“Prinova supplies vitamins and additives for the bakery sector. We also supply vitamins, sweetening agents and additives for the beverage industry. Moreover, we offer amino acids for sports foods and energy drinks industry. We are also giving distributorships for encapsulated sweeteners and flavors, milk- chantily based proteins and mixtures (cream chantily base, coffee cream, powdered butter, etc.) calcium propionate, emulsifiers, and botanical extracts.”

Mehmet GÖZÜKARA - Prinova Türkiye, General Manage

As rapidly growing global population makes it more and more difficult to access food, research for creating foods with high nutritional value are going on. Fortifying staple food is among the best investments in order to secure the future. Prinova, a US-based company is just doing this. The company offers solutions such as high-quality feedstock, flavors and value-added high nutritional food for nutraceutical and feed industry and it is taking firm steps forward in the Turkish market. We talked with Mehmet Gozukara, the General Manager of Prinova Gıda ve Kimya Tic. Ltd. Şti, about his company’s efforts in Turkey and trends in the food additives sector.

Mr. Gozukara, could you please inform our readers about Prinova and its quest in Turkish market? Prinova has been playing an active role in the food and additives industry since 1978. The company entered into Turkish market in 2013 with the sub-company named Prinova Gıda ve Kimya Tic. Ltd. Şti. Prinova has already been supplying its products to Turkish customers with direct imports and via distributorships for more than 10 years. The reasons behind establishing its own company are the huge potential of Turkish food sector and the demand from the US or Europe based companies’ subsidiaries in Turkey. Global HQ of Prinova is in Carol Stream-Illinois and Europe HQ is in the United Kingdom. The United Nations Mexico, Spain, Germany, France, Turkey, and China are hosting regional offices of the company.

Can you give some information about Prinova’s areas of activity and product range? International stores of Prinova contain more than 2000 items for the beverages and nutrients sector. We are leading the sports food industry with vitamins such as ascorbic acid and derivatives; preservatives such as potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, calcium propionate; flavor chemicals such as vanillin, ethyl vanillin, menthol; sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartan, acesulfame, sodium saccharin, siglamat; and amino acids such as torin, cysteine, creatine, glutamine.

We are also giving distributorships for encapsulated sweeteners and flavors, milk- chantily based proteins and mixtures (cream chantily base, coffee cream, powdered butter, etc.) calcium propionate, emulsifiers, and botanical extracts.

Could you please tell us a bit about your R&D activities and new developments? Prinova Solutions acquired premix facilities of Lycored in the UK and China in June 2017. Those facilities are producing vitamins, minerals and other food stuff in order to support international companies of the fortified food sector. Premixes are tailored to the needs of specific customers. Solutions are being developed for fortified food, breakfast cereals, beverages, baby food formulas and other products. Those investments are supporting Prinova Solutions USA premix facilities to meet demands of national and international firms and they are seen as important advantages for the company.

In which sectors are you active in Turkey? Prinova supplies vitamins and additives for the bakery sector. We also supply vitamins, sweetening agents and additives for the beverage industry. Moreover, we offer amino acids for sports foods and energy drinks industry.”

How was 2017 for your company? We have significantly increased sales in 2017. So as Prinova, we were happy with 2017. Our success was due to our excellent relationships with the customers and also our stocking principles that enabled us to cope with challenges of products from China. Thanks to the power of Prinova, our local customers enjoyed a timely supply of materials. Our aim is to transform our investment in the premix sector into long-term business relations by developing our existence in the premix industry in Turkey at the beginning of this summer.

ABSTAINING FROM SUGAR BECOMING POPULAR What are the latest trends in food additives in Turkey and in the world? Decreasing the use of sugar and turning towards THE alternative protein sources is a trending issue which we also follow up closely. According to Mintel and Euromonitor, flavors are the most important components for innovations in the sports food industry. Some of our innovative products are cornflakes, cake and donut flavors that suit up to milk proteins and proteins that are based on pea, soybean, rice, zucchini, beef, chicken and other products.

According to Innova, “no sugar added” or “low sugar” expressions on product tags had increased 32% in 2016 when compared to the 2011-2015 period and became the most common expression. As Prinova, we are able to offer a fixed price and long-term agreements to our customers, thanks to our method of stocking a large variety of sweeteners in Turkey and Europe. There are challenges in the global market of merchandizing sweeteners and other products for the last 18 months, but we managed to overcome these obstacles. We have a high number of sweeteners to offer and we are able to formulate new ones at our laboratories for our customers that choose to decrease sugar rates but keep the taste and flavor of their products.