Following unprecedented overseas demand for its functional clean label ingredients, Ulrick & Short Ltd has appointed Starch Products Company (Thailand) as its Asia Pacific distribution partner to cover Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, South Korea and Thailand.
Chosen for its starch chemistry expertise, production capabilities and sector specific knowledge, Starch Products has extensive experience in the food ingredients market and a detailed understanding of the processing characteristics of crops such as wheat, corn, potato, tapioca and rice starch.
Targeting the same sectors as Ulrick & Short, Starch Products will be focusing on a range of applications from bakery and meat through to sauces, batters, coatings and seafood. The Bangkok based company will carry the full range of Ulrick & Short’s clean label products, which include phosphate replacers, stabilisers, binders, emulsifiers, fat replacements and egg replacements.
The market for clean label ingredients is still in its infancy across the Asia Pacific region and Starch Products, with the guidance of Ulrick & Short, will be educating food manufacturers on how to develop finished products with more consumer friendly labels. The company will also help producers develop new textures for sauces, focusing in improved mouth-feel by extracting the organoleptic properties of each crop based clean label ingredient.
Another area which could see significant uptake of Ulrick & Short’s functional ingredients is in the prawn, fish and meat processing industry, where manufacturers are under increasing pressures to remove phosphates.
Starch Products has been given full product training at Ulrick & Short’s development facility in West Yorkshire and will receive regular training updates to ensure that it is aware of any new ingredient or specification developments.
Ulrick & Short will also provide Starch Products with ongoing comprehensive technical back-up support, which will enable its new distributor to offer the same level of quality service and technical expertise that is demonstrated in the UK and Europe.
The leading UK clean label ingredient specialists started developing a network of distributing partners across Europe when clean label ingredients were first making their mark on the continent and has made significant inroads into France, Ireland, Germany and the Benelux countries, where clean label ingredients are now key within European recipe formulations.
With clean label ingredients now firmly established in the UK and Europe, Ulrick & Short believes that the potential in the Asia Pacific regions could be enormous. This theory is heavily supported by the increasing worldwide demand for clean label ingredients.
This new partnership will not only help Ulrick & Short expand into different countries but will also offer opportunities for the company to establish a manufacturing base in Thailand. Ulrick & Short’s director, Andrew Ulrick commented: “Thailand has the ability to remain geographically and logistically distant from future potentially GM contaminated EU processed grains and starches. As we are determined to continue to offer a full range of GM-free starches, Thailand’s position, heritage and expertise in growing and processing tapioca and rice make it the ideal location for us to set up a manufacturing facility.
“As with all our distributing partners, Starch Products will work closely with us and we will provide them with all the technical support they require, which will enable them to represent Ulrick & Short in the best way possible. Starch Products is extremely experienced with food starch and we look forward to working with them and developing our relationship for the future.”
For more information please visit www.cleanlabelingredients.com or contact one of the team direct on 01977620011.