From Idea to Application: Innovation at Südzucker
At Südzucker, we bring together research, technology, and application expertise in one unit. We develop new products and processes and deliver them directly into your applications with practical solutions.
This results in customized concepts that meet your requirements—quickly and efficiently. Our research centers offer comprehensive scientific and technological services—for Südzucker and for our customers. An interdisciplinary team of experts in chemistry, biotechnology, process engineering, food technology, and nutritional science works to drive innovation for the food industry.
Our Competences - Your Benefit
In the highly competitive food and food ingredient markets, customer expectations are always rising. Our portfolio of products and innovative solutions for industry and consumers always keeps pace and is built to exceed expectations.
Our research and development combines in-depth process and product development with cutting-edge analytics and comprehensive technological expertise. This enables us to create innovative solutions that meet the demands of the food industry.
Südzucker R&D Competences
- State-of-the art process equipment in lab and pilot scale
- Process and product development
- Application technology experts and application labs
- #advanced analytical techniques for product characterisation
- Experienced team for sensorial evaluation studies
- Special hygiene areas for sample production under food-grade conditions
- Expertise in food safety, regulation, and nutrition
- Quality management certified according to ISO 9001 and IFS 6
Team Up for Innovating tomorrow
Discover in our interview with Südzucker Group’s Head of Corporate Development & Services (CDS), Dr Sebastian Kunz, how Südzucker lives innovation and customer-orientation.
Customized Solutions:
Formulations, Pilot Production, Sensory Testing
With practical services such as formulations, pilot production, and sensory testing, we support you from the initial idea to a market-ready solution. We offer to evaluate the sensory characteristics of final products and can optimize their properties to achieve the results you desire. For this, we rely on a broad range of state-of-the-art lab-scale industrial equipment, trained panels, and dedicated facilities, which enable us to process all major applications—both food and non-food.
Südzucker Technology Expertise
- Upstream and downstream process technologies
- Chemical and enzymatic catalysis
- Process and sugar technologies
- Biotechnology (fermentation and enzymatic processes)
- Separation technologies for carbohydrates and proteins
- Physical modification of carbohydrates
- Food application technology
- AgriTech and agricultural R&D
- Chemical and physical analyses using state-of-the-art analytical techniques for product characterization and quality control
More Than Sugar: Expertise Across the Entire Südzucker Value Chain
Our competences cover the entire Südzucker value chain. In addition to evaluating and further developing our agricultural raw material base, we also focus on advancing our processing technologies and work on providing products with improved properties.
We develop new food products, ingredients, and concepts in product areas such as:
- Sugar and sugar specialities
- Functional carbohydrates like isomalt and Palatinose™ (BENEO)
- Functional fibres like inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), as well as rice-based products and proteins (BENEO)
- Fruit preparations and fruit juice concentrates (Agrana & Austria Juice)
- Bioethanol and starch (Crop Energies)
We can easily provide hard and chewy sweets, toffee, fruit gums and other confectionery on a small scale for sensory tests or marketing studies. A standard approach to developing new sugar solutions and innovative products involves producing product samples in collaboration with our customers and applying our expertise and pilot facilities.
Sugar Syrups
We can develop customised Liquid Sugar solutions such as syrups, special colours, specific sugar compositions using Glucose Syrup or in combination with other ingredients.
We cover products like Glucose Syrups, caramels and mixed syrups. Our R&D facilities operate at lab scale but can also scale up to several cubic meters.
Toppings and Fillings (Fondants)
Our Fondants are available in different ready-to-use formulations. To adapt them to your needs on an industrial scale, our specialists can adjust recipes to optimize output and achieve specific product properties.
We create, evaluate, prototype, and test our tailor-made solutions for you in our development lab at our speciality sugar facility in Oostkamp, Belgium.
Dry Mixes
(e.g. stabilized Icing Sugar, Preserving Sugar, etc.)
We apply various production technologies – for particular demands, we can also provide dry mixes with additional functionality, including free-flowing properties that use a final agglomeration step.
Bakery and Decoration
We have a full range of toppings available for the decoration of baked goods which we can develop from lab to industrial scale – from fine Icing Sugar to special Nib Sugar for wafer decoration.
Sugar is a major raw ingredient of almost all foods, such as confectionery, beverages, dairy products, baked goods, jams and ice cream. It also has a wide variety of non-food uses. Each of these applications requires a specific kind of sugar, which is why we offer our customers a wide range of standard sweetening products and specialities:
*We can provide small-scale production of sugar confectionary for sensorial or marketing studies quickly and easily. Using our know-how in application and sugar technology as well as pilot equipment for jointly producing samples with our customers is a standard path to developing new and innovative products.
Team up for Innovating tomorrow!
In a rapidly changing world, success is built on collaboration.
Together, we support your brand in developing and refining innovative product solutions. With Südzucker’s R&D expertise, we turn ideas into reality, opening up new opportunities for growth.
Take advantage not only of the Südzucker Sugar Division’s decades of experience in the field of sweeteners, but also of the Südzucker Group’s extensive infrastructure in research and development, open innovation and services. We are happy to support you from lab-scale idea exploration and application support to the industrial-scale product development of new consumer-oriented solutions.
