Can you provide a brief background of IFF and the recent transformation of your Health and Biosciences division?
IFF has a storied history in flavors and fragrances but has been transformed through the acquisition of DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences division. Among several new-to-IFF markets and technologies, this change added a world-leading capability in biotechnology. The recent transformation of IFF underscores its commitment to leveraging science and creativity for a better world, aligning its strategy to meet the needs of diverse sectors such as food and beverage, home and personal care, and health and wellness.
Could you comment on the industry dynamics and factors that drive so much M&A activity in this space?
In their search for innovative superiority, CPG companies increasingly look to their ingredient suppliers for an integrated approach to product solutions. To achieve this, IFF and some of its peers have transformed to combine capabilities to deliver this integration. Specifically, for IFF, the combination of creativity in flavors and fragrances and the scientific leadership in biotechnology can deliver outstanding sensory experiences with superior performance: form and function. This combination can also help to achieve the improvement in sustainability that society needs in essential products and the businesses that deliver them.
What is your approach at IFF to balancing product efficacy with sustainable, natural ingredients?
The approach at IFF isn’t about balancing efficacy with sustainability; it's about breaking the trade-off between the two.
As an example, the conventional dilemma that sustainability compromises efficacy is being challenged by IFF’s advancements in a technology platform IFF calls Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials (DEB). This technology allows for the creation of high-performance, sustainable products using glucose polymers derived from simple sugars.
The ability to customize these polymers enables IFF to create innovative solutions that don’t sacrifice performance for sustainability. Moreover, the emphasis on large-scale production ensures these solutions can make a significant impact on the industry.
What are the practical applications for the biopolymers IFF is developing?
The initial focus is on personal care applications, such as conditioning shampoos that leverage these new biopolymers to deliver conditioning performance while being biodegradable. This attribute of biodegradability is a critical component of sustainability. By designing these products with biodegradability as a core criterion, IFF is setting new standards in the industry, offering high-performance materials that are also environmentally friendly.
Can you elaborate on IFF’s innovation footprint and R&D capabilities?
IFF’s innovation footprint is global, with a diverse set of R&D capabilities structured across various platforms and enabling technologies. These range from advanced molecular biology and biochemical synthesis to sensory sciences. IFF combines this with deep consumer insights from the thousands of consumer studies that it conducts each year. IFF’s R&D network supports the development of these innovative solutions, which are then tailored to customer needs in different industries. The Creative Centers, such as the one in North America focusing on food ingredients, are integral in this process, providing a collaborative environment for IFF to work closely with customers and translate cutting-edge research into tangible benefits across multiple sectors.
What are the key trends influencing clients and customers in the beauty and personal care industry, especially around regionalization?
Our customers and consumers are looking for superior performance delivered sustainably. At IFF, we engage with this trend by actively listening to our customers and conducting research across our innovation centers to grasp the diverse perspectives on sustainability. IFF has the ability to be "glocal" - combining local insight and customization with global science, scale and sustainable solutions. We aim to cater to these differing needs, understanding that natural and sustainable concepts are increasingly interlinked.
What is the consumer appetite for cleaner, more sustainable beauty products?
The pandemic marked a turning point in consumer behavior, elevating the demand for products backed by substantiated scientific claims and transparency. Customers now expect not only performance but also sustainability. As we move forward, our focus is on meeting these expectations for products that are not only effective but also sustainably produced.
What keeps you up at night in terms of challenges at IFF?
The main challenge is our own impatience, particularly with bringing transformational science to market at a pace that matches our ambition. Making the right choices from many opportunities, engaging fundamental science and creativity with agility and navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment will ultimately determine our success. We need a new level of consistency from and collaboration with regulators, to ensure that we address risk, safety and transparency, while unleashing the enormous transformation potential of the technology to deliver both performance and sustainability.
Why is IFF considered a trailblazer in technology and sustainable solutions?
IFF stands out as a trailblazer due to its commitment to utilizing emerging platforms such as biotechnology and AI to develop sustainable solutions that do not compromise on performance. Our goal is to establish new benchmarks in the industry with solutions that inherently perform better and sustainably by design.
