Madrid, November 9th, 2018.- In a society increasingly informed and with high rates of obesity, eating a healthy diet is a growing concern. We are increasingly analysing what we eat and study the nutritional labels of the foods that we buy in search of ingredients considered less healthy, fat levels and amounts of sugars that do not exceed the recommended ones.This concern for health and healthy diet, together with a growing rate of population with different food intolerances, leads food companies to innovate and invest in the development of new products that meet the needs of different types of food. consumers. The supermarket shelves have more and more references of products without added sugar, low in fat, gluten free or with new star ingredients, which in fact were already used in ancient times as quinoa, spelled, chia or Kamut.
Innovation is for food companies like Cerealto the key to their daily operations and to compete in an increasingly demanding and specialized market with different types of consumers with their own needs.
Cerealto, a multinational manufacturer of food products made with cereals, which will close the year with a production of more than 150,000 tons of products, among which are cookies, pasta or cereals, but also bread, pastries or baby food. Only in 2016 launched more than 150 new references to adapt and in some cases, even to anticipate, the needs of new types of consumers, and all groups. This year there are about 200 new products in which the Company works, out of a total of more than 600 prototypes and developments presented by its innovation partner, I + dea, highlighting the new developments in the cookies category, in which the company is a specialist, and which accounted for 35% of the total.
Some of the new products developed this year are:
– Amapola Rustic Bread
– Spelled Flakes without added sugars
– María BIO biscuits or protein biscuits without added sugars
– BIO muffins
– Pasta with legumes or multigrain
– Baby food with vegetables
Launching about 200 new references necessarily implies a commitment to innovation, as well as millionaire investments that allow this innovation to materialize. In this sense, Cerealto allocated more than 7.5 million euros to R & D projects in 2017, corresponding to 5% of its turnover, a figure that will equal this year and that represents almost a third of its global investments. By markets, southern Europe will concentrate 38% of these investments, northern Europe 36%, America 13% and Asia and Africa the remaining 13%. This commitment to innovation, which is one of the strategic lines of Cerealto, is allowing the company for example to reduce sugar and fat levels, eliminate palm oil or expand the range of gluten-free references in its line of cookies, but also expand its offer with new products high in protein, with raw materials from sustainable agriculture or with organic products. Although investments in innovation are not limited to the development of new products, but are intrinsic to the entire value chain in Cerealto, with the aim of boosting the competitive advantage of its customers. The company’s innovation is allowing it to develop projects that allow, from maximizing food safety, to predict the useful life of products, to develop new technology with thermal processes without fossil fuel consumption, using clean and sustainable energies, as well as from oriented projects to the new models of consumption and personalization of foods adapted to the individual needs of each person, until the realization of qualitative studies to obtain more information about the market and the consumer and thus better meet their needs.
About Cerealto:
Cerealto is a multinational company that manufactures food products for large distribution chains and leading food brands.
Its product categories include biscuits, breakfast cereals, cereal bars, infant food, pasta, bread, pastries, non-gluten products or snacks. With more than 150 new developments a year, Cerealto invests more than 5% of its turnover in R&D every year.
It operates in more than 40 countries, has eight of its own production centres in Portugal, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Mexico and has a workforce of more than 2,000 collaborators, 6.5% of whom come from groups at risk of social exclusion.