The ‘Flavour Ambassadors’ is an EFFA multimedia project launched in 2019 and aimed at sharing the passion and expertise of European flavour professionals. Through the project we aim to give the industry a “voice” and showcase its many facades and the blend of knowledge that is needed to create flavourings that ultimately enrich our food and drinks.
The community of Flavour Ambassadors is comprised of varied industry specialists who are passionate about their profession and volunteered to take part in this EFFA project. Our Flavour Ambassadors represent the different departments of variously sized companies from all over Europe and are of different cultures andbackgrounds. In each episode of the interviews, the ambassadors show the various aspects in the creating process, explain what their role in the flavour house is, what drives and challenges them, and how their expertise contributes to the flavour and food industry in Europe and globally. With professionals ranging from regulatory to sensory and marketing departments, each focuses on their own expertise and added value and together they showcase the complexity of the flavour industry processes.
With Fanny Antille we now have the chance to see how the creative process works, from a client briefing to enjoyable moments for consumers
My name is Fanny Antille. I am responsible for Firmenich Cold Beverages Business Unit in Europe. My team is composed of flavourists, beverages technologists, marketers & project managers.
I discovered the world of flavours at the end of my studies. A that time I joined an event where companies were introducing themselves to graduated students. Firmenich was one of the presenting companies. The speaker was so passionate that he convinced me to look at the company and at the industry. I joined 18 years ago and I am still there!
I am explaining that we develop tastes for the major food and beverages producers, to give an identity to their products and brands and create enjoyable moments for consumers.
Food and drinks are for me synonyms of happy moments with family and friends. Flavours are inherent to food and beverages and they are strong vectors of emotions. You carry them in your memories.
At the business unit we start each day with a morning meeting where we review the requests of our clients raised by the sales team. This is what we call in the industry the briefs. We also regularly review new ideas brought up by the technical and marketing teams to create the beverages and tastes of tomorrow. Projects are then allocated across our different sites in Europe, to our different experts (flavourists, technologists, marketers, sensory, analytical experts). My role is to ensure that we use at best our resources to win briefs and provide added value to our clients. Some of my days are organized around client visits at our centre of expertise in Belgium, some others are focused at analysing business performance, engaging with our affiliates across Europe to develop the business or working on improving our portfolio of flavours and inspiring tools. It is overall a very collaborative job, connected with numerous functions.
Our clients can have a pretty precise idea of what they want or not that much. Our role is to help them in the process by asking the right questions. Understanding their needs is critical. We can then select or create the flavour that will meet their consumer’s expectations. Depending on their needs, we engage different competencies, for example our marketing team can support an ideation phase by providing inspiring insights on trends and how they translate into flavours or they can share consumer insights related to some specific products like soft drinks for adults or craft beers.
In order to do the best flavour selection or the best creation, the team working on the project is integrating many different insights: macro trends, flavour trends, consumer understanding, beverages market knowledge, brand understanding, sensory expertise, technical requirements. At the end, both the choice of the tonality (i.e strawberry) and the choice of the taste profile (i.e jammy and creamy strawberry) are driven by the need to fit the product category, the targeted consumer group, the values of the brand and the product positioning that the client is looking for.
In my role I work with many different functions. In the business unit we have flavourists, beverages technologists, marketers, project managers, sensory and analytical scientists and we work daily with account managers. I am also part of the European Management Team and therefore interacting a lot with the commercial leaders of Europe and my counterparts in Sweet Goods and Savoury. We also engage with more global functions on Innovation and on Global Beverages.
What is really exciting to me is that – by working on flavours – you are at the heart of the food and beverages innovation for the entire industry in Europe.
I have worked on many very interesting topics during the last 18 years, either linked to specific product development for a customer or more linked to the development of a Firmenich new tool. I have always enjoyed implementing new ways of working: adapting the team organization to be more flexible and impactful, creating new approaches or tools to meet the needs of our clients. Over years, there were important changes in the beverage industry and this created very challenging and exciting times for flavours. Some years ago we had a massive move to natural flavourings and today we are working on transforming beverages into healthier products. This is exciting!
I love herbs & spices flavours that can give a twist to mainstream tastes like lemon or peach. They bring a part of unusual, of discovery and they also make me remember some travels and discoveries. I like in particular ginger, cardamom, coriander. My least favourite flavour is cherry. I really love fresh cherries but I never found the perfect translation in flavours yet!
Indeed I would. I had such an enriching career full of various opportunities. I learnt a lot and developed new skills and hopefully this will continue. I also was lucky to work with fantastic teams and individuals. People in this industry are in general very passionate!