Wacker Chemie has expanded its range of services in Asia with today’s official opening of a new food laboratory at its Technical Center in Singapore.
The regional competence centre now has a newly created laboratory dedicated to innovative food ingredients, dietary supplements and gumbase applications such as for fat-free desserts, egg-free bakery goods, coconut milk powder without caseinate, vegan meat flavours and highly bioavailable curcumin.
The new laboratory enables WACKER to provide its customers in Asia with even better service and support for the development of novel, tailored products in the fast-growing market for food solutions.
At the opening ceremony, president of WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS Dr Gerhard Schmid said: “Asia is a focus market for the food industry and therefore for our innovative food ingredients and dietary supplements, too.
“We are meeting our customers’ growing demand by enhancing our local services. With this facility, which is unique in the region, we can further augment our position as an innovative partner to the food industry.”
The food market activities of WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS, the life sciences and biotechnology division within the WACKER Group, are focusing primarily on food ingredients and dietary supplements. The company already operates dedicated food laboratories in the US and Germany to provide its customers with optimum service.
The new laboratory in Singapore will focus on applications involving cyclodextrins, cysteine and hydroxytyrosol intended for the special demands and needs of Asia.
The ring-shaped cyclodextrin sugar molecules, which WACKER bioengineers from plant-based raw materials, such as corn and potatoes, can replace conventional animal-derived emulsifiers, including egg yolk in mayonnaise, egg white, and hard fats in desserts and icing, as well as milk protein in instant coconut milk powder.
In addition, they can protect sensitive ingredients such as vitamins and co-enzymes against harmful influences such as oxygen and light, increase the bioavailability of hydrophobic substances such as curcumin, and mask the bitter taste of health-promoting substances such as green tea extract.
Fermentation-prepared cysteine from WACKER can serve as a vegan and halal-certified raw material for meat flavours and as a processing auxiliary in bakeries.
HTEssence®, WACKER’s nature-identical hydroxytyrosol, is used in food supplements such as hard capsules, energy bars and drinks. Hydroxytyrosol is a highly effective antioxidant that is claimed to have therapeutic effects on blood pressure and the immune and cardiovascular systems. It is used in food supplements such as tablets, energy bars and drinks.
WACKER’s solid resins for gumbase further make it possible to quickly and efficiently produce high-quality products for the rapidly growing chewing gum market.
Managing director of WACKER South East Asia Patrick de Wolf says: “We see strong growth potential for our food solutions in Asia.
“The new laboratory will allow us to do an even better job of adapting our products to our customers’ needs and to the demands of local industry. It provides us with a unique selling proposition in the region and allows us to offer substantial added value to our Asian customers.”
Director of Energy and Chemicals at Singapore Economic Development Cindy Koh said: “With a highly fragmented Asia, it is clear that companies need tailor-made solutions to meet market needs. Consequently, the ability to innovate quickly becomes of utmost importance.
“Instead of opening labs in every market across Asia, economies of scale can be derived by having Singapore as a strategic base to drive application development for the region. Our access to markets and insights, as well as our research and development ecosystem of publicly funded research institutes and universities, offer opportunities for collaboration which can accelerate innovation yield and reduce cost.”
The Singapore Technical Center has been supporting customers from the electronics, polishes, textiles, automotive, coatings, construction and health industry since 2007. All labs are equipped with cutting-edge instrumentation meeting international standards.
Spanning an area of more than 1,500m2, the regional competence centre now houses customer development, applications technology, sales, and basic and advanced training under a single roof.
WACKER in Southeast Asia
WACKER has been supplying diverse products to Southeast Asia for many years. Wacker Chemicals (South Asia) was established in 1984 and coordinates regional sales.
WACKER has also operated a technical centre in Singapore since 2007. Bundling a sales and technical centre under one roof enables closer teamwork between the sales and development teams, resulting in optimal customer support.
The company has other technical centres in the Asia region, including in Australia, China, India and South Korea. The chemical company currently operates 22 such facilities worldwide.