Healthy and natural with a twist of global fusion

GULFOOD opened strong, easily spelling the recipe for success, with the halls and convention jam-packed with both exhibitors and trade visitors. Giving a nod to the challenges that the previous years have presented, the food leaders' summit quickly moved on and emphasised optimism and a proactive response to developing trends adapting to new consumer demands - a theme that the four-day convention donned with much success.
There is a continuous evolution of food culture that deserves a spirited global discussion, was the message Sheikha Lubna Al Qassimi, Minister of Foreign Trade in the UAE, emphasised at the opening of Gulfood 2012. We also look at the trends that drive the food manufacturing industry and get a glimpse of topics that need further debate: movements towards smaller and cheaper yet environmentally friendly packaging and manufacturing systems.

Stephen Chang, sales engineer, Anko

Right now, the snack & confectionary sector in the Middle East is still strong, so we've introduced machinery for filled cookies especially for this market. Date bars and mamooz still have very strong market demand. Our date bar machines account for roughly 10-15 per cent of our sales, whilst mamooz machines are at 35 per cent. Spring rolls have very upcoming demand because people regard them as healthy; although they are fried, they have vegetables inside - so our spring roll machines are also popular.

 
Nidal Haddad, CEO, Al Bayader

There is more demand for transparent packaging since they have very strong impact on the turnover of retailers. We have some studies that they could help to increase the sales by up to 36 per cent.The trend in the Middle East is to have a multi-component tray, two-compartment, three-compartment because the Middle East food, the Arabic cuisine, is always composed of rice or something else or a mix of two-three things, so when you give this to the client, there is an added value, marketing-wise.

Scott Valette, market manager - EMEA, Bühler AG
The biggest trend is increasingly towards food safety and sanitation. We now have a dedicated department looking wholly at food safety and how our equipment designs are innovative for that market. In other words, we are changing design philosophy and mentality on how we approach equipment design and manufacture so that they can be safer, and proven to be safer for the clients.We have manufacturing in Iran, we are also in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, and we are increasing resources we have on the ground, so we have more face-to-face time with our clients.

Linda Newton, application scientist - Europe, DDW

We are finding that customers have to move away from synthetic colours to natural colour alternatives. This presents quite a lot of challenges for the customers, so this is where our expertise can come in. Let's say you are making a beverage with an artificial colour such as tartrazine, and you wanted to put in a natural alternative, we can help with the recipe reformulation so that you have a nice clean label declaration.We also have noticed trends. This year, we're noting an assortment of nice subtle shades. People are looking at nice bright clean, not too strong, colours for their products.

 
Oliver Hoffman, head of Group Marketing, D?hler

NIKE