A hybrid approach combining dairy and oat enables the creation of ice cream with a smooth, indulgent texture and a clean flavor profile, while reducing both costs and environmental impact. This session provides practical insights into how to balance indulgence, functionality, and sustainability in formulation – including application examples and tasting.
Rikke S. Frandsen is Technical Engagement Manager at cReal Food AB, where she supports customers in translating oat-based ingredient innovation into successful food applications. She brings more than 25 years of experience in the global food ingredients industry across R&D, application, marketing, and business development. Her work focuses on solving formulation challenges to meet clean-label demands while delivering on taste, texture, and visual appeal.
The South American ice cream market continues to grow, shaped by increasing consumer awareness, regulatory pressure, and ongoing discussions around ultra-processed foods. This session explores how brands navigate between indulgence and health perception, and how these dynamics influence reformulation strategies, portfolio decisions, and consumption patterns.
Eric Souza is a food engineer with over 15 years of experience in marketing and product management within the food ingredients industry. He has extensive international experience, particularly in dairy and plant-based alternatives. In global roles, he combines market insight with technical expertise to drive innovation across products and industrial processes.
This presentation addresses common quality and process challenges when combining ice cream with waffles and sugar cones. It focuses on identifying root causes and presenting practical solutions to ensure product stability and consumer acceptance.
Markus Bartels is a mechanical engineer and has been with WALTERWERK since 1998. After starting his career in management consulting, he took on international client project responsibilities and today serves as Managing Director Sales. His expertise lies in industrial production solutions for wafer and baking applications.
With the rise of GLP-1 therapies, appetite and portion sizes are decreasing – but the desire for indulgence remains. This presentation explores how high-protein and/or no-added-sugar ice cream can deliver strong satiety and sensory satisfaction in smaller portions. The focus lies on designing texture, mouthfeel, and flavor release to compensate for reduced consumption and enable maximum enjoyment per bite.
Miroslav Buchmet holds an MSc in Chemistry and has over 25 years of professional experience working with ingredients across oil-based products, chocolate, and ice cream. His career has focused on the practical application and functionality of ingredients in different product categories, supporting product development and quality optimization.
This presentation provides a market and technical outlook on cocoa, addressing current supply dynamics and cost pressures. It further explores non-cocoa vegetable fats and oil-based alternatives, focusing on their functionality and applicability in ice cream coatings and product bodies as viable substitutes.
Sacid Erdem is Customer Innovation Manager Chocolate at AAK. In his role, he focuses on developing and applying fat-based solutions for chocolate and compound applications, with a strong emphasis on functionality, performance, and industrial scalability.
Taking a global perspective, this session examines how the ice cream category is evolving across regions—balancing indulgence with growing demand for lower sugar, healthier, and more functional products. It presents key market sizes, brand shares, consumer insights, and latest forecasts to highlight where future growth is expected.
Manuel Leckel is a consultant with over seven years of experience working with global B2B and B2C players in the food industry. He supports innovation, export, and strategy teams in interpreting international market data and translating it into informed growth decisions
Ciao Cacao! Indulgent by Nature, with Less Cocoa, Coffee & Nuts
Subline: Tackle volatile cocoa, coffee and nut supply with smart taste solutions that stabilise sourcing and raw material costs.
Description: Cocoa, coffee and nuts are under pressure – from changing harvest conditions to rising and volatile raw material prices. Döhler invites you to discover how smart taste design can maintain indulgence while reducing dependence on these challenging raw materials. By leveraging nature-based taste modulators, impactful cocoa and coffee tonalities, and authentic nut-style profiles, we help you create recipes that keep the same sensory pleasure with less of the costly ingredients.
Shaping Flavour Perception in Modern Ice Cream
Subline: Advanced taste modulation strategies to unlock better flavour, balance, and functionality in frozen desserts.
Description: Exploring innovative approaches to optimize sweetness, mask challenging notes, and enhance indulgent profiles—tailored to evolving formulation needs and consumer expectations.
Katharina Mahnken is a seasoned professional with a robust background in the food and beverage industry. She has over 15 years of experience in leading flavour companies, both on the technical and commercial side. Katharina holds a degree in Food Technology from the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn, Germany, where she specialized in food chemistry, biotechnology and sensory analysis. In her current role as European B2B Product Manager for Food at Döhler, where she has been for four years, she is responsible for the European product range and innovation pipeline for taste solutions for food. Thus, she is supporting manufacturers in the creation of indulgent and consumer-relevant food and drink products, as well as the mitigation of sensory challenges during the process of product reformulation.
Erich Windhab has been educated in Chemical and Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe (Germany), where he also received his PhD. During his PhD he started his own engineering enterprise. From 1986-92 he served in building up the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) as its Research Director. From 1988-1992 he was also active as PD at the Technical University of Munich for Fluid Dynamics and Rheology. In 1992 he became full professor in Food Process Engineering at ETH Zürich. Since the end of 2022 he is professor emeritus still interacting with ETH and chairing the Food Technology Platform of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW). He has been awarded a number of prestigious international awards like the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences. In 2021 he also received the IAFoST (Int. Academy of Food Science & Technology) and the EFFoST (European Federation of Food Science & Technology) Lifetime Achievement Awards. Erich Windhab published more than 550 peer reviewed articles, filed ca. 95 patent applications, initiated / founded more than 10 start-up companies and acts as member of industrial and governmental advisory boards.
Vegetable fats and oils play a critical role in performance and sensory experience of ice cream and ice cream coatings. In a challenging global environment shaped by evolving market dynamics and increasing consumer expectations, having suitable alternatives to meet these demands makes the selection of the right fat solutions progressively more important and complex
Born and raised in Mexico, I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Food Chemistry and a Master’s degree in Marketing. I bring over 17 years of experience in the food industry, including the past 10 years as part of the AAK family.
My expertise is centered on dairy applications, with a strong specialization in complex emulsion systems as ice cream and whipping toppings. Throughout my career, I have been focused on delivering innovative, technically fat solutions that enhance product performance and sensory experience
Gliederung: Fresh Spirulina – a nutritional and sustainable Gamechanger for Icecream
1. Einleitung & Problemstellung
Das Dilemma bei veganem Eis: Kompromisse bei Geschmack, Textur oder künstlichen Zusatzstoffen.
Die Lösung: Frische Spirulina als natürlicher Universalrohstoff.
2. Das technofunktionale Prinzip (Wie es funktioniert)
100 % Sahne-Ersatz: Volle Cremigkeit ohne tierische Fette.
40 % weniger Zucker: Kalorienreduktion ohne Geschmackseinbußen.
Absolute Geschmacksneutralität: Volle Sortenvielfalt ohne Algengeschmack.
3. Das Ergebnis: Das erste echte Clean-Label-Eis
Vegan, laktosefrei und kalorienarm.
Keine E-Nummern oder künstliche Zusatzstoffe.
Gesund, nachhaltig und regional produziert.
4. Fazit & Ausblick
What is PPWR?
How is recyclability defined according to PPWR and what criteria are used in the assessment?
Timeline for “approved packages to be put on the market”
One example of a future ice cream packaging solution from Tetra Pak
Jimmy Blomborg holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and has spent the last 10 years in the food industry, primarily in product and project management. In his current role, as New Business Manger, he is working on redefining the future of ice cream packaging as current and future sustainability legislation is putting high demands on the food industry.
Market relevance: Growing consumer demand for lactose-free products, driven by lactose intolerance and broader “free-from” trends, has made lactose-free dairy ice cream a viable and attractive category.
Technology: Lactose-free ice cream is produced by adding lactase to hydrolyse lactose into glucose and galactose (monosaccharides), resulting in increased sweetness. This increased sweetness creates opportunities for sugar reduction and recipe optimisation.
Freezing behaviour and storage stability: Lactose hydrolysis influences freezing behaviour and can improve product stability during storage.
Physical functionality: Monosaccharides lower the freezing and melting points, while reducing ice crystal formation and recrystallisation, enabling in some cases improved texture control throughout shelf life.
Katy McCall is a Senior Product Manager for lactase enzymes at Kerry, with a background in food science and over a decade of experience in dairy innovation and commercialization. She leads strategic initiatives in lactose reduction and enzyme-based solutions, working across R&D, operations, and commercial teams. Katy has successfully driven product launches in dairy and managed multi-million-euro portfolios. She holds an MSc in Food Science and Technology from University of Copenhagen and is passionate about advancing healthier dairy solutions.
How Mintel incorporated AI into the insights gathering