The Perfect Blend: Sample Preparation in Flavor Development

Related Vendors

KNF Neuberger GmbH

Redaktionsbüro Guido Deußing

Gerstel GmbH & Co. KG

Hardware requires thoughtful implementation

When developing flavors and fragrances, Symrise relies on approximately 2500 different ingredients. Among these are pure raw products, essential oils, and extracts. Because many of these ingredients can degrade when exposed to heat, it was decided that Peltier cooled tray stacks were the best option for ingredient storage. Three stacks with the capacity to hold 6 trays per stack were used in the final configuration. These were vented in order to eliminate the possibility of flavor and fragrance emissions and possible cross contamination. This provided the MPS Dual Head Workstation with a capacity of 204 to 918 ingredients depending on the vials and trays used. For example, VT12 trays hold up to twelve 10 mL vials; VT54 trays offer 54 positions for 2 mL vials. If only VT12 trays are used, a maximum of 204 ingredients can be stored in the system that was configured in cooperation with Symrise; if only VT54 trays are used up to 918 positions are available. The remaining 18th tray is used for diluents and solvents.

Through careful optimization, the flavor experts at Symrise and their
Gerstel project partners succeeded in accommodating all essential raw products normally needed for flavor development work using a single MPS Workstation.

To assist in the technical implementation of the blending process on the MPS Dual Head Workstation, Symrise developed a database tool, which stores and takes into account specific product data including relevant ingredient specifications such as specific density and viscosity. In addition, the Symrise database keeps track of ingredient usage and stock levels in the MPS Workstation. An integrated export function directly transfers the “recipe” of ingredients and their associated quantities for a particular fragrance blend directly to a maestro Software Prep Sequence for automated blending.

In the development project, a strict and indispensable condition laid out was the ability to identify raw products by unique product numbers as well as to pinpoint their exact vial and tray position. The overall implementation and integration of the database with the maestro control software required multiple project steps in which the impact of the parameters chosen on the wider software project always had to be considered carefully.

“The system alerts the user when ingredient stock is low and should be replenished or if an ingredient is missing altogether and should be added”, Uwe Schaefer and Lars Grohmann report.

Successful cooperation for the benefit of the customer

The flavor experts from Symrise and the application and software experts from Gerstel were able to draw on each other’s expertise, pooling their knowledge to produce an impressive solution. The task was among other things to expand the possibilities of the maestro software and to enable the desired features such as stock management, data transfer, weighing, data tracking — and, last but not least, miniaturization. “Instead of dispensing milliliters or larger volumes by hand, the MPS performs the job dispensing only a few µL of an ingredient in order to create a new fragrance”, Uwe Schaefer and Lars Grohmann report: “The automation and miniaturization of the process using the MPS Workstation resulted in savings in raw product usage of up to 80-90 %”.

According to the flavor experts, the MPS Workstation works day and night, eight days a week when needed. That means the MPS is working overtime and the flavor experts have more time to challenge conventional wisdom in the operation and to try out new things. In short: More time for creative work — the most important thing in the flavor and fragrance business.

* G. DEUßING: Redaktionsbuero G. Deußing, 41464 Neuss/Germany

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