MEA | African Excellence Awards 2025 Savour Solutions (Pty) Ltd is a food preservation company specialising in reducing waste and extending the shelf life of products across the food industry. From its home in the KwaZuluNatal province of South Africa, the company delivers a range of advanced solutions to culinary, meat, dairy, and produce manufacturers of all shapes and sizes, from large-scale food processers to those African SMEs that share its passion for innovation. On the back of the company being recognised with this award, we caught up with Luba Schotter, its founding director, to learn more about these solutions. egardless of their size or speciality area, all food manufacturers are passionate about product quality, sustained freshness, and innovating within their space. Through products like organic acids, botanical extracts, bio-disruptive extracts, and a state-of-the-art range of food preservation technology, Savour Solutions supports them across these areas. Helping its clients work towards their shared goal of “fresher for longer”, the company guarantees the longevity of their products, all without having to sacrifice on quality or taste. Be it keeping grated cheese fresh so that it can be safely exported, stabilising meat products during load shedding (the process where electricity companies disconnect power in certain areas to manage demand), or even stopping fresh fruits and vegetables from turning bad, Savour Solutions’ cutting-edge solutions strengthen supply chains and support the security of the food sector at every turn. The company’s tagline, “The Missing Piece in Freshness”, reflects not only these aims, but also its status as a trusted industry partner. Led by the guiding principle of sustainable practice, Savour Solutions’ ethos revolves around a respect for food – from farm to fork. This is seen through its “zero waste, zero to landfill” pledge, highlighting the company-wide belief that waste reduction is a responsibility that should be shared across the food industry’s entire value chain. By helping manufacturers, retailers, and even consumers to preserve the quality of goods and extend shelf lives, the team here are more than doing their part and stopping good food from being wasted. The sustainable undercurrent that runs throughout Savour Solutions can be seen across the actions the company takes on a daily basis. For example, the team here are always working towards the next innovation concerning their sustainable-focused products, honing their manufacturing processes to make them more responsible, and collaborating with their partners to optimise entire supply chains. Beyond Most Innovative Dairy Solutions Experts 2025 – South Africa R this, staff are simply encouraged to think sustainably – raising the bar for better practice across the space as they do so. A big part of what makes Savour Solutions so special is that its focus rests on creating solutions that align with the specific challenges Africa is facing when it comes to issues around food preservation and the reliability of supply chains. The company’s recent projects are all fitting examples of this, particularly its work with dairy products, which has been singled out with this award. It is in this area that Savour Solutions’ preservation technology shines, with food processors seeing returns from retailers massively decrease. “Some processors have even reported zero returns since the adoption of our unique preservation technology. This has not only reduced food waste but also improved profitability and consumer trust.” Diving deeper into Savour Solutions’ dairy-based solutions, the company’s main areas of focus within this category are preventing cheese mould (which it does through the use of Savacin) and yoghurt contamination (with its all-natural additives having been shown to boost the shelf life of yoghurt products by as much as 20 days), as well as treating cheese brine with a uniquely formulated bio-disruptive technology to keep it contaminate free. Moreover, Savour Solutions is proud to report that it has recently completed a successful trial concerning a product relating to refrigerated grated cheese, which can now last up to an impressive nine months without spoiling. The reverberations of this breakthrough are sure to be felt across this sphere, with dairy producers across Africa now finding it easier to expand their operations and go international – without fears around the quality of their products being impacted. Long term, this could significantly increase Africa’s global-trade footprint. Outside of dairy, Savour Solutions’ expertise is also afforded to meat producers, where the company again homes in on the issues unique to the African food industry in an attempt to raise standards and eradicate waste. When it comes to meat, the unreliability of cold-chain infrastructure and the impact of load shedding in Africa result in unstable conditions, which could prove detrimental to product safety. Using biodisruptive technologies such as Bio Tech D and Surf X, Savour Solutions is able to prolong freshness and reduce loss. Similar solutions are also deployed to manufacturers of fish, with equally impressive results. As Luba explained: “We are currently developing a solution tailored for fresh tilapia, which is a vital source of protein for many African communities. Our goal is to significantly reduce spoilage during both harvesting and distribution, enabling more efficient supply and also creating export opportunities for many aquaculture operations across the continent.” As these examples show, the great work Savour Solutions is doing goes beyond reducing food waste and extending the shelf life of products – it is also empowering businesses across Africa to complete on the global stage, creating jobs for developing communities and ultimately strengthening the resilience of a continent that has long faced hardship. “In an economic climate where every resource counts, our mission directly contributes to building a more sustainable, affordable, and foodsecure future for Africa”, Luba added. Given the transformative impact it is continuing to have on food manufacturing and processing in Africa, Savour Solutions has an incredibly bright future ahead of it. Although its focus today is solely on Africa – especially the SADC region – growing interest from companies abroad could see the company expand outside of the continent within the next few years. When it does, it will take its mission of “zero waste, zero to landfill” with it, helping to reduce food waste globally in the process, just as it has already with Africa. Finally, concerning the more immediate future, Savour Solutions is seeking to continue to build a name for itself in African markets, nurturing relationships with like-minded companies and also expanding its distribution network. Alongside this, the aim is to continue to introduce
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