is a byproduct of starch manufacture. For Blattmann, however, it is the main focus of the production technology, and the flours are selected and supplied to the process accordingly. Together with a daily flow of around 1,000 m3 of purified water from Lake Zürich, the flour is made into dough, heated, and finally washed out through many stages. What remains is gluten, and this is finally dried and packed. The water is purified and reused. A maximum flow of 200 m 3 is returned to the Lake, and of course this is also purified and has the correct temperature.

As Switzerland’s only gluten factory, Blattmann intends to differentiate itself sustainably, especially through special and niche products. Consequently, the existing portfolio has been systematically expanded with innovations in the areas of organic wheat products and spelt. The increasing demand for organic wheat products is reflected in the growth of the organic portfolio, which has been enlarged from 50% to 80% since 2014. Nowadays Blattmann offers EU-Organic and Bio Suisse grades. Spelt was added as a raw material in 2014, and since then Blattmann Schweiz AG has been the only European manufacturer that can produce and offer spelt gluten on an industrial scale, as both conventional and organic grades, and UrDinkel (Spelt from a specified ancient cultivar) gluten if required. Gluten is used mainly by mills, baking mix producers and bakers to standardize flours, to make doughs easier to process and to make baked goods more palatable.

Meat substitute products, where wheat or spelt protein provide a bite/mouthfeel similar to that of meat, are a growing market segment for gluten.

Around 4 tons of glucose are produced for every 1 ton of gluten. Organic glucose is obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of the starch. Blattmann uses exclusively GMO-free enzymes for this purpose. The reaction time determines the DE value (Dextrose Equivalent) of the glucose syrup. The longer this time, the sweeter and more fluid it is. It also affects other properties such as freezing point, browning, fermentability etc. The main applications of organic glucose are more suitable for those with a sweet tooth: muesli and snack bars, marmalade/jam and candies, but also fermented beverages. Blattmann’s organic glucose is as clear as the water from the lake, which is a challenge in the organic area!

Despite its wheat basis, all the organic glucose syrups that leave the Blattmann factory are guaranteed gluten-free, i.e. they contain <20 ppm.

Sales were primarily in Switzerland until three years ago. Growth today is in the export business, mainly in the EU zone. Marketing channels for Germany and Austria are being developed, which is why Blattmann Switzerland should be contacted directly in the event of queries.

On the one hand the entire production operation here is geared towards gluten, but on the other it is so flexible that production can be switched over completely from wheat to spelt or from conventional to organic within four hours. There is a demand for such flexibility nowadays.

Blattmann has also been targeted as a business again and again in the past 160 years. In most cases the stalkers were big international groups. The first cooperation was formed with Cerestar in 1998 as a Joint Venture. The American Cargill Group then incorporated the Swiss company in 2007. However, the Confederate Swiss obviously didn’t feel entirely at ease in big corporations, so the Zürich-based financial investor FIDES Business Partner took over Blattmann Schweiz AG in 2012. Since then the Blattmen and -women have been cosmopolitan again, but deeply rooted in Switzerland. +++

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Opelka delivers

a

deep-fried pastry plant to China

Opelka, a manufacturer of special-purpose machines and heating-coil-free deep fat fryers, has delivered a new deep-fried pastry plant to China. The plant can bake 20,000 donuts/ hour and be filled again afterwards. The order is part of an investment program by a big Chinese food manufacturer. According to the company, it is finally stepping onto the international stage with the third major order of this kind – a plant was delivered to South Korea in 2016 and another to Lithuania in 2017. The company says capacities up to 30,000 donuts/ hour can be achieved with the new lines, like the MultiLine type of deep-fried pastry plant. +++

++ New sandwich bread factory

The William Jackson Food Group plans to invest GBP 40m. in a new bakery in Corby, Yorkshire, to bake even more sandwich bread. Up to now, at least so the Group claims, 70% of all the ready-made sandwiches bought in Great Britain are made with bread from their factory in Hull. The company owns the Yorkshire's Champion Bread, Aunt Bessie's, Abel & Cole, My Fresh and The Food Doctor brands, although only the first of these deals with baked products, while the others are concerned with vegetables, health food etc. Of course, the bread that will one day be baked in Corby is intended to help expand their market share in the domestic market, but will also be exported. +++

++ New in the Netherlands: cannabis burgers in a brioche bun

++ Brenntag buys

baking raw materials suppliers in the UK

Brenntag AG in Essen declares itself to be world market leader in chemicals distribution, and defines this activity as the connecting link between chemicals manufacturers and users. The Group’s worldwide network has more than 550 locations in 74 countries, and with around 15,000 employees it earned revenues of EUR 10.5bn in 2016. Its specialty areas are animal feeds, cosmetics, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals. In the food & nutrition area, for example, it delivers to raw materials suppliers and manufacturers in almost all the food-processing production sectors, also including bread and baked products. Early this year the Group bought Kluman & Balter in Great Britain, one of the biggest independent bakery raw materials merchants in the British Isles, and also bought A1Cake Mixes Ltd (a 50% Kluman & Balter subsidiary) at the same time. Kluman & Balter supplies mainly to artisan businesses in Great Britain, and employs its own research and development team. The delivery program comprises sugar products, fats, cake mixes, dried and frozen fruits, nuts and seeds, chocolate, spices and flavorings, flour improvers and concentrates, yeast, egg and milk powder etc. Revenues in 2017 were around GBP 77.5m, equivalent to around EUR 87m. Anthony Gerace, the person in the Brenntag Group responsible for mergers and takeovers, gave the growing market for free-from baked products in Great Britain as the reason for the takeover. +++

++ Puratos takes over fruit fillings manufacturer

The Belgian Puratos Group in Groot-Bijgaarden has bought Fruitapeel Ltd., a British producer of fruit fillings and sauces. Fruitapeel operates a works in Lancashire with a capacity of 400 tons/week. Clients supplied by the company include cake, dessert and ice cream producers. +++

The Ter Marsch & Co burger bars in Rotterdam/Netherlands have recently started offering a cannabis burger in a brioche bun. The herb is present mainly in the sauce, and the bread is also enriched with the weed (not containing THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)). The meat mixture consists of dry-aged Angus Beef, Wagyu-Rind and organic veal. The brioche roll, also called an “ultimateme hamburgerbol”, is a joint development by Ter Marsch’s Head Chef Olaf Oldenburg and Edwin Klaasen, Chef of the Dezemenzo Bakery in Waalwijk, currently one of the most fashionable bakers in the Netherlands. Ter Marsch in turn has already been honored several times, both nationally and internationally, for its burger developments. The novel development with cannabis is said to be a “Limited Edition”. Because it contains no THC, it’s less about real states of intoxication, and more to do with the theatre in the head. +++

++ Haas is now part of the Bühler Group

The Haas Group, by its own account world market leader in the manufacture of production plant for wafers, cookies and confectionery, is now part of the Bühler Group. After being approved by the competition authorities, the transaction was closed in the first week of January 2018. This strategic acquisition by Bühler completes its product portfolio in the Consumer Foods area, while Haas gains access to the worldwide Bühler Group’s resources. According to Bühler’s CEO Stefan Scheiber: “By doing this, we open a new chapter in the consumer food market, and we feel the broad approval by many customers and colleagues confirms our decision.” This strategic acquisition is a milestone for Bühler in developing its consumer food business. As it says itself, the company is a market leader in food production along the entire value-added chain, e.g. from wheat grain and dough to finished wafers or cookies, or from cacao beans and chocolate mass to finished chocolates and pralines. Bühler did not operate in the attractive wafer and cookie production market until now. +++