Dive Brief:
- Corbion announced an expansion investment for its Dolton, IL, facility, where the company will produce propylene glycol monoesters (PGME) emulsifiers, which manufacturers use in sweet goods, bakery mixes, and other applications.
- The investment complements a similar expansion in 2015 at Corbion's Grandview, MO, plant, where Corbion developed and commercialized the Ensemble non-PHO emulsifier, currently used by bread producers.
- The company expects its PGME solutions to hit the market in Q2 2017.
Dive Insight:
Since the FDA revoked GRAS status for partially hydrogenated oils, manufacturers have been scrambling to reformulate their products without PHOs, or trans fats. If a manufacturer has to swap out PHOs, it may have to reconsider the emulsifier used in the same product.
Corbion's non-PHO emulsifiers have already helped the bread industry adapt their recipes to remove PHOs. By producing PGME, Corbion offers a way for manufacturers of sweet goods and baking mixes to stabilize air cells in aerated products like cake to improve volume and structure, even if they have to use an oil that lacks the solids needed to enable emulsion development.
It's challenging for manufacturers to make truly "clean" versions of products like cakes because they depend on emulsifiers for texture, according to a report from the 2015 Clean Label Conference. The report suggested using a "cleaner"-sounding emulsifier like lecithin or mono- or diglycerides.