By Dr. Bernhard Reichenbach

The cocoa sector has massive problems: severely fluctuating crop yields and prices as well as poverty, child labour and environmental degradation in producer countries. The problems and their solution were addressed by two internationally significant events that we recently visited and which we are reporting on in detail in this issue: the World Cocoa Conference of ICCO in Berlin and the Chocovision Conference in Davos, to which Barry Callebaut had invited.

We also visited the renowned ingredients specialists Bösch Boden Spies and SVZ International. Bösch Boden Spies demonstrated the company‘s new ­mission statement as an import and innovation agency at their newly established ­Ingredients Technology Center in Hamburg, and the Dutch company SVZ showed how to sustainably produce high-quality ingredients from fruit – especially berries – and vegetables at their plant in southern Spain.

There is also another interesting company that deals with berries and other fruit which we present in our series “sp portrait”: the Swiss firm Brunner-Anliker. You will learn how the globally acting manufacturer of processing equipment for food such as nuts and fruit has developed innovative solutions through close cooperation with his customers.

New solutions are also the subject of our special section “Innovative Technologies”. It shows, for example, how the technology group GEA helps flavour manufacturers to ensure the taste, consistency and repeatability of products. Frank Jansen from Bosch Packaging Technology gives information about a new, starchless depositing process for the production of pure gelatine products.