How a 20-Year Old Startup is Decentralizing Food Production with Modular Powdering Factories

From flour and baking products to soups, coffee, sugar, ice-cream, baby food and spices, a lot of the food you and your family consumes has at some point been in powdered form. In fact, with the advent of new food trends such as meal replacement shakes and nutraceutical supplements, powdered food is growing more rapidly than ever. Launched in 1997 as Premium Ingredients, Kristensen has always had a mission behind his work.

Back then it was to ensure transparency in the powdering process, a departure from the typical “black box” model where food businesses would have little insight into exactly how their products were processed. Creating a DropBox for Food Production To provide this transparency and improve efficiencies in the process, Kristensen, who had been using second-hand machinery in rented property, decided to build a state-of-the-art facility in Murcia, Spain, deploying the latest in technology.

Blendhub now has what it calls CloudBlending hubs all across the world from Mexico and Colombia to India and Europe. The ability to blend recipes closer to components suppliers or to final diners can cut many costs that are unassociated with the final product, he adds.

The design and concept of each container factory can be modified and improved going to the specific product or consumer needs. Each container factory is monitored and controlled through Blendhub’s proprietary cloud-based software. “If all this is implemented, it will result in faster, safer and cheaper food and nutrition to consumers,” says Kristensen. For Corporates and For Startups For corporates, Blendhub means they don’t need to build their own factories, taking pressure off their capital expenditures. It’s also a security cover — a business contingency plan — for businesses that have factories in risky locations; if an earthquake hits their factory, they can still continue to produce, examples Peleg Chevion , president and chief commercial officer of the business.

Blendhub can in addition help these businesses grow their product lines more easily, particularly into growing consumer trends such as gluten-free. The company counts some of the largest food firms as clients. But it’s not just for large engrained corporates; for startups, it’s a very interesting and important initiative, argues Chevion. Startups often struggle to find space in larger, existing factories, or the right set-up to manufacture the small quantities they’re bound to start with.

Scalability is also a big challenge for them. “How do you grow the marketplace? Assume you’re a UK company and you want to enter India, how would you do that? You either produce in the UK and ship it over with tariffs killing your business, or you produce locally.

But result someone local to source and produce for you to meet your specific standards is not easy. And you’d have to fly people all over the world to perform due diligence on the factories and so on.

Chevion adds that powdering with multiple components is much more complex than you might think. “You’ll often have entrepreneurs that want to create something but have no idea about textures, flavor or solubility, so we can help them from day one, including registering their product as a food product,” explains Chevion. Blendhub is also working with packaging businesses to provide packing services to clients within the container factories. as refined its processes. Technologies over the years to ensure quality control and transparency.