Food Innovation: How Innov’ia Transforms the Sector with Research and Technology

Food innovation is at the heart of numerous challenges: meeting the growing demands of consumers, improving the nutritional quality of products, adopting more sustainable practices, or creating novel formulations that stand out in a highly competitive market. While food companies invest an average of 1.5% of their turnover in research and development, around 3,000 product innovations are launched in France every year.

Consumers are increasingly conscious of their health and the environmental impact of their choices. They expect products that combine performance, naturalness, and transparency.

In this context, Innov’ia plays a key role in the formulation of functional ingredients and the production of innovative solutions for human food, infant nutrition, animal health, as well as pharmaceutical and cosmetic markets. Equipped with advanced technologies such as microencapsulation, granulation, coating, and spray drying, Innov’ia meets the current challenges of the agri-food industry. This article aims to highlight the major trends in food innovation and Innov’ia’s essential role in the sector.

Research and development in the food sector is evolving rapidly, driven by increasingly demanding consumers and stricter regulations. Here’s a focus on the major trends shaping the industry.

Consumers are looking for products made with ingredients known for their benefits, freshness, naturalness, and nutritional value. This enthusiasm for quality is no longer limited to premium brands but now spans the entire market, including private labels.

Reducing sugar and fat content, eliminating harmful additives, and using more natural ingredients have become new priorities. Vegan and vegetarian products are enjoying growing success as they meet the expectations of consumers who care about their health and the carbon footprint of their diet.

Environmental concerns are at the heart of food innovation. Consumers want to reduce waste, minimize the use of plastics, and support more eco-friendly agricultural practices. As a result, the concept of “green innovation” is gaining ground, incorporating solutions like biodegradable packaging, regenerative agriculture, and low-impact production processes.

Digitalization and automation are two strong trends: robots in food processing, drones in agriculture, and artificial intelligence to optimize formulations and automate production. These technological advances are essential for boosting productivity while maintaining competitive costs.

Today’s consumers seek a fine balance between tradition and modernity. Timeless recipes and local culinary heritage are experiencing renewed interest, while innovation brings new approaches to elevate these classic dishes. Transparency and traceability have become crucial factors for customer satisfaction.

Faced with these challenges, Innov’ia stands out through its diverse expertise and innovative solutions. The company invests in the research, development, and production of functional ingredients, meeting the needs of several markets: human food, infant nutrition, animal health, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and more.

Since its creation, Innov’ia has built a solid reputation thanks to its know-how in product formulation and the optimization of functional ingredients. This expertise allows the development of solutions tailored to the specific challenges of the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

To ensure the reliability and quality of its production, Innov’ia holds significant international certifications:

• ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000 for food safety.
• Organic, Kosher, and Halal certifications, on request, demonstrating the company’s commitment to meeting diverse quality and compliance standards.

In addition, Innov’ia has invested €7 million in environmental protection over the past ten years. These investments reflect a constant desire to reduce its carbon footprint, optimize natural resource use, and minimize the environmental impact of production processes.

With 4 production sites, Innov’ia can manage large volumes while maintaining a high level of customization. Thanks to advanced equipment (spray drying towers, fluidized beds, prilling and dripping installations), the company can meet the diverse needs of its clients, from pilot projects to large-scale industrial production.

Innov’ia’s expertise is not limited to human food. The company has also developed expertise in animal nutrition, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. This multidisciplinary approach gives Innov’ia a global vision of markets, allowing it to offer solutions that are often transferable from one sector to another.

Innov’ia’s success is partly based on its mastery of cutting-edge technologies. Among the most notable are:

Microencapsulation involves coating and protecting sensitive active substances. With this technology, Innov’ia can control the release of ingredients (vitamins, flavors, probiotics, etc.), mask unpleasant tastes, and preserve the effectiveness of active compounds. This method is particularly crucial for dietary supplements, where the stability and bioavailability of active ingredients are essential.

Innov’ia has several spray drying towers that transform liquid mixtures into fine powders (or granules) while preserving the properties of the active ingredients. This process makes it easier to integrate powders into food, pharmaceutical, or cosmetic formulations with optimized shelf life.

Fluidized beds are used for dehydration, agglomeration, and coating. They offer many advantages, such as uniform particle size distribution, precise temperature control, and the possibility of uniform coating. This technology is ideal for improving texture, dispersibility, and the shelf life of certain ingredients.

Prilling involves transforming a liquid (or molten solution) into perfectly spherical and homogeneous small beads. Innov’ia has dedicated spray drying towers for this process, which produces uniform particles essential for food, cosmetic, or pharmaceutical formulations requiring consistent granulometry.

Dripping is an encapsulation process using drop-by-drop techniques. It creates microparticles or microcapsules particularly suitable for formulations designed for controlled release of active compounds. This technique is used in various sectors to protect sensitive substances and optimize their efficiency upon consumption.

One of Innov’ia’s main advantages is its ability to offer fully customized projects tailored to the specific needs of its clients. Whether you want to develop a new dietary supplement, improve the texture of an ingredient, or enhance a product’s shelf life, Innov’ia’s team deploys the right technologies to meet your expectations.

Innov’ia brings together experts in R&D, regulations, and production. This combination of expertise adds unique value to clients’ ingredients through pilot tests, feasibility studies, and appropriate regulatory validation. Innov’ia supports its clients in optimizing their formulations without replacing their market role. The company stands out for its constant technological monitoring, quickly integrating the latest scientific and industrial advances to meet innovation challenges.

In addition to its technological solutions, Innov’ia offers support at all stages of the innovation process:

• Diagnostic and Specification Definition: Understanding the client’s specific needs.
• Formulation and Prototyping: Developing and testing innovative solutions in the lab.
• Industrialization: Scaling up processes while respecting quality and safety standards.
• Post-Production Follow-Up: Ensuring full traceability and providing after-sales service to adjust or improve products based on market feedback.

The agri-food industry is at a pivotal moment. Consumers demand greater transparency, quality, and sustainability, while companies seek to innovate to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

In response to these challenges, Innov’ia offers innovative technological solutions, expertise in formulation, and a commitment to environmental protection. Whether you want to develop a new dietary supplement, improve the functional performance of an ingredient, optimize your production processes, or strengthen your eco-friendly approach, Innov’ia is a partner of choice.

Its customized approach, backed by advanced technologies and a multidisciplinary team, allows it to effectively meet the diverse needs of the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

Want to know more?
Contact the Innov’ia team today to discuss your food innovation project. Together, you’ll design tailor-made solutions that meet the expectations of the most demanding consumers while giving you a competitive edge.

Make the responsible, high-performance, and sustainable innovation choice: choose Innov’ia.

Link: https://www.innov-ia.com/what-are-you-looking-for/