Givaudan Flavours provides ‘clean label’ solution for rising cost of lemon oils

Cincinnati, USA - 14 July 2008: A variety of weather-related problems has severely impacted the world’s supply of lemons, with shortages of around 30% expected this year, according to Givaudan, the world’s largest flavours company.  This, in turn, is driving up lemon oil prices significantly.  Compared with 2004, these have increased more than fivefold, putting a particular strain on the beverage industry, one of the largest consumers of lemon oil globally.

Givaudan Flavours is launching its solution to help its customers combat rising lemon prices in the form of a new range of lemon oil replacement ingredients. Part of the company’s SUNthesisTM engineered citrus ingredients collection, the range has been designed to match precisely the flavour profiles of lemon oils.  Other citrus flavour replacers in the collection include orange, lime and grapefruit ingredients.

“The SUNthesisTM collection has been designed to alleviate the effects of the economic swings in the citrus markets and provide the price stability our customers need,” explains Dawn Streich, Givaudan’s Citrus Product Manager.  “The combination of our secure access to raw materials and proprietary flavour creation technologies allows us to optimize the price-quality equation and at the same time achieve great tasting lemon flavours.”

Givaudan’s lemon oil replacers, which are priced aggressively compared to the surging lemon oil market,, have been formulated to deliver a natural ‘clean’ lemon flavour and to align fully with beverage and food  manufacturers’ labelling needs.

“With the majority of lemons currently going to fresh fruit consumption, this creates even more price pressure on lemon oil, a by-product of lemon processing,” said Jerry Sachs, Givaudan’s Procurement Director for Citrus. “Our new lemon oil replacement ingredients will enable beverage and food manufacturers to avoid exposure to these price pressures while maintaining a consistently high quality flavour profile.”

The SUNthesisTM Engineered Citrus Ingredients Collection is part of Givaudan’s innovative TasteEssentialsTM programme that builds on its heritage of more than 100 years of providing outstanding flavouring ingredients to the food and drinks industry.

Notes to Editors
Givaudan Flavours is a trusted partner to the world’s leading food and beverage companies.  From concept to store shelves and quick serve restaurants, Givaudan works with food and beverage manufacturers to develop flavours and tastes for market leading products across six continents: www.givaudan.com

For further information, please contact:
Toni Gill:  toni.gill@razor-pr.com   Tel: +44 (0) 1869 353800
Lucy Ferguson:  lucy.ferguson@razor-pr.com  Tel: +44 (0) 1869 353800

Shelby Rohwedder, Coburn Communications: shelby.rohwedder@coburnww.com
Tel: +1 212 536 9836