{"id":218361,"date":"2016-05-27T16:43:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T19:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=218361"},"modified":"2016-05-27T16:43:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T19:43:28","slug":"innovative-recipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/innovative-recipes\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative recipes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plate

EDUARDO CESAR<\/span>Plate for microbiological analysis in the company\u2019s laboratoryEDUARDO CESAR<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Even those who have never heard of Alibra Ingredientes may well have consumed some of the products made by this 100% Brazilian company.\u00a0 Founded in 2000, with headquarters in Campinas (SP), the company provides additives, dairy products and powdered mixes for the food and beverage industry, which includes Nestl\u00e9, Vigor, Bunge, Mococa and Nissin Ajinomoto.\u00a0 Its portfolio has more than 600 items as ingredients used in the production of ice cream, bread, cookies, dairy products, pizzas and sauces.\u00a0 The flagship products consist of diary compounds formulated from whey.\u00a0 Alibra also has a line of ready-to-eat foods, such as chocolate drink mixes, infant cereals and powdered cereals sold through supermarkets and distributors, along with a line of products for industrial kitchens, restaurants and catering companies (airlines and hospitals), such as semi-ready foods and ingredients to prepare sweet or savory dishes.<\/p>\n

The history of the company, founded by former Food Engineering program students at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), is marked by its innovativeness.\u00a0 In 2009, Alibra was the first Brazilian company to create a cheese analogue that has the same physical and sensory characteristics as the dairy product but does not use milk as a raw material.\u00a0 \u201cThere are companies that sell a similar product, but their formulation uses traditional raw materials, like cheese itself.\u00a0 We have mastered the manufacturing technique of the analogue product starting from functional dairy proteins, special corn or cassava starches and vegetable fats,\u201d explains CEO Humberto Salvador Afonso, one of the company founders.<\/p>\n

\"Business

EDUARDO CESAR<\/span><\/a> Business partners Stefanini and Afonso, from left, with employees at the Campinas R&D centerEDUARDO CESAR<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The cheese analogue was designed to partially or fully replace traditional cheeses.\u00a0 According to Afonso, it has the same characteristics and equivalent nutritional value as cheese, but costs up to 20% less.\u00a0 \u201cThe analogue adequately replaces mozzarella and is an important item in our food service line.\u00a0 We did the research, imported equipment and took five years to develop its formulation.\u00a0 The result is an innovative food that does not depend on purely dairy products,\u201d says the Alibra CEO.\u00a0 The cheese analogue is mainly used on pizzas and in preparing semi-ready products such as cheese-filled snacks.<\/p>\n

Last year, the company got ahead of its competitors by being first in Brazil to develop oil in powder form, providing an option for industries that look for ingredients high in essential fatty acids.\u00a0 And more recently, the company developed a line of enriched ice cream, formulated with nanoparticles of iron and vitamin C. \u201cWe released an experimental lot on September 23, 2015 Brazil\u2019s National Ice Cream Cone day to call the ice cream industry\u2019s attention to the importance of healthy eating,\u201d Afonso explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alibra<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R&D Centers<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campinas (SP) and Marechal Rondon (PR)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\u00ba of employees<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
220<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Principle products<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ingredients for the dairy industry, cookies, crackers and pizza in addition to ready-to-eat products like chocolate drink mixes and powdered cereals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In a saturated market such as the one for food products and ingredients, the Alibra brand is practically unknown to consumers.\u00a0 \u201cPeople don\u2019t know who makes the ingredients.\u00a0 But we have 900 clients all over Brazil and are betting on innovation to differentiate us.\u00a0 That is our strength,\u201d he says.\u00a0 According to Afonso, what sets the company apart is its constant pursuit of innovation and the development of products with high technological value.<\/p>\n

The company has two research and development (R&D) centers, one in Campinas and another at its Marechal C\u00e2ndido Rondon production facility in inland Paran\u00e1 State, that employ a total of 10 people.\u00a0 Nearly 1% of Alibra\u2019s earnings, which in 2015 is estimated to reach R$150 million, is invested annually in R&D activities, either in product development, equipment purchases or setting up laboratories.\u00a0 \u201cIn Campinas, we are planning to install Ultra High Temperature (UHT) equipment, which sterilizes several products.\u00a0 It is an important technology that is going to make product development more effective,\u201d says Executive Director Roberto Stefanini, founding partner of Alibra, in charge of R&D.<\/p>\n

\"Preparation

Eduardo Cesar<\/span>Preparation and testing of new ingredientsEduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

He explains that the company constantly seeks innovation in order to respond to customer demand for new products.\u00a0 \u201cWhile we conduct no pure research at our laboratories, we do develop tailor-made solutions.\u00a0 We carry out special projects focused on personalized formulations to meet the needs of each customer.\u00a0 Our ultimate goal is that the product have the desired characteristics,\u201d Stefanini says.\u00a0 These customized solutions may, for example, take the form of a new additive that makes a food more stable, or an ingredient that alters the original formulation of a customer\u2019s product, making it gooier.<\/p>\n

Whey<\/strong>
\nAlibra\u2019s principal products are compounds and dairy mixes produced using whey along with vegetable or animal fats.\u00a0 Whey is a co-product of the cheese-manufacturing process and, up to 10 years ago, it was discarded by cheesemakers or used for pig feed.\u00a0 The product is 6.5% solid matter, consisting mainly of lactose, minerals and the uncurdled proteins such as lacto-albumins and lacto-globulins used in the formation of cheese.\u00a0 Cheese factories send Alibra pretreated and concentrated whey that is approximately 65% solid.\u00a0 By using a wide range of drying techniques, the company turns this whey into a powder-based concentrate.\u00a0 In this process, the product, in its liquid form, is placed in drying towers to remove the water in the concentrate (35% of the total).<\/p>\n

\"Company

Eduardo Cesar<\/span>Company products prepared for protein analysisEduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The resulting whey powder is used to produce the compounds and dairy mixes.\u00a0 The difference between these two ingredients lies in the protein content, which is less than 9% in the mixes, and the presence of powdered milk in the compound\u2019s unique formulation.\u00a0 \u201cThe two, compounds and dairy mixes, are raw materials used to produce ice creams, breads, cookies and pasta.\u00a0 We also sell concentrated whey powder to clients directly,\u201d says Stefanini.\u00a0 As final products, Alibra sells its own brands of sweetened dairy compounds as Meril\u00fa Powder and Nutrisim, whose formula contains milk protein associated with carbohydrates, vitamins and fat.\u00a0 They need only be mixed with water, like traditional powdered milks.\u00a0 Nestl\u00e9 has a similar dairy compound sold in Northeastern Brazil under the Ideal brand.<\/p>\n

Another company product that has a production process similar to whey concentrate is powdered oil, which utilizes spray dryer production technology and was launched in 2015.\u00a0 It is a process used in drying towers to transform liquid ingredients into powder.\u00a0 In addition to having increased nutritional and energy value, the powdered oil presents benefits such as ease of storage, handling and transportation.\u00a0 It is marketed to the enteral nutrition industry, and indicated for patients who have trouble ingesting food in liquid or powder form by mouth, and to animal nutrition companies and manufacturers of supplements and natural products for athletes.<\/p>\n

\"Experiment

Eduardo Cesar<\/span>Experiment using nitrogen distiller to prepare samplesEduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Strategic acquisition<\/strong>
\nIn 2015, to strengthen its market presence, Alibra acquired control of Genkor, which specializes in the fabrication of micro-ingredients (dyes, stabilizers, thickeners, emulsifiers).\u00a0 The purchase was part of Alibra\u2019s R$23 million investment in the past two years to diversify its operations.\u00a0 With the acquisition, Genkor became a business unit of Alibra.\u00a0 \u201cThe two companies had complementary products and some partnerships in technical and commercial areas.\u00a0 There was always a desire to merge and good prospects for coming together,\u201d Afonso says.\u00a0 Genkor and Alibra are part of the same conglomerate, the Grupo K\u00e1iros, made up of 10 food companies, owned by Afonso.<\/p>\n

And it was another company in Grupo K\u00e1iros that, to a certain extent, inspired Alibra to release its vitamin-enriched popsicle in September 2015.\u00a0 Specialized in the development of nanometric-scale ingredients, the Functional Mikron division of the company Ultrapan passed on to Alibra the necessary knowledge for the latter to develop popsicles with iron and vitamin C nanoparticles.\u00a0 \u201cThe nanoencapsulation of fortifying elements prevents unpleasant flavors, leaving the product nutritious and tasty.\u00a0 Other sensory characteristics such as aroma, color, and texture in the mouth are also preserved,\u201d explains food technologist Debora Laschi, technical assistant in the Ice Cream Division.\u00a0 \u201cWith this innovation, Alibra\u2019s intention is not to create a line of enriched popsicles, but rather to sell an encapsulated nutritional system to ice cream makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"078-081_Alibra_239-02\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alibra is developing new ingredients for the food industry","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1567,169],"tags":[211,251],"coauthors":[116],"class_list":["post-218361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate-research-en","category-technology","tag-biochemistry","tag-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218361"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=218361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}