Ingredion prioritizing texture, an ‘underappreciated and not well understood’ trait

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Even as Ingredion generated $8.2 billion in net sales last year, the record figure came with the realization that it wasn’t doing enough to highlight one of the fastest-growing and least understood parts of its business: textures.

Starting in January, the Illinois company reorganized its business to sharpen its global focus on texture and healthful solutions. The shift was valuable and potentially lucrative because it allowed Ingredion to outline texture options more effectively for its customers while highlighting the expertise it had built in the area through investments in technology, consumer insights and sensory data.

Texture’s impacts are “underappreciated and not well understood,” Jim Zallie, Ingredion’s CEO, said in an interview. “We’re featuring that and emphasizing the textural piece more so than we have in the past.”

Ingredion, a company that sells its products in over 120 countries to more than 18,000 customers worldwide, emphasizes the importance of texture in food and beverage. Texture not only affects the way food feels in the mouth, but it also impacts its appearance, flavor release, overall taste, and even the auditory experience.

Texture is so powerful that descriptions on a product’s label, such as chunky, chewy, crunchy or creamy, can drive up to 70% of the consumer’s preference for a product, the company noted. Even a less dense or lighter textured item can be perceived as healthier. Ingredion, citing data from Innova Market Insight, noted that 84% of consumers associated light texture with healthier options.

Ingredion has expanded its portfolio in recent years internally and through acquisitions, building out its toolbox of starches, gums, hydrocolloids and other ingredients that all play a role in the creation of different textures. The insight, Zallie said, better positions Ingredion to determine how ingredients will interact to create the desired effect a food or beverage customer wants for their product.

“There is an opportunity to create and deliver more value for our customers, and then that obviously creates more value for shareholders by really being and becoming that go-to provider,” Zallie said.

For food and beverage companies, texture provides a way to create a product that stands out on store shelves and attracts consumers who are looking for something unique and different. Ingredion ultimately benefits from higher demand for its ingredients if a product proves successful while positioning itself as a go-to source for future offerings. 

Ingredion has seen its texture expertise make its way to hundreds of products. Ingredion’s hydrocolloids and tapioca starches are used, for example, to create the translucency and soft mouthfeel of the edible pearls in some boba teas. And last year, it debuted a functional native corn starch ingredient designed to help achieve a gelled texture in dairy and dairy alternative products like yogurts, puddings and cheeses.