Custom blends
When your program needs something different from a standard product, we build the blend around your specification. A pre-cooked grain base with the macro- and micro-components you require, developed with our R&D team and produced to the same high quality standards as everything we make.
At a glance
Added to it
Macro-components such as milk powder, sugar and vegetable oil, and micro-components such as vitamins and minerals
Base
A pre-cooked grain mix, corn or wheat, with soy as standard. Other grains on request
Developed
With our R&D team, from your briefing to the first production run
Packaging
1.5 kg bags, 18-month shelf life
Who it is for
When the specification comes first
Some programs start from a product. Others start from a nutritional target, a defined population, or a donor requirement that no standard blend covers. That is where custom blends belong.
It applies when your program works with a specific micronutrient profile, when local taste or dietary habits ask for a different composition, when an ingredient has to be left out, or when you are designing a new intervention and the product still has to be defined. If you can describe what the blend has to achieve, we can develop it.
What you can compose
Three layers, one blend
Every custom blend is built up in the same three layers. The choices in each layer follow your specification.
Layer 1
The grain base
A pre-cooked grain mix is the foundation. Our standard base is corn or wheat, combined with soy, and other grains are available on request. Extruded and milled in our own facilities, the grain base makes the blend instant and easy to digest.
Layer 2
Macro-components
Milk powder, sugar and vegetable oil, added in the proportions your specification requires. They determine the energy density, protein content and taste, and are where nutritional value and cost per ration are balanced.
Layer 3
Micro-components
Vitamins and minerals, dosed to match your nutritional profile. We work with specialized micronutrient suppliers, so we can tailor the fortification to your program, for example to address specific micronutrient deficiencies in a region.
How we develop it
From briefing to first production run
Development starts with a conversation. We want to understand the target group, the intervention and the practical requirements before we touch a formulation. Throughout the project, we guide you from briefing to first production run.
- Briefing
You describe the target group, the nutritional target and the practical requirements. We ask until our R&D team is certain the question is understood. - First composition
We translate the specification into a raw material composition and identify the ingredients that meet both your profile and our quality standards. - Test run, samples and adjustment
We produce a test run, evaluate the samples internally, send them to you, and adjust on your feedback. As many rounds as the product needs. - Packaging design and production
We design the packaging with you and move to first production.
Packaging and shipping
Packed for the journey
Custom blends are packed in 1.5 kg alu-coated bags, 9 per cardboard box, with an 18-month shelf life. The bags keep the product protected from moisture, and the boxes are sized to fill a container efficiently.
Quality and compliance
A custom blend, the same controls
Your custom blend is produced to the same high standards as all our products. Every raw material is screened before it enters our site. Extrusion makes the grain digestible and ensures microbiological safety. Our optimized extrusion process also reduces anti-nutritional factors, which improves the bioavailability of essential nutrients.
Extrusion is the core of our operations and is monitored continuously. Micronutrients are dosed with a high degree of accuracy, and every batch can be released with the certificates your program requires.
Other ranges
Looking for a standard product? See our products for children from 6 months or our products for children from 3 years and adults, including pregnant and lactating women.