E2U™ – Fermentis’ contribution to sustainable winemaking.

In a world of increasing pressure on human and natural resources and in line with customers’ expectations in the area of beverage fermentation, Fermentis by Lesaffre has explored systems to achieve a positive impact on society, the environment, and the economy during fermentations and wine quality improvement. This ongoing research has led to the development of the “Easy-To-Use” (E2U™) quality label. Fermentis has thus modified and verified a series of products according to a number of identified specifications from both quality and application perspectives with the aim of granting this designation to guarantee better performance and related economies to contribute to the protection of environmental resources and user comfort and safety. In particular, using appropriate production technologies and Lesaffre know-how, especially in the fields of formulation, drying and packaging, the products have been redesigned with the aim of improving ease and safety of use, reducing costs, polluting less and protecting natural resources.

The impacts today are twofold:
1) Environmental; by reducing water consumption (thus conserving resources), detergent consumption (thus protecting the environment) and energy consumption (both direct through improved product application and indirect through lower capital expenditures).
2) Safety/Society/Economy; with (1) the reduction of risks associated with use and mainly inhalation during application (microgranular powder versus fine, powder); (2) comfort and ease of use (from handling the packaging to introducing the product into must and wine, for example) (3) increased accessibility for all with less investment related to application; (4) increased consistency and reliability of results in relation to product yield and hygienic constraints, reducing losses and preventing downgrades; and (5) rationalization of transportation (reducing costs and environmental impact).

Finally, future prospects include (1) easier storage with fewer temperature constraints, further reducing investment and energy consumption, (2) reduction of inert gas consumption in product processing and packaging, and (3) reduction of waste/packaging through the use of new materials and packaging types.