Visitors can benefit from bundled ingredients expertise at the joint booth of the Stern-Wywiol Group
At Fi Europe 2026 in Frankfurt am Main from 17–19 November, SternEnzym will showcase enzyme solutions for current challenges in the food industry. The focus is on solutions for the production of dairy products, nutritional supplements and gluten-free wafers. At the Stern-Wywiol Group’s booth, visitors can talk to experts from SternEnzym and seven of its sister companies. Under one roof, they can access enzymes, vitamins, flavors, baking enhancers, stabilizing systems, and other functional ingredients, as well as combined solutions.
Enzyme solutions for dairy processing
Dairy products are one of the world’s most important staple foods. Enzymes offer producers many ways to improve product quality and process efficiency. SternEnzym focuses on two established application areas.
Lactase can be used to produce lactose-free or lactose-reduced versions of milk, yogurt and many other dairy products. At the same time, it prevents lactose from crystallizing in ice cream and sweetened condensed milk, thus avoiding the undesirable “sandy” texture. Lactase also offers another advantage for product development – when lactose is enzymatically hydrolyzed, the resulting monosaccharides, glucose and galactose, are sweeter than lactose. Manufacturers may therefore reduce the amount of added sugar in products like milk-based beverages.
For yogurt, SternEnzym offers a combination of transglutaminase and phospholipase. Products with low fat content often have a mouthfeel described as “less rich and creamy”. The enzyme combination increases the strength of the protein network, resulting in a fuller, creamier consistency. It also helps to prevent syneresis.
Enzymes for nutritional supplements
Enzymes are gaining importance in nutritional supplement products designed to support digestion. SternEnzym offers manufacturers a broad portfolio of enzymes for different applications. This includes starch-degrading amylases, proteases for enhanced digestion of protein-rich meals and lipases to help with metabolization of fat.Other enzymes, such as lactase, alpha-galactosidase and cellulases/hemicellulases complete the offering and enable the development custom-made enzyme blends or single-enzyme solutions for specific dietary needs.
Together with its customers, SternEnzym can develop tailored enzyme formulations that can also be combined with other ingredients like vitamins and minerals.
Gluten-free wafers with enzymatic aid
Gluten-free products are becoming more popular, but their production is challenging. Without gluten, batters made from buckwheat, rice, or millet behave very differently. Their viscosity is too low, which makes them difficult to dose and spread evenly on the baking plates. Additionally, the final wafers are more prone to breakage. SternEnzym has developed special solutions for this application. Through recipe modifications and the targeted use of enzymes, wafers with a stable structure and consistent browning can be produced, even when using very light-coloured flours like rice.
In SternEnzym’s own wafer laboratory, Applications Technologist Angelika Drakulic conducts trials under conditions very close to industrial production. Using the lab’s fully automatic pilot plant and full-size baking plate, manufacturers can have their own flours tested or develop individual solutions together with SternEnzym’s expert.
All-in solutions from a single source
Stern-Wywiol Group’s joint booth unites eight companies under one roof: SternEnzym, SternVitamin, SternChemie, OlbrichtArom, Planteneers, Hydrosol, MC Mühlenchemie and DeutscheBack. For over 40 years the group has been one of the world’s leading independent suppliers of food ingredients. For Fi Europe’s visitors, this means a fast and agile combination of enzyme technology, vitamin blends, flavors and many other functional ingredients. Depending on the objective, the Stern-Wywiol Group’s experts can provide individual building blocks or connected concepts where 1+1 may equal more than 2.
“The particular strength of the Stern-Wywiol Group lies in the variety and interplay of our areas of expertise,” notes Jan Hussmann, Head of Business Unit SternEnzym. “Our customers benefit from our ability to combine different technologies and specialist’s knowledge to develop the right solutions for even the most complex requirements. At Fi Europe, visitors can experience this collaboration and speak with our experts in person.”
In-depth discussions at Fi Europe
Visitors will find SternEnzym and the other Stern-Wywiol Group companies at booth 31K56. There, applications technologists and consultants will be ready to deep dive into enzyme solutions for dairy products, nutritional supplements and many other applications.
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