IFF, an industry leader in solutions for food, beverages, health, biosciences, and scent, today announced a breakthrough innovation: IFF NEOTM. This portfolio of natural flavors delivers maximum citrus taste impact without using citrus oil, or any ingredient derived from the oil. Featuring complete citrus flavors from orange, lemon, lime to grapefruit and mandarin, IFF NEOTM offers beverage manufacturers more stable supply, while reducing price volatility and environmental impact.
“IFF NEOTM reinforces IFF’s leadership position and expertise in citrus flavor development and ingredients,” said Marcus Pesch, global vice president for IFF’s RE-IMAGINE and RE-MASTER innovation programs. “The essence of the brand is its name, short for ‘no essential oil.’ These unique citrus flavor solutions are yet another way we’re innovating for our customers and make a great addition to our already extensive portfolio.”
Environmental pressures, disease and pests can substantially affect global citrus crop yields and fruit quality. This in turn, can impact the quality of citrus, create supply-side challenges and impact cost.
“We’re alleviating global citrus sourcing challenges, offering our customers great-tasting, natural flavors with citrus taste that are more readily available,” said Karel Coosemans, global leader for IFF’s RE-MASTER CITRUS innovation program. “Our game-changing supply stability also removes the price volatility commonly seen with citrus-derived products.”
The IFF NEOTM collection of natural citrus flavors is developed for beverage applications and works equally well in liquid and dry formulations. Built using proprietary materials and technologies, IFF NEOTM citrus flavors are highly concentrated yet entirely free of citrus-derived molecules. Labeled as natural flavors, they are readily soluble in beverage applications and have greater stability than citrus-oil derived flavors, enabling a longer shelf life.
“As we developed IFF NEOTM, it was important not only to address the consumer desire for great taste and natural ingredients,” said Coosemans. “We also wanted to make flavors with a smaller environmental impact by eliminating the need to depend on traditional citrus cultivation, processing and transportation, we’ve reduced resource usage and waste associated with citrus by-products.”
From the outset, IFF flavorists considered the regional differences in citrus tastes that exist around the world while developing IFF NEO. Regional flavor creators made base collections, representing a variety of locally relevant citrus tastes, and were designed using leading local market preferences as benchmarks. These regional collections are the basis for customized IFF NEO flavor development in each market. IFF flavorists adjust taste profiles according to local customer application needs.
