The evolution of vanillin production at Symrise
In the late 1980s, Symrise started its search for an economically viable alternative to conventional vanillin production. Up until then, vanillin had been primarily produced through the chemical oxidation of guaiacol or eugenol and from lignin from wood processing. These traditional methods produce vanillin that is not considered a natural flavoring under German food law and therefore may not be labeled as such. With consumer and customer demand for natural flavors steadily rising, the time was right to find an alternative for natural vanillin production.
A team led by Dr. Ian Gatfield, Dr. Jürgen Rabenhorst, Kirsten Weiss, Irmgard Werner and Imke Meyer devoted themselves to research in this field and in the mid-1990s achieved a breakthrough in the production of natural vanillin. The new manufacturing process was based on an innovative fermentative process for producing vanillin from natural ferulic acid, which is a by-product of the processing of rice husks, mainly done in Japan.
The first production-scale manufacture took place in Holzminden in 1995. The necessary fermentation was done at the Selby site in the UK.
Unlike conventional production, the new method enabled natural vanillin to be extracted. A game changer for the food and luxury food industry. Natural vanillin, previously obtained only through costly extraction from vanilla pods, could now be produced in a more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way.
In the same year, 1995, the company filed a patent application for the new process. In 1997, fermentation was relocated from the Selby site to Bayer in Wuppertal. The process (especially fermentation, purification and crystallization) was continuously optimized in the following years.
This naturally extracted vanillin was ideal for use in the production of natural (vanilla) flavors and opened up new possibilities for the efficient and environmentally-friendly use of natural ingredients by the food industry. This innovation allowed Symrise to once again revolutionize flavor production.
