The 60th anniversary of the biennial SIAL exhibition in Paris, which concluded after a five-day run on October 23, was a resounding success by all accounts. Its dedicated frozen food section in Hall 5A was buzzing non-stop, as show goers came to see, sample and buy new products and renew orders for established lines.
There was plenty of frozen fare to check out in other halls as well, as approximately 7,500 exhibitors at the B2B extravaganza welcomed upwards of 8,000 top buyers and 285,000 visitors to their stands. Exhibitors from 127 countries occupying approximately 270,000 square meters of space showcased over 400,000 products.
From artichokes with stem, grilled eggplant and numerous other high-quality vegetable and fruit standouts at the Givrex booth, to the Frostkrone Food Group’s BBQ Burger Balls, to OrienBites’ Duck Spring Roll, Chicken Tikka Samosa and Mini Yakitori, to Vici Crepes and Party Calzone, tasty flavors from around the world were in abundance.
“SIAL is always a very busy exhibition for us. Here we warmly welcome old friends and make new business connections,” said Eric R. Mansour of Alexandria, Egypt-based Givrex (pictured above at far left with other team members at the stand). It was indeed a great pleasure meeting with visitors as we had the chance to exchange valuable ideas and engage in constructive conversation.”
Concurring with Mr. Mansour’s sentiment was Rob Schreur, the Brugge, Belgium-based managing director of the Kaunas, Lithuania-headquartered Viciunai Group. The company’s wide assortment of frozen products runs the gamut from salmon fillets, breaded fish fingers and surimi to Korean-style gyoza, pizza, pancakes, bio dumplings with spicy vegetables and vegan sticks.
Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium-based Greenyard’s Gigi brand of plant-based ice cream proved to be a healthy hit at SIAL. Presented as “an answer to today’s consumer search for healthier alternatives in indulgence products like ice cream, the product range currently comes in four flavor combinations: Strawberry, Blueberry and Beetroot; Mango, Passion Fruit and Fennel; Orange, Carrot and Ginger; and Pineapple, Spinach and Kiwi.
Beirut, Lebanon-headquartered Foody’s International was at the Paris show to promote its extensive assortment of frozen ready meals, appetizers, seafood specialities, vegetables, fruits and value-added chicken fillets, tenders, nuggets and burgers. Also in high profile at the stand was the Adams Food appetizers line. Made in Kuwait and advertised as “the real Lebanese taste,” it features a variety of frozen dishes including Sheeshbarak, Spinach Sambousek, Chicken Sumak Rolls and Patayer Baalbakyeh.
And the Winner is: Scelta
Venlo, Netherlands-headquartered Scelta, best known as a world class producer and marketer of frozen mushrooms, was a big winner at SIAL 2024, with its new Fungible product receiving the Innovation Award in the Intermediate Food Products category. This prestigious recognition highlights Fungible as a “revolutionary solution for reducing fat content in both animal- and plant-based products, without compromising on taste or texture.”
Fungible is a clean label fat replacer based on the Dutch white button mushroom developed to mimic some key characteristics of fat. The fibrous nature of mushrooms provides desirable texture and balances juiciness and tenderness. The umami components mask off tastes and enhance meaty and savoury notes. With only 15% fat, primarily unsaturated, Fungible offers a low-fat alternative for animal- and plant based products. This makes it an ideal ingredient to improve the nutritional score without compromising the taste experience of the product.
“Our team is incredibly honored by this award,” said Jules Klerken, Scelta Mushrooms’ international sales manager. “We believe in the power of natural ingredients, and Fungible showcases how mushrooms can transform the food industry by creating healthier products while enhancing the eating experience.”
The Art of Artoma
There was a wide variety of tasty pizzas to bite into at the show, enhanced by innovative B2B suppliers of components that facilitate industrial production of the menu pleasers that restaurants and retail outlets have to offer. Among them was Artoma of Zilkis, Greece, whose range of Pinsa Romana, Panino Romano, La Familia, La Tonda and Mr. Greek frozen dough brands has been steadily growing since the company was founded in 1979.
Artoma’s La Familia line of frozen crusts feature Italian wheat flour, rice flour, soybean flour, virgin olive oil, salt, yeast and water Distributed in counts of five 37cm x 27cm or 36cm x 26cm units per box, the dough serves as an especially crispy textured base for toppings.
The company’s Pinsa Romana (pictured above) and Panino Romano offerings feature only three ingredients and sourdough. The flour is made from a secret recipe.
Topping it Off
On the pizza topping front, St. Paul Smart Cheese Solutions was active at SIAL promoting high quality industrial cheese preparations to producers of value added food products. Its range of IQF cheese forms promises less waste and loss to further processors, and the grated IQF offerings are easy to dose on pizza as well as ready meals.
Also available are mozzarella ropes. Long, thin and flexible, they have proved to be ideal filling in stuffed pizza and rolled crusts, as well as appetizers and finger food treats. Dimensions are 13.5mm, and any specified length can be ordered.
St. Paul’s portfolio of cheese formats includes cubes in various dimensions, ranging from 4mm to 16mm. In addition to pizza, they can be used in the production of ready meals, salsas and other menu pleasers.
Founded by brother and sister Dieter and Margo Kuijl in 1985, the family business produces processed cheese and industrial cheese preparations at plants in Lokeren, Belgium and Sint Jansteen, Netherlands. Output and logistics capacity amounts to more than 85,000 tons per annum.
OrientBites Serves Plenty of Asian Flavor to Savor
Among a number of new retail and foodservice products from OrienBites promoted at SIAL were Chicken Cones, Vietnamese-style Chicken Spring Rolls and Tail-on Shrimp Rolls. In the pipeline for release soon are Chicken Karage and Gua Bao Black.
Distributed in Europe by Hoeilaart, Belgium-based Food Expert BV, OrientBites’ extensive range of frozen Asian food products features vegan and traditional Taiwan cuisine favorites as well as Japanese and Thai Yakitori, plus shrimp and sushi offerings.
“We believe that it’s vital to preserve the authenticity of the Asian food that we sell, and strive to offer our customers amazing exotic tastes of the Orient,” said Abraham Vinu Sam, sales manager. “Our food is easy to cook and can be conveniently prepared within few minutes.”
The company supplies “Made in Asia” products to retailers, importers, wholesalers and other distributors around the world, and is fully prepared to handle high-volume production of both private label and OrientBites branded SKUs.
