Companies in the food industry are continually opting to use natural aromas in their products. But all-natural isn’t always natural! According to lawmakers, companies claiming to use “natural aromas” need only use ingredients that have been produced from plant- or animal-based raw materials. What’s more, only a few foods containing “natural” aroma additives provide the full olfactory and gustatory aroma profile that the actual fruit or plant provides. Together with partners from research and industry, the Steinbeis Innovation Center for System Solutions in Metrology and Automation Technology has developed a process for gently extracting natural aroma profiles.
The technological “trick” lies in coaxing the natural aroma from plants and fruits during their natural lifecycle, without damaging or killing the plant so that it can be used for further processing.
Within the scope of the cooperative ZIM project, funded by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology, the Steinbeis Innovation Center has taken on the development of a suitable MSR concept and an automated metrological technique to control the extraction cycles. This processing means that plants and fruits can be used further after extraction, and that the extraction of natural aroma profiles becomes more interesting for companies in terms of economic factors.
Under the banner “You research, we’ll take care of the rest”, the Steinbeis Research Center for Technology Management North East has been assisting academic and research institutions with support and consulting on project development, applications, management, public relations and technology transfer, primarily in the region of the Baltic Sea, for almost ten years. These services are now also being offered directly in Lithuania.
The project manager, who lives in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, ensures that the increasing demand for research management support in the region is met, and that further projects related to the expansion of the EU-Baltic strategy can be tackled.
Frank Graage, head of the Steinbeis Research Center for Technology Management North East, has been active in the Baltic Sea region since the very beginning. Collaboration with the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic region, Poland and Germany has intensified since the EU expansion in 2004. As a result, European research and development cooperation is in greater demand than ever before.