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Custom flavours
Natural, nature identical and artificial flavours, formulated to your brief at the Southport bench. Liquid, powder, emulsion or encapsulated, depending on what your application needs.
Innovation · Southport, Queensland
Where Australian
flavours get made.
VKA® Australia has been developing custom flavours since 1998. Our bench is in Southport. Send us your brief. A real flavourist on our team reads it inside one Australian business day, scopes a fit, and replies. No contract to start.
Read in one Australian business day. No contract to start.
The bench
VKA's analytical labs and sensory panel.
VKA's analytical bench runs gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, gas chromatography with olfactometry, and high performance liquid chromatography. We take a flavour apart, read what it is made of, and rebuild it to a brief. Every formulation we ship is documented to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.
Our application kitchen sits beside the flavour creation bench in Southport. A flavour does not leave development until it has been trialled in the real finished product. A beverage in beverage, a bakery system in a baked crumb, a dairy in dairy. If it does not taste right in the actual application, it goes back to the bench.
VKA's calibrated sensory panel evaluates flavours against the brief and the reference. The same flavourist who reads your brief is on the line through bench work, application trial, panel evaluation and ship.
How we work
Four kinds of work behind a flavour.
The four bodies of work that run through every brief we take on.
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Application work
Every flavour is trialled in the finished product before it ships. Beverage in beverage, dairy in dairy, bakery in a baked crumb. The kitchen sits beside the bench so the loop is short.
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Sensory
VKA has a calibrated sensory panel. Trained evaluators read each candidate against the brief and against the reference, so a flavour is judged against what it is meant to be, not against the last one we made.
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Naturals and native ingredients
Lemon myrtle, finger lime, Tasmanian pepperberry, davidson plum, golden wattle, anise myrtle and other Australian native ingredients, long known and used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, sourced from east coast growers and worked into briefs where they fit.
Our technologies and reduction flavours
EssenceLock
Encapsulation that protects volatile top notes through processing and shelf life.
FreshSeal
Vacuum-sealed powder packaging that guards against moisture and oxidation.
TasteGuard
Two-stage preservation that holds powder flavours through storage and transit.
Sugar Reduction Flavours
Sugar reduction flavours that hold the sweetness curve and mouthfeel, developed for AU and NZ makers at our Southport bench in Queensland.
Salt Reduction Flavours
Less sodium without losing the taste your shoppers know, developed for AU and NZ food makers at the VKA Australia bench in Southport, Queensland.
Fat Reduction Flavour Systems
Lower-fat flavour systems that keep mouthfeel and body, developed for food and drink makers across Australia and New Zealand at our Southport bench.
Inside the bench
Where the flavours get made.
VKA's R&D capabilities combine analytical chemistry, application development and a calibrated sensory panel.
Southport bench
Talking through the next pass
VKA's sensory panel
How a brief moves through the bench
From brief to ship.
Five stages that take a brief from the inbox to a flavour in production. The same flavourist stays on the line the whole way.
01
Brief read
A real flavourist on our Southport team reads your brief inside one Australian business day, scopes a fit, and replies with the questions we need to answer.
02
Bench work
The flavourist who read the brief builds the first candidate at the Southport bench. VKA's analytical work supports flavour creation so each pass is grounded in data and in nose.
03
Application trial
The candidate goes into the real finished product in the application kitchen beside the bench. If it does not taste right in the actual application, it goes back to the bench.
04
Sensory and sign off
VKA's calibrated sensory panel reads the candidate against the brief and against the reference. You receive samples for your own trial. Notes on either side get worked into the next pass.
05
Ship
The same formulation file moves from pilot batch through to production manufacture, with documentation aligned to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code on every batch size.
01
Brief read
A real flavourist on our Southport team reads your brief inside one Australian business day, scopes a fit, and replies with the questions we need to answer.
02
Bench work
The flavourist who read the brief builds the first candidate at the Southport bench. VKA's analytical work supports flavour creation so each pass is grounded in data and in nose.
03
Application trial
The candidate goes into the real finished product in the application kitchen beside the bench. If it does not taste right in the actual application, it goes back to the bench.
04
Sensory and sign off
VKA's calibrated sensory panel reads the candidate against the brief and against the reference. You receive samples for your own trial. Notes on either side get worked into the next pass.
05
Ship
The same formulation file moves from pilot batch through to production manufacture, with documentation aligned to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code on every batch size.
Start a brief
Send us your brief.
Tell us the application, the profile you are after, and the format you need. A real flavourist on our Southport team will read it inside one Australian business day and reply. No contract to start. Scientists and flavourists building this work can see open roles.
Or write directly to sales@vka.au.