Baking & Snack - May 2004 - 60

according to Eric Spenske, marketing director for Quest International North America. Vanilla-ﬂavored cake mixes along with
vanilla-ﬂavored soft drinks have grown in
sales, he said.
Food manufacturers, however, will see
no relief in the price of pure vanilla this
year. Vanilla beans once cost about $70 per
kg, but the price now approaches $400 per
kg, according to Quest's Mr. Mullin.
Crop shortages in Madagascar, an island country off the east coast of Africa
in the Indian Ocean, brought on the price
increase. Madagascar produces the majority of the vanilla beans sold worldwide.
In 2000, Cyclone Hudah hit Madagascar
hard, and poor growing weather followed
for several years. The January 2004 crop
looked promising until vines failed to
ﬂower. Then in March, Cyclone Gaﬁlo
left dozens of people dead and more than
200,000 homeless on the island. The storm,
while tragic, hit only one of three Madagascar vanilla growing regions, according
to Skip Rosskam, president and c.o.o. for
David Michael & Co., Philadelphia, PA.
Apparently 10% to 15% of the crop was
lost, he said.
Madagascar will supply 450 tonnes of
vanilla this year, stated Craig Nielsen,
c.e.o., Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc.,
Waukegan, IL. He predicted that supply
should shoot up to a more normal 1,100
tonnes to 1,200 tonnes in January 2005.
In the meantime, food manufacturers
continue to look for vanilla alternatives.
Some news reports say synthetic vanillin
accounts for more than 90% of the US vanilla ﬂavoring market.
Nielsen-Massey specializes in pure vanilla, but because of high prices, it added a
vanilla with other natural ﬂavors (WONF)
to its product line.
Quest International offers pure vanilla in
its Vantasia line, but sales of other Vantasia
items have fared better recently. These include vanilla WONF, vanilla with natural
and artiﬁcial ﬂavors, and synthetic vanillin.
Companies can save on vanilla costs by
testing out different extraction technologies,
according to Mr. Rosskam. A stronger extraction may lower the usage rate, for example.
"We've been working with clients to
help them ﬁnd a soft landing amid all the
price and supply issues," he said. "That's

60 / BAKERS PRODUCTION MANUAL / May 2004

been our main mission: product development work."

CARAMEL COLLABORATION
Caramel, very popular as a colorant for
beverages, usually takes a ﬂavor role in
baked foods, enhanced lately by new
products developed to appeal to Hispanic
tastes, according to Mastertaste's Ms. Flanagan. Now, she indicated, a number of
beverage and confectionery manufacturers
are taking advantage of caramel's ﬂavor,
too, and recently, several of these have
used the ﬂavor in promotional offers.
D.D. Williamson recently improved its
position in the caramel industry by acquiring Cargill's Cerestar caramel color operation at Manchester, England. D.D. Williamson will source glucose syrup via pipeline
from Cargill's Cerestar starch reﬁnery at
Manchester to manufacture a broad line of
caramel color and burnt sugar products for
global markets.

TIMED RELEASE
In another corporate maneuver, David
Michael & Co. and Balchem Encapsu-

Vanilla beans for pure vanilla extracts have
more than tripled in price in recent years. In
response, many food manufacturers often
consider using synthetic vanillin and other
natural ﬂavors to simulate vanilla ﬂavor.
Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc.

lates, Hampton, NY, recently formed a
strategic alliance to introduce MichaelCap. The microencapsulated ﬂavor
systems deliver an overall ﬂavor load
increase as much as 100%, according to
a news release. More than one ﬂavor can
be incorporated into the process. Each
ﬂavor can be released separately based
on time and/or temperature in both oil
and water systems.
TasteTech, Ltd., Bristol, United Kingdom,
already uses controlled-release microencapsulation for its Sequential ﬂavorings.
The practice allows manufacturers to
pre-set the individual release times of
multiple ﬂavorings during processing or
eating. A new baked coconut ﬂavoring
from TasteTech, for example, can be programmed to release, depending on heat, a
change in pH or the act of chewing.
Ⅲ

Baking & Snack - May 2004

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