Why ingredient scouting matters more than ever in food innovation and renovation

1 April 2026 | Philip Spratt, Product Development Team Lead

When it comes to sourcing ingredients, especially when trying to do something new, food and beverage companies face various challenges. There are pressures to change formulations and find the right ingredients to achieve new goals, but commercially available solutions from mainstream suppliers do not always keep pace.

Governments continue to encourage the reduction of sugar, salt and fat, but consumers are also seeking products with ‘cleaner’ labels (avoiding additives, such as preservatives and sweeteners). Balancing these aims can be a significant challenge when seeking to maintain product quality and appeal.

Compounding these challenges are the recent significant rises in ingredient and packaging costs as well as the growing need to strive for greater sustainability.

But, why are suitable ingredients difficult to find?

Why ingredient solutions can be difficult to find

The complex balance of requirements is not the only issue – it is also their dynamic nature. Ever-changing consumer demands and other pressures are such that large, mainstream ingredient suppliers may not be fast enough to provide timely solutions.

To address the needs of the food and drink industry, the technology landscape has diversified in recent years. True ingredient innovation is now often led by start-ups and smaller businesses, for example those coming out of universities.

Some examples include:

• The Good Pulse Company (originally a University of Nottingham spin-out) are a small UK business who produce functional ingredients from pulses. They claim to “combine the sustainability of peas with the performance of dairy to produce an overall healthier solution to plant-based cheese”.
• MicroLub, a spin-out company from the University of Leeds, is an ingredient solution company developing protein-based technologies for replacing fats/oils in food produce. Their microgels of plant proteins are produced through the formation of protein and water gels that are broken into microparticles using a homogeniser. When applied in food, the microgels release water when chewed to create the mouthfeel associated with fats/oils.
• ENOUGH (also originally a spin-out, this time from The University of Strathclyde) is a B2B ingredient company that produces ABUNDA® mycoprotein by fermentation. This is billed as complete food ingredient containing all essential amino acids as well as being high in dietary fibre, and “a sustainable protein relevant to multiple categories and product applications”.

These sorts of solutions can often be difficult to identify, especially if their ingredients are still in development or only recently commercialised.

How ingredient scouting works

Our ingredient and technology scouting service is a tailor-made solution, designed specifically for the individual challenges our clients face.

Such scouting activities could be:

• Finding ingredients to deliver a specific functionality within a specific category, such as sweet proteins for sugar replacement, salt replacers in dairy, humectants for dairy, or natural ingredients for cleaner labels.
• Summarising the latest ingredient technologies across the industry, such as fat replacement solutions.
• Providing a deep dive into cutting edge research, including assessment of the functionality, risks and opportunities.
• Conducting scientific literature reviews of complex functionality or formulation issues detailing key areas to be addressed.

Through effective ingredient scouting, you can find the right businesses to partner with, who can provide the ingredient solution you need.

We can assess and prioritise different ingredients and potential partners based on key factors including regulatory status, ‘naturalness’, suitability for use in specific products and manufacturing processes, and estimated cost in use.

If required, we can source ingredient samples and test them in client specific applications using our development laboratory and pilot plant facilities.

Success through partnering

Using solution-finding (such as an ingredient scouting service) and partnering with innovative businesses (including SMEs and start-ups) can help food companies to innovate, meet the various demands / needs covered here, and bring new or improved products to market.

Through ingredient scouting and partnering, food companies can innovate, meet market needs and produce successful products.

In 2024, it was reported that Grupo Bimbo partnered with food-tech company Oobli to use sweet proteins as a completely new way of sweetening its baked goods range. These plant proteins’ greater sweetness than sugar gives them the potential to replace 70-90% of sugar in many food/drink products. Oobli uses precision fermentation to produce the sweet proteins, which may be a positive for sustainability with respect to the reduced land usage compared to that needed for sugar production.

The same year, Perfect Day (a precision fermentation innovator and supplier) announced the launch of a lactose-free frozen dessert, made with their whey protein (produced by precision fermentation), by Breyers (ice cream and frozen dessert brand – then of Unilever, now of The Magnum Ice Cream Company), with whom they had partnered.

How we can help

The importance of innovative ingredient solutions to the food and drink industry has never been greater, and keeping abreast of the latest ingredient technology is paramount. Navigating emerging options from established suppliers, new entrants and universities across the world can be challenging. To reach the right solution, you may even need to find and partner with a suitable SME, start-up or spin-out.

Through our technology and ingredient scouting service, we have helped multiple businesses identify solutions for overcoming their challenges. Using our global networks, expertise and academic connections, we can help you to identify solutions to technical challenges. Our scouting service is a tailor-made solution, designed specifically for the individual challenges our clients face.

With any solution, especially those not yet commercialised, the permissibility of ingredients (in terms of novel food considerations and other regulatory factors) will need to be reviewed. Our ingredient permissibility review is a specialised service designed to investigate the regulatory status of an ingredient to support consideration for product compliance across global markets. This is just part of the valuable, extensive and authoritative information and advisory services provided by our Regulatory Team.

Our ingredient and technology scouting support allows you to free up resources to concentrate on day-to-day activities, sense check your own understanding of the market and identify opportunities that you were not previously aware of. As well as finding solutions for you, we can also assess them for you in our laboratory, test kitchen and pilot plan facilities.

Get in touch to benefit from the ingredient solutions that we can find for you.

How can we help you?

If you’d like to find out more about our ingredient scouting service, get in touch.

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