“Industry first”: DSM plans first dedicated early life nutrition premix plant

22 Aug 2018 --- Royal DSM is planning to open what it claims is the industry’s only premix manufacturing facility built exclusively for the maternal and infant nutrition market. Construction of the state-of-the-art plant is due to start in the next few weeks and financial details are not being disclosed. Located in Buk, Poland, the company expects the investment to double production output at the site within the next two years.

“At DSM, we are always looking for new ways to innovate and help our customers to create market-leading nutritional products for mothers and their babies,” says Frédéric Boned, Vice President EMEA, DSM Nutritional Products Human Nutrition & Health.

“Achieving high standards of quality has always been of particular importance in this segment. The planning of a dedicated early life nutrition premix plant is a first for the industry and, throughout the design phase, we have been able to incorporate a number of advanced technologies that reflect the specialist needs of the market,” he adds. 

Its advanced mixing technology will allow DSM to develop complex infant formulas to meet the challenging requirements of early life nutrition manufacturers. Once completed, the plant will be run by dedicated personnel experienced in the early life nutrition sector.

DSM reports that brand owners partnering with the company can benefit from its wide ingredient portfolio and scientific expertise, as well as its broader co-innovation capabilities including consumer insights, prototype development and brand activation strategies.

“An area of significant growth”
Nutrition has become a key are of focus for DSM, with Early Life Nutrition taking up a key position in the company’s R&D strategy.

“The biggest challenge in infant nutrition is that it is heavily regulated. Therefore, the innovation and work we do is not only focused on the ingredient itself but on [offering] total service solutions, focusing on how to guarantee the quality and food safety. This is where we see the most business development and innovation happening. We try to insource premix business from our customers and offer full solutions,” Laurens Jan Rootert, Marketing Manager Early Life Nutrition at DSM Nutritional Products, told NutritionInsight at DSM’s Passionate About Kids Nutrition Event, which was held in June in Amsterdam.

“When you look at kids nutrition, there are specific ingredients [that stand out],” he says. “You can think about a form of DHA, that you can apply in dairy drink, so it’s a specific form that works well from a taste and sensory perspective.”

“We are seeing ‘non-traditional’ infant nutrition companies, so more food and beverage companies, such as PepsiCo. and Unilever, are increasingly stepping into the kids nutrition space. I foresee this will be an area of significant growth. Think about beverage or dairy products fortified with DHA,” he says. “The main driver here is that consumers are more aware of the importance of nutrition in general and becoming more educated about certain deficiencies their kids might have. They are looking for food and beverage products that fit within a healthy lifestyle and have a certain level of fortification.”

Commitment towards health and nutrition
In a recent interview, Jeremy Xu, DSM President Human Nutrition & Health at DSM, spoke with NutritionInsight about the recent developments highlighting DSM’s commitment towards advancing its position within the human health and nutrition space as a whole.

The company announced in June it had set aside about €3 billion to spend on acquisitions to expand its nutrition business and maintain its profit growth. In its 2018 outlook, DSM reconfirmed it will position itself towards a Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living company, “pursuing enhanced organic growth, with a purpose-led coherent set of business activities, with value-creating acquisitions predominantly in Nutrition.”

“That was part of our life sciences strategy, moving us from a chemistry-based portfolio to a more life sciences and advanced material based portfolio. It was a strategic intervention,” Xu explains. “We want to be the leader in the human nutrition and animal nutrition spaces. We believe in the future, and only companies that can succeed in both social responsibility and financial results will win in the end.”

The World of Food Ingredients recently featured an extensive article on premix innovation. For a shortened version of this feature see here.

By Lucy Gunn