Tate & Lyle Drives Sustainability through its Facility
Tate & Lyle PLC is a prominent provider of ingredient solutions for promoting healthier food and beverage options and is actively striving to fulfill its environmental obligations. This is evidenced by the significant advancements made at its Koog aan de Zaan (Koog) site in the Netherlands, particularly in the areas of water conservation, waste management, and the reduction of carbon emissions.
The engineers at the Koog facility have made modifications to the manufacturing process of Tate & Lyle's CLARIA® Clean Label Functional Starches, the flagship brand in their texturants collection, resulting in a 34% reduction in carbon footprint and a 35% decrease in water usage for the product line.
CLARIA® is a corn-based starch that is used in various food and beverage products, such as sauces, dressings, soups, and drinks, to provide viscosity, texture, gelling, and other benefits. The production enhancements, which do not compromise the ingredient's performance, will be globally implemented for all CLARIA® production by Tate & Lyle, and the more sustainably created product line will be made available to food and beverage customers in limited quantities from early next year.
Starting in early 2025, all CLARIA® products will be produced using the more eco-friendly method developed at Koog under the new CLARIA® G brand, with trial samples becoming available shortly.
In addition to purchasing 100% renewable electricity, the production improvement implemented at Koog reinforces Tate & Lyle's commitment to achieving its science-based objective of lowering its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 30% by 2030, as well as attaining net zero by 2050. Furthermore, this innovation serves as a significant stride for Tate & Lyle in reaching its goal of reducing water consumption by 15% by 2030.
The Koog team has accomplished a significant achievement in waste management by discovering a valuable purpose for 99.9% of the facility's waste. This includes the use of wastewater sludge and organic matter derived from the corn wet milling process as a source of nutrients for nearby farmland and animals. This initiative aligns with Tate & Lyle's goal of repurposing 100% of its globally generated waste beneficially by 2030.
Paul Clarijs, Plant Manager at Koog aan de Zaan, Tate & Lyle, said: “Finding innovative ways to care for our planet is something our workforce cares deeply about. We operate a continuous improvement mindset and are pleased to have developed new ways of working at Koog that will inspire each Tate & Lyle site on their sustainability journey and provide benefits to our wider network.”
Coralie Falize, Innovation Lead for Texturants at Tate & Lyle, said: “By continuing to expand our texturant portfolio, including diversifying our raw materials, we are building our knowledge of production enhancement that helps us and our customers meet ambitious environmental commitments. Our next generation CLARIA® G has the same functionality as the existing product line that our customers know and love but with stronger sustainability credentials."
Anna Pierce, Tate & Lyle's Director of Sustainability, said, "This new, more sustainable process for making CLARIA® will help us increase capacity over time and give customers the more sustainable products they want as we work together to solve the climate crisis, which is the biggest problem facing society right now."
Source: Tate & Lyle
