Ingredion Profile
Ingredion Incorporated and its subsidiaries (Ingredion) operate as a global ingredients solutions provider that transforms grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based materials into value-added ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets.
The company develops, produces and sells a variety of food and beverage ingredients, primarily starches and sweeteners, for a wide range of industries. The company manages its operations geographically on a regional basis, with the company’s businesses and investments classified into the following reportable business segments:
North America – U.S., Mexico and Canada.
South America – Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.
Asia-Pacific – Thailand, China, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Vietnam and previously South Korea, in which the company sold its business on February 1, 2024.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (‘EMEA’) – Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Poland.
The company’s products are derived primarily from the processing of corn and other starch-based materials, such as tapioca, potato and rice. The company’s product lines include starches and sweeteners, animal feed products and edible corn oil. The company’s starch-based products include both food-grade and industrial starches, as well as biomaterials. The company’s sweetener products include glucose syrups, high maltose syrups, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrins, and glucose and syrup solids.
Geographic Scope and Operations
As of December 31, 2023, the company utilized its global network of 47 manufacturing facilities and joint venture partnerships to support key global product lines. The company’s manufacturing process is based on a capital-intensive, two-step process that involves the wet-milling and processing of starch-based materials, primarily corn. During the front-end process, the starch-based materials are steeped in a water-based solution and separated into starch and co-products, such as protein, fiber and germ used to produce corn oil. The starch is then either dried for sale or further processed to make starches, sweeteners and other ingredients that serve the particular needs of various industries.
The company’s North America region includes 22 manufacturing facilities that produce a wide range of starches, sweeteners, gum acacia, pea protein, and fruit and vegetable concentrates.
The company’s South America region includes seven manufacturing facilities that produce regular, modified, waxy, tapioca starches, high fructose and high maltose syrups and syrup solids, dextrins and maltodextrins, dextrose, specialty starches, caramel color and sorbitol. The company also own 49 percent of Ingrear Holding S.A., which operates five manufacturing facilities in Argentina to produce value-added ingredients for sale to customers in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (the ‘Argentina joint venture’). Ingredion and Grupo Arcor, an Argentine food company, jointly appoint a team of executives to manage the Argentina joint venture.
The company’s Asia-Pacific region manufactures corn-based products in China and Thailand, tapioca- and rice-based products in Thailand, stevia sweetener products in Malaysia and China, chemically modified starch-based pharmaceutical excipients in India, and spray dried and fine grade mannitol in India. On February 1, 2024, the company completed the divestiture of its business in South Korea, which manufactured corn-based products, to an affiliate of the Sajo Group, a food company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The company supplies products manufactured in the Asia-Pacific region to the company’s global network. As of December 31, 2023, the region’s operations include twelve manufacturing facilities that produce modified, specialty and regular waxy tapioca and rice starches, dextrins, glucose, high maltose syrup, stevia sweeteners, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color and pharmaceutical-grade polyols.
The company’s Asia-Pacific region includes 88 percent ownership of PureCircle Limited (‘PureCircle’), one of the leading producers and innovators of stevia sweeteners and flavors for the food and beverage industry. The company also agreed to acquire the remaining 35 percent of shares from the company’s 65 percent ownership of Mannitab Pharma Specialties Private Limited (‘Mannitab’), an Indian manufacturer of spray dried mannitol and fine grade mannitol, by March 2026.
The company’s EMEA region includes six manufacturing facilities that produce modified and specialty starches, glucose and dextrose in Pakistan, Germany and the United Kingdom. Through the company’s German-headquartered subsidiary KaTech, the company offers advanced texture and stabilization solutions to the food and beverage industry.
The company utilizes a network of tolling manufacturers in various regions in the production cycle of certain specialty starches. In general, these tolling manufacturers produce certain basic starches for the company and the company in turn complete the manufacturing process of starches through the company’s finishing channels.
Products
The company’s portfolio of products is generally classified into the following categories: Starch Products, Sweetener Products, and Co-products and others. Within these categories, the company identifies a portion of the company’s products as specialty ingredients and the remainder of the company’s products as core ingredients.
Starch Products
The company’s starch products represented approximately 47 percent of the company’s net sales for 2023. Starches are an important component in a wide range of processed foods, where they are used for adhesion, clouding, dusting, expansion, fat replacement, freshness, gelling, glazing, mouthfeel, stabilization and texture. Cornstarch is sold to cornstarch packers for sale to consumers. Starches are also used in paper production to create a smooth surface for printed communications and to improve strength in recycled papers. Specialty paper starches are used for enhanced drainage, fiber retention, oil and grease resistance, improved printability and biochemical oxygen demand control. The textile industry uses starches and specialty starches for sizing (abrasion resistance) to provide size and finishes for manufactured products. Industrial starches are used in the production of construction materials, textiles, adhesives, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, as well as in mining and water filtration. Specialty industrial starches are used for biomaterial applications, including biodegradable plastics, fabric softeners and detergents, hair and skin care applications, dusting powders for surgical gloves, and in the production of glass fiber and insulation.
Sweetener Products
The company’s sweetener products represented approximately 34 percent of the company’s net sales for 2023. Sweeteners include products, such as glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin, glucose syrup solids and non-GMO (genetically modified organism) syrups. The company’s sweeteners are used in a wide variety of food and beverage products, such as baked goods, snack foods, canned fruits, condiments, candy and other sweets, dairy products, ice cream, jams and jellies, prepared mixes, table syrups, and beverages. These sweetener products offer functionality in addition to sweetness, such as texture, body and viscosity; help control freezing points, crystallization and browning; add humectancy (ability to add moisture) and flavor; and act as binders. The company’s high maltose syrups speed the fermentation process, allowing brewers to increase capacity without adding capital. Dextrose has a wide range of applications in the food and confection industries, in solutions for intravenous (‘IV’) and other pharmaceutical applications, and in numerous industrial applications like wallboard, biodegradable surface agents and moisture control agents. The company’s specialty sweeteners provide affordable and natural, reduced calorie and sugar-free solutions for the company’s customers.
Co-products and Others
Co-products and others represented approximately 19 percent of the company’s net sales for 2023. The company sells refined corn oil (from germ) to packers of cooking oil and to producers of margarine, salad dressings, shortening, mayonnaise and other foods. The company also sells corn gluten feed as animal feed and corn gluten meal as high-protein feed for chickens, pet food and aquaculture. The company’s other products include fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees and essences, as well as pulse proteins and hydrocolloids systems and blends.
Specialty Ingredients within the Product Portfolio
Within the company’s three product portfolios, the company considers certain of its products to be specialty ingredients. Specialty ingredients represented approximately 34 percent of the company’s net sales for 2023. These ingredients deliver more functionality than the company’s other products and add additional customer value. The company’s specialty ingredients are aligned with growing market and consumer trends, such as health and wellness, clean-label, simple ingredients, affordability, indulgence and sustainability.
The company drives growth for its specialty ingredients portfolio by leveraging the following growth platforms:
Starch-based Texturizers: These ingredients support the structure and texture behind great eating experiences. Products are made from corn, potato, rice and tapioca, and offer a multitude of textures, functionalities and stability during processing and shelf life to a broad range of food products.
Clean and Simple Ingredients: These functional ingredients address the clean label trend for finished products made with shorter lists of food ingredients that have achieved broad consumer acceptance. From food and beverages to pet food and personal care, consumers are looking for clean, simple, natural and authentic products that they can identify and trust. The broad portfolio of clean label ingredients includes starches, sweeteners, flours, nutrition ingredients, emulsifiers, and fruit and vegetable concentrates.
Sugar Reduction and Specialty Sweeteners: These solutions provide sweetness or functional replacement for sugar in reduced-calorie and sugar-free foods and beverages without sacrificing quality and consistency. These specialty ingredients are made from a variety of GMO and non-GMO raw material bases and include such ingredients as stevia sweeteners, polyols, dextrose and allulose, which is a rare sugar.
Food Systems: These systems deliver ingredient combinations that simplify a customer’s production cycle. A food system can address an array of functional challenges, including mouthfeel/texture for dairy and alternative dairy products, thickening of sauces, stabilization in high-protein drinks, gelling for fruit fillings, film formers for candy shells, foaming and frothing, adding soluble fibers and nutritional ingredients, adhering particles to breads, and emulsification of flavors.
Plant-based Proteins: These specialty pulse-based protein ingredients bring solutions made from fava beans and peas. They add protein, dietary fiber, micronutrients and texture to food and beverages.
Core ingredients within the product portfolio: The company refers to the remainder of its starch products, sweetener products and co-products that do not fall into specialty ingredients, as defined above, as core ingredients. Core ingredients represented approximately 66 percent of the company’s net sales for 2023.
Competition
The company’s competitors include, among others, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (‘ADM’), Cargill, Inc., Tate & Lyle PLC, and Primient. The company’s operations in Mexico and Canada face competition from the U.S. imports and local producers, including ALMEX, a Mexican joint venture between ADM and Primient. In South America, Cargill maintains starch processing operations in Brazil and Argentina. The company also faces competition from Roquette Frères S.A., primarily in the company’s EMEA, North America and the Asia-Pacific regions.
Customers
The company supplies a broad range of customers in over 60 industries worldwide.
Sales and Distribution
The company’s salaried sales workforce, who are generally dedicated to customers in a geographic region, sell the company’s products directly to manufacturers and distributors. In addition, the company has employees that provide technical support to its sales personnel on an industry basis. The company generally contracts with trucking companies to deliver its bulk products to customer destinations. In North America, the company generally uses trucks to ship to nearby customers. For those customers located considerable distances from the company’s manufacturing facilities, the company primarily uses either rail transport or a combination of rail transport and trucks to deliver its products.
Patents and Trademarks
As of December 31, 2023, the company owned more than 1,900 patents and patents pending, which relate to a variety of products and processes, as well as a number of established trademarks under which the company markets its products.
Government Regulation
As a manufacturer and marketer of food items and items for use in the pharmaceutical industry, the company’s operations and the use of many of the company’s products are subject to federal, state, foreign and local statutes and regulations, including the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The company and many of its products are also subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies.
Research and Development
The company’s research and Development (R&D) expense was approximately $63 million in 2023.
History
Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906. The company was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 1997.
