AROXA™ news
European trade marks awarded to Cara Technology for SensCheck™ Sensory Software - 9 December 2011
Cara Technology has secured European Community Trade Mark Registrations for use of its SensCheck™ brand name. The name will be used in connection with the company's web-based sensory analysis software which will be launched in 2012 following three years of development with breweries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
Cara Technology Launches AROXA™ Flavour Standards for Taste Panel Training - 19 October 2011
Cara Technology is launching a new range of taste panel training products for the water, soft drinks, cider, and wine industries. A range of more than 250 individual reference flavour standards will be delivered direct to the market under the AROXA™ brand name. This will provide quality assurance professionals and taste panel leaders in these industries with the tools they need to develop and maintain skilled professional taste panels for product testing, descriptive profiling and product development.
Cara Technology is the company behind the world’s first reference flavour standards, launched 15 years ago and used to develop the skills of more than 15,000 professional tasters throughout the global brewing industry. Now, for the first time, Cara has created reference flavour standards specifically for other drinks - cider, wine, water and soft drinks. These standards can be used in a range of important ways such as training tasters, validating assessor performance, and conducting sensory quality assurance tests on products prior to release to the market.
The flavour standards comprise food-grade materials which are safe to smell and taste. They are treated to remove sensory impurities before being nano-encapsulated to give them a long shelf-life. They are presented in unit-dosed gelatine capsules, providing sufficient material to generate precise, tried and tested, concentrations of flavour in each litre of product. Each flavour standard is supplied with an information sheet which gives details concerning the assessment of the flavour note, its flavour threshold, the distribution of threshold values among assessors, the origins of the flavour and its importance to the product.
Although each product can be purchased individually, the AROXA™ flavours can also be purchased as kits representing different categories, such as off-flavours and taints.
Commenting on the new range, Dr Bill Simpson, the leading brewing technologist who founded Cara Technology in 1995, said: “In such an innovation-led market it makes sense for us to use our extensive experience and expertise in flavour reference standards to create products to benefit the soft drinks, water, wine, and cider industries. Our products have had a transformative effect on the brewing industry. The skills of professional beer tasters throughout the globe are today demonstrably excellent. This situation has been made possible by the availability of training tools and the commitment of brewing companies to eliminate subjectivity from their tasting activities.”
Bill Simpson adds: “We have also developed a range of multi-purpose flavour standards which can be used virtually anywhere – in products as diverse as cheese, pasta, soya milk, gravy granules, tomato ketchup, cook-in sauces, rum, vodka and whisky. We’re aiming to bring the advantages of objective sensory assessment and rigorous training programmes to a diversity of food and drinks industries.”
Customers have direct access to extensive physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory analysis data which is generated for each batch of flavours. This means that sensory analysts can know precisely how much flavour material is present in each batch of capsules. From a compliance perspective users can be sure of accessing the most current information relating to the flavour materials, reinforcing confidence in the safety of the samples presented to tasters.
The new AROXA™ range of flavour standards is available from October 2011 from www.aroxa.com or by contacting Cara Technology on +44 1372 822 218.
Issued on behalf of Cara Technology by Energy PR. For more information contact Susannah Morgan on +44 (0) 1993 823011 or email susannah@energypr.co.uk
European Trademarks awarded to Cara Technology - 14 September 2011
Cara Technology has secured European Community Trade Mark Registrations for use of its AROXA™ brand name.
The company will launch the AROXA™ range of flavour standards for beer, cider, soft drinks, water and wine later in 2011 having taken the decision to supply the market directly following 15 years of supplying its flavour-active products and software only through resellers and agents.
Expansion of Leatherhead production and logistics facility for Cara Technology - 12 September 2011
Cara Technology has expanded its production and logistics facility in Leatherhead (UK) in readiness for supplying the market directly with flavour standards for use with beer, cider, soft drinks, water and wine later in 2011. The current facility, which houses the company's ISO9001-accredited production and testing facilities, including various analytical equipment such as Gas Chromatography and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, has been expanded with new areas dedicated to incoming goods, warehousing and dispatch activities.
A new taste room, equipped with eight tasting booths and computerized data collection and feedback has also been installed.
The company has recently recruited a number of additional staff including Garry Harper in logistics and Beth Hughes in HR, bringing the total number of employees in the company to 30.
Cara hosts product presentation day for its new range of AROXA™ flavour standards - 24 August 2011
Cara Technology has hosted a presentation day at its Leatherhead facility to unveil its new range of flavour standards to its staff and partners.
More than 40 people attended the event, including staff employed by Cara's UK facility working in flavour standards development and production, flavour standards quality assurance, software development, software testing, hosting and support, yeast supply and testing, and process consultancy. Representatives from Cara's Copenhagen yeast operation were also present. The Company's Digital Design Agency, Packaging Design Consultants, and Packaging Manufacturers were on hand to explain the contribution they had made to the AROXA™ project. Cara's PR agency - Energy PR helped to facilitate the day and explained the communication plan.
During the one-day event attendees were introduced to the AROXA™ product concept and had a chance to try out the company's newly developed range of 18 flavour standards kits and almost 250 flavour standards. A website dedicated to the AROXA™ products was demonstrated. The company's new tasting room, equipped with eight computerized booths running Cara's SensCheck™ Sensory Analysis Software, was also made use of, with all staff having the opportunity to evaluate three beer samples using the system.
The event was a key part of Cara's internal training programme as it aims toward supplying the market directly with its flavour standards and software after having only made such products available through resellers and agents in the past.
Re-accredition to BS EN ISO 9001 for Cara Technology's UK facility - 28 June 2011
Cara Technology's Leatherhead operations have been successfully re-accredited to the BS EN ISO 9001:2008 quality standard. The accreditation encompasses the development, production and testing of reference flavour standards, development, testing and deployment of sensory software, and the administration of performance assessment schemes for sensory assessors.
The certificate is issued by the Centre for Assessment Limited - certificate number 09/0376 and is valid until 28 June 2012.
Cara Technology announces plan to deliver its flavour standards and sensory software direct to the market - 1 May 2011
Cara Technology, which has produced the flavour standards used by the world's brewing companies for more than 15 years has announced its intention to supply the market direct commencing late 2011. The company has, until recently, only supplied its products through FlavorActiV Limited, a Company founded by Cara Managing Director Dr Bill Simpson in 1996. Simpson left FlavorActiV in early 2010 and disposed of his shareholding in early 2011 in readiness for the anticipated change in supply route.
Supplying direct under the AROXA™ brand name the company aims to deliver a wider range of products to customers in the beer, cider, wine, water and soft drinks industries. The materials will be delivered direct from the company's UK production facility and will therefore be fresher at the point of use. Supply chain efficiences are expected to result in lower costs to end-customers.
New markets targeted by Cara Technology - 19 February 2011
After more than 15 years successfully supplying products and services to the world's brewing companies, Cara Technology plans to develop materials which are suitable for use in other industries. The company plans to develop a range of reference flavour standards for cider, wine, water, and soft drinks. It will also extend the number of flavour standards available to brewing customers from the current number of 43 to almost 60.
Speaking of the company's plans Cara's Managing Director Dr Bill Simpson said" Development has always been at the forefront of what we do. Year on year we've invested in developing new products and services. But over the coming year we intend to make a step change in the pace of our development in an effort to make our technologies more widely available."
Cara Technology, based in Leatherhead (UK) and Copenhagen (Denmark), is also a leading company in the area of pure yeast culture supply. It delivers quality-assured yeast cultures to more than 400 breweries in 70 countries.
