Tetra Pak, a world-leading processing and packaging solutions company, hosted a panel discussion “Let’s turn dreams into ice creams” dedicated to product innovations, latest developments, and market trends in the ice cream industry.
Among the panellists were Supanat Ratanadib, Tetra Pak Thailand Marketing Director and Penny Jirayuwatana, a celebrity chef who became famous as a judge on TV culinary shows and her own Penny the Chef Page. Together they discussed the secrets behind the world’s soft spot with ice cream, evolving consumer expectations, the uniqueness of the market in Thailand, as well as Tetra Pak’s innovative ice cream production solutions which go beyond processing. The event also included an ice cream tasting bar featuring different types of ice cream by Tetra Pak’s customers, and an ice cream topping decoration competition, where the participants could create their own ice-cream menus.
Ice cream is one of the simple pleasures for millions worldwide, with the Asia Pacific being the largest region in terms of volume share. Given its tropical weather, there is no wonder that Thailand is firmly placed among the top three ice cream countries with a high growth rate in the Asia Pacific region.
“Ice cream is Thailand’s all-time favourite. With so many options available there is an ice cream of choice for everybody”, says Penny Jirayuwatana, the celebrity chef. “Whether you prefer a towering triple scoop of gelato or have a liking for ice cream encased in a superb layer of chocolate and served on a stick, ice cream will always send your taste buds into overdrive. Today I have learnt a lot about innovations that Tetra Pak makes available to manufacturers. These innovations create amazing opportunities for Thailand’s brands, and I’m looking forward to tasting some truly mind-blowing new products.”
Ice cream production is not a simple process – with ever-evolving flavour and format trends, shifting consumer behaviour and growing expectation for a company to be sustainable at every touchpoint. Through world class expertise and state of the art end-to-end solutions, Tetra Pak is working to provide ice cream manufacturers not only with hassle-free flexible solutions, but increased efficiency, quality, sustainability, and consumer-centred innovation too.
“About half of all the ice cream in the world is produced with the support of Tetra Pak equipment,” says Supanat Ratanadib, Marketing Director, Tetra Pak (Thailand) Limited. “After decades of working with leading ice cream brands coupled with our sharp focus on product innovation – Tetra Pak have become a leading end-to-end solutions provider in the ice cream industry with a complete one-stop offer. We offer a full range of ice cream equipment, from the mix-plant, freezers, ingredient dosers, extrusion and all the way to the end-of-line solutions. And we also have just about everything you need to go on, in and under your ice cream products — from milk powders, substitutes and stabilisers to inclusions, flavours and colours, from wooden sticks to cone sleeves and biscuits”.
The company’s expertise is not limited to manufacturing equipment – it extends to all aspects of new product development. The company provides insights and market intelligence on consumer demands, helping customers achieve the highest quality version of the new products on supermarkets’ shelves as quickly as possible.
According to Tetra Pak’s marketing insights, the overall consumption of ice cream is expected to continue growing, with more planned purchases and fewer impulse purchases. Healthy ice cream seekers will also gain more options, from the reduction of sugar to the growing popularity of dairy-free ice cream. But while consumers are increasingly reaching for plant-based products, they ultimately still expect a product that ticks all the ice cream boxes: rich, creamy and deliciously rich flavour – factors that can be difficult for manufacturers to achieve when using dairy alternatives. These and other challenges can be addressed at Tetra Pak Product Development Centres, which act as a one-stop shop for new product and category trials.
“Besides providing ice cream expertise to support recipe and product development, our Product Development Centre, Ice Cream Solutions in Denmark also has ice cream machines to test new ideas before commercial launch. Our expertise allows us to seamlessly integrate processing, automation and technical services. It means that we can support our customers in all aspects of ice cream production — from ideas to digitalisation to packaging, and everything in between, including production equipment, ingredients, engineering, and local support of the operations,” Supanat concludes.
