For solutions involving new creations or using new ingredients, you can’t go wrong with d&f Sweets, headquartered in the southern part of the German city of Aachen. Its impressive pilot plant holds a wealth of possibilities for giving ideas plenty of room to sprout and for customers to return home with an all-around package free of worries.
By Dr. Jörg Häseler
Founded in 1986, the company’s eight employees have extraordinary expertise in the implementation of ideas in the confectionery sector. As for the name, D&F Sweets was originally effectively built up by Henri Drouven and Ivan Fabry (D&F), and is now owned by Norevo GmbH from Hamburg. Five employees work in the pilot plant, two in administration, there is one trainee in cooperation with the ZDS College, and of course the Managing Director and food technologist Dr. Anne Sauer, who took up the position this past September 11th (see box). She says, “We train the employees of companies that want to specialise in confectionery technology.” The company has consciously chosen to avoid the savoury snacks and sweet baked goods segments.
As a confectionery developer, the Aachen-based facility provides the opportunity to create new delicacies and temptations. “Our specialities include chocolate, sweets, Mogul articles, chewing gum and coated tablets. We enjoy passing on our expertise in open and online seminars. We also provide consultation regarding production procedures, purchasing machinery and in optimising quality and costs,” says Lab & Development Director Mr. Rüttgers proudly about the company’s portfolio. Customers therefore know they are in the best of hands.
Groups of at least four persons can get to know all the many insider tricks and tips by also using the pilot plant, which is fully equipped with the very best facilities. And individual customers are also welcomed in Aachen for personalised workshops. The main tasks are in the field of developing solution recommendations. The boundary conditions are clarified in advance, and then the pilot plant can be used thoroughly for two weeks or more. The clientele roster includes the names of numerous acclaimed companies that appreciate all the possibilities on offer here, along with the immense know-how on hand regarding hard caramels, marshmallow figures and bars.
Lab & Development Director Christof Rüttgers has been with D&F Sweets since 1994 and is a source of specialised knowledge. During a tour of the pilot plant late this past August, the equipment was an immediate eye-catcher. It enables everything to be done from sugar coating and filling to moulding and coating, through to casting hollow figures and all of the applications used in the manufacture of fruit gums. He speaks proudly of many customers who have found the solution to their problem here, thanks to the benefit of decades of experience.
Over one-fifth of the ISO 9001-certified company’s pilot plant users are recruited from abroad, Mr. Rüttgers reports. He explains, “My most recent business trips have led me to Morrocco, Peru and Chile. Some challenges can only be resolved on-site, even if the manufacturers have attended our courses.” His many years of experience have taught him that humidity plays an outsized role. He comments, “In a few days a customer will visit us who has observed the formation of cracks in her caramel toffees. Our job is to figure out why this phenomenon is happening. It’s likely that moisture is also involved here.” This also explains the success of the Aachen-based company, where knowledge is conveyed about things like chocolate, from the cocoa fruit to fermentation, roasting and on up to bar chocolate.
D&F Sweets’ services also include food product consultation and the determination of figures required for nutrition facts labelling. This is done on a cooperative basis with one provider from Cologne and another one from Germany’s Osnabrück region. There is also an additional cooperation with another company based in Aachen, the colouring foodstuffs supplier GNT, as well as with Winkler and Dünnebier Sußwarenmaschinen GmbH, a provider of moulding facilities for the confectionery industry.
It goes without saying that the company can also work within the context of trends such as the increased use of sugar alcohols, as well as the hype about alternative protein sources such as peas, lupines or other legumes. Mr. Rüttgers takes a more critical view of the new trend in the USA of using oligosaccharides as a new ingredient substituting sugars such as saccharose, glucose and fructose. While it’s true that these carbohydrates are not required to be listed as sugar in the nutrition facts labelling, the loss of sweetness has to be compensated with sweeteners, “which cannot be the answer to everything,” he says.
