Setting the gold standard in caramel

IRISH FOOD Magazine, September 2002

D.D. Williamson is the acknowledged leader in caramel coloring.
The company, which has set many of the industry standards, continues to strive for excellence on a global platform.

IRISH FOOD reports.

“Autumn is the most subtle of seasons,” Jane Austen wrote two centuries ago, identifying in its infinite shades of russet, gold and brown a beguiling effect on the human imagination. Within the food industry, much the same could be said of the caramel. From the lightest gold in a sparkling wine to the deepest mahogany in a chocolate sauce, caramel offers the greatest range of possibilities of any food color and is, therefore, the most utilized in the industry’s palette. As colors influence moods, so caramel has the ability to evoke many sentiments from sophistication and indulgence, to homeliness and comfort. In the business for some 135 years, D.D. Williamson has become the leading global player by knowing how to match the right shade with the right product. In evolving these skills, the company has set forth its skills in terms of art and science: its first objective being to find the right color for the product, the second to ensure it is delivered in a solution that performs consistently and reliably in a wide range of applications.

Today, D.D. Williamson manufactures more that 60 caramel products, in both liquid and powder formats, designed to meet the diverse and sophisticated needs of bakery, beverages, sauces, soups, seasonings and pet food.

European operations are based in Little Island, Co. Cork, part of a global network which incorporates a further seven operations in the US, Latin America, Africa and Asia. It is a spread designed to ensure that, in a fast moving, global economy, customer are never more than a few time zones from a D.D. Williamson production facility.

Leaders

David Barrett is Export Sales Manager for D.D. Williamson (Ireland), leading the company’s trade activities across Europe and beyond. From Cork, product is supplied to all of Western Europe, eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and northern Africa. However, David is quick to point out that the Irish division does not operate as a single discreet entity but as part of a highly integrated structure. “With seven plants on five continents, a global strategy is very much to the forefront,” he explains. This approach follows the broader industry trend to integration and also seeks to guide it where necessary. “In general, food and drink companies are striving for global procurement standards,” David says. “In those that haven’t yet done so, we are encouraging them to do so.” This strategy of consistency in procurement has contributed to rapid growth for the company in the last few years. “We’re having a lot of success with companies in the final retail sector and in ‘chain of supply’ sector,” David points out. “They want consistency in caramel and we are the only truly global provider of that.” Indeed, so all pervasive is D.D. Williamson’s range that the company estimates that every day, over one billion servings of food and drink, containing its caramel coloring, are consumed around the world.

Undoubtedly, its close relationship with the world’s leading cola brands has been a key contributor to this extraordinary statistic, but the company itself must take much credit for innovations and developments over the years. One of these, related to cola, is double strength caramel. This came about when the first diet colas were being formulated and a stronger caramel was needed which would provide equally good coloring but not push a single serving above the crucial one calorie threshold. D.D. Williamson was contracted to provide the solution, and the resulting double strength product is now the industry standard across all colas.

Flavour Notes

With large global markets and a sophisticated product portfolio, the caramel sector, in general, is regarded by analysts as a mature market, though this, David points out, is in terms of innovation rather than in terms of volume growth. The company does not accept that the limit of possibilities has been reached and an active R&D department is a core component of the Irish facility. New opportunities develop all the time. In the emerging markets of eastern Europe, there are possibilities in diverse categories such as gingerbread and sausage casings, where manufacturers were using different types of colors and for which D.D. Williamson can provide a superior substitution. In Ireland D.D. Williamson uses wheat-based glucose, which has advantages for those customers who desire non-GMO material. In Europe, in particular, the GMO issue has huge currency among customers. Recently, the EU reduced the labelling declaration threshold from one per cent to 0.5 per cent over which manufacturers are obliged to declare GMO organisms in their products. While caramel is used for the color it imparts on a food or beverage formulation, D.D. Williamson is also examining the interaction of caramel with flavour compounds and food and beverage formulae. Analysis using gas chromatography mass spectrophotometer provides detailed flavour profiles of each product.

“Our overriding concern is with caramel and how it interacts with flavour compounds. We have advanced our technological ability in terms of analysing this,” David says. He gives the example of a new caramel coloring, which has similar flavour peaks to coffee. This allows the coffee producer to enhance the flavour and appearance of the product while also cutting costs: the perfect win-win situation. “We’re always looking at the cutting edge. It’s not just about producing the technical product but then interfacing it with a multitude of applications,” he explains. “Not all of our clients are multinationals and not all have know-how or expertise to make the application work, so this is a further role we can play.”

With a track record that precedes almost every other player in the industry, D.D. Williamson can take pride in being able to call on its great reservoir of experience, but it also recognizes that this experience only remains relevant by staying up to date.