Increased Supplier Security

Most of the world’s food-grade vitamin ingredients are manufactured in China and other foreign countries. And, as the recent melamine-tainted pet food and agricultural feed scandal so clearly illustrated, sourcing ingredients from varied locations around the world—or even domestically —can sometimes raise serious and otherwise potentially profit-impacting issues related to food safety.

Although the importance of knowing your ingredient supplier is common knowledge to food manufacturers, the details surrounding ingredients further down the supplier chain are often more nebulous. In other words, how well do you know your supplier’s supplier?

Premium Ingredients International is among the largest buyers of food-grade vitamins from China in the world, and the company also sources ingredients from Europe, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia and Mexico, among other countries. “We know the business, because we know all of our suppliers,” says Ronald E. Juergens, vice president. “We have people on site in China. We’ve been to visit all of our suppliers and seen their facilities.” Those foreign suppliers deliver more than 1,000 ingredients, including ascorbic acid (vitamin C), taurine and the B vitamins, to Premium Ingredients International, and the company can help manufacturers procure hard-to-find ingredients via its dedicated supplier network.

Sourcing ingredients has grown exponentially more competitive in recent years. “Now that prices are rising and the market is very tight, there are a lot of suppliers and brokers that are defaulting on commitments,” says Juergens. “We have not defaulted on any commitments, because we feel that our suppliers recognize that, with our volume, we are important to them.”

The company’s capabilities aren’t limited to ingredient procurement. “We have our own laboratory located at our headquarters where we can do our own in-house testing, if need be,” says Juergens. The company can also help manufacturers formulate products from start to finish.

Premium Ingredients International can grind, granulate and blend ingredients to customer-supplied specifications. It can grind products up to 200-mesh, in uniformly sized particles. The company custom blends ingredients, such as vitamins, botanicals and amino acids, for consistent ingredient distribution with the exact dispersion properties dictated by a customer’s formula. Ingredients are available in customized packaging sizes, from 1-oz. packages to 2,200-lb. totes. The company has multiple shipping locations in the United States and around the world. Samples of nearly any ingredient carried by Premium Ingredients International are available upon request. 

Premium Ingredients International 
285 E. Fullerton Avenue 
Carol Stream, IL 60188 
Phone: 630/868-0300 
Fax: 630/868-0310 
E-mail: [email protected] 
Website: www.premiumingredients.com 
IFT Booth 159