Nutrition & Health

Aroma ingredients

BASF is a leading supplier of cost-competitive, high-quality and innovative aroma ingredients for the flavor and fragrance industry. We offer a wide variety of aroma ingredients, such as L-menthol, geraniol, citronellol and linalool, which are part of our citral value chain. Our broad portfolio also includes renewable-based natural ingredients under the Isobionics^® brand. We are committed to a sustainable future by providing aroma products with a significant sustainability contribution. We offer products with reduced carbon footprints by using steam electricity and raw materials with reduced carbon footprints that we assign via a mass balance approach. Our aroma ingredients are sold to the flavor and fragrance industry for use mainly in home and personal care products, in fine fragrances and in the food industry. Our global production network – comprising world-scale citral plants in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Kuantan, Malaysia; and Zhanjiang, China – puts us in a unique position to ensure the highest level of supply reliability.

Nutrition ingredients

BASF is one of the leading suppliers of feed additives for livestock and companion animals. With decades of experience in the feed sector, in development, production and application, we place particular importance on delivering high quality for the benefit of humans and animals alike. Our focus is on supplying the feed industry with highly effective products like vitamins A and E, carotenoids, enzymes and organic acids. We offer our customers ingredients that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resource efficiency as well as animal wellbeing.

Our cost-competitive ingredients for human nutrition comprise high-quality vitamins, such as vitamin A, E, B2 and carotenoids. They show performance excellence in a variety of applications in strategic market segments such as functional nutrition, dietary supplements, colorants for food and beverages as well as pharmaceutical applications. For specific vitamin A and E products, a third-party certified benchmark study showed that the product carbon footprints of our products are at least 20% lower than the global market average.¹ In our food fortification initiative, our health ingredients help fortify staple foods to combat micronutrient deficiencies across the world.

Pharma solutions

In pharma solutions, we produce innovative excipients and active ingredients of outstanding quality and performance. Our portfolio comprises not only functional excipients, but also active pharmaceutical ingredients and nutritional ingredients. We offer a diverse range of ibuprofen and omega-3 grades, in addition to other actives including L-menthol, PVP-iodine, azelaic acid and dexpanthenol.

With digital solutions such as the Virtual Pharma Assistants and a global team of industry experts, BASF supports its customers in developing efficient, cost-effective and reliable formulations. Equipped with an in-depth understanding of multiple technologies and applications, we have the knowledge and resources to make biologics, drug manufacturing and delivery safer, cost-competitive and more sustainable.

1 Data source BASF’s product carbon footprints: BASF’s Strategic CO₂ Transparency Tool (SCOTT), July 2023; Data sources for producers: BASF own estimations on bill of materials and energies (in-house technology and business intelligence experts); market average weighted – based on nameplate capacities without BASF; stating at least 20% reflects safety buffer to account for degrees of freedom in ISO methods.

The Nutrition & Health division holds one of the top three market positions in all strategic business areas in which it is active.

The main competitors (alphabetical order) include Ashland, Croda, DSM-Firmenich, IFF, NHU, Symrise and ZMC.

Thousand metric tons per year

1 All capacities are included 100%, including plants belonging to joint operations and joint ventures

From 2023 onward

From 2023 onward

New aroma ingredients with reduced product carbon footprints

BASF has launched a range of aroma ingredients with a reduced product carbon footprint (rPCF), including L-menthol FCC rPCF. These products help customers achieve their Scope 3 emission reduction targets. BASF’s rPCF aroma ingredients come with a PCF reduction of about 10% to 15% compared with the respective conventional BASF product thanks to the use of raw materials or energy supplies with lower PCFs. The PCFs of BASF’s rPCF portfolio are calculated in accordance with the guidance issued by the Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative. TÜV Rheinland has certified that BASF’s calculation method conforms with this standard.