The partnership between Symrise, producer of flavours and fragrances, and Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, manufacturer and distributor of extracts for spices and ingredients, will enable the use of innovation to create a global flavour library.
“We can deliver even greater speed to market in Africa,” says Sofiane Berrahmoune, sub-regional director, Flavour, Africa Middle East at Symrise.
“Our partnership with Symrise provides an acceleration of flavour development across West Africa and will increase the creativity of customised flavours, help our customers enhance their operational agility,” said Kojo Brifo, managing director of Freddy Hirsch Nigeria.
Freddy Hirsch’s vision is to innovate authentic African flavours and tastes. Freddy Hirsch Nigeria and Symrise have invested in research, development, and application laboratories, as well as a manufacturing facility with quality management systems. They have specialized in savoury foods, sweet applications, and beverages tailored to the African market.
Experts in the Nigerian flavours industry attests to a variety of applications. They have specialised in providing African-specific savoury foods, sweet applications, and beverages.
They can also meet the regional market’s unique taste preferences and develop competitive solutions in culinary, bakery, confectionery, and dairy. With these capabilities, they can create regional and truly hyper-local flavours and ingredients for African markets.
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Every African country has at least a few examples of hyper-local flavours. As a dish, jollof rice is the most popular. Symrise and Freddy Hirsch discovered that each country’s jollof rice has a distinct flavour note through their culinary insights.
The partners were able to create regionally-specific raw ingredient-based flavour notes. A prime example is how people in Nigeria enhance the jollof flavour with a distinct smokey note, as captured in the famous ‘party jollof.’ In Ghana, however, the cooked tomato flavour balances out the jollof rice.
African Basil/scent leaf, an aromatic herb native to West Africa, is another flavour with localised notes. This herb’s flowers and leaves are high in essential oils and add a fragrant flavour to soups, salads, and other regional dishes.
It is a multipurpose and versatile flavour with culinary, medicinal, preservative, and perfume applications. People in Africa know and treasure it by various names, including Effirin (Yoruba Tribe), Nchanwu or Ahuji (Igbo Tribe), Daidoya (Hausa Tribe), and Nunum (Ghana).
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