Arla Food Ingredients claims bakers could save more than £1m by switching from using eggs to suitable alternatives.
The firm, which develops and supplies milk-based ingredients to the industry, has been highlighting the financial benefits to bakers, confectioners and cake manufacturers with a new calculator tool at this year’s iba exhibition in Munich, Germany, should they switch to using egg replacers.
The industry was hit by the EU’s Welfare of Laying Hens Directive, introduced earlier this year, which banned the use of eggs laid by hens kept in cramped battery cages. As a result of this move, egg suppliers have been forced to bump up prices of products, which have been passed on to bakery customers.
Arla’s newly developed Nutrilac Calculator has been demonstrating a current saving of €1.35m (£1.08m) to those using egg replacers on a 50% replacement ratio, instead of 10,000 tonnes of liquid eggs.
Søren Nørgaard, senior manager at Arla Foods Ingredients, said: “It’s clear to see that bakery manufacturers face a real perfect storm that is increasing the price of key raw materials and, in particular, eggs. Fortunately, our Nutrilac egg replacers can help companies keep costs under control without any negative impact on product quality, helping them to maintain profits and retain contracts by keeping prices to customers stable.”
The data generated by the calculator has been based on the average price of liquid whole eggs from September 2011 to August 2012, provided by commodity market analyst Urner Barry.
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