Clara Chun, Customer Success Manager at AOCS, talked with Matthieu Kohlmeyer, Founder and CEO at La Tourangelle, Inc., a family-owned company and AOCS Bronze Corporate Member. They provide specialty and organic oils using traditional artisan processes.
Clara and Matthieu discussed how La Tourangelle's traditional processes help differentiate their product and how they are adding a new processing capability to remove harmful contaminants from fragile high omega-3 oils.
Check out La Tourangelle's Pinterest to find recipes using their artisan oils and salad dressings!
What type of products/services does your company provide?
La Tourangelle processes specialty and organic oils in our two oil mills located in Woodland, California, and Saumur, France. We currently roast, press, and process various nuts and seeds into oils. We also import specialty oils from all over the world that we pack and sell under our La Tourangelle brands and under private label. Our brand is available at most leading national supermarkets in the USA, Canada, France and more.
What differentiates your company from companies in the same space?
La Tourangelle was born in the Loire Valley of France and initially focused on making high-quality flavored nut oils. We are proud of our heritage and have nurtured very unique processing methods to press high-quality specialty oils.
We are unique because we vertically control our supply chains. We are actively promoting organic and regenerative farming, high-quality cold press extraction methods and have a robust give-back program to support our community.
What are some recent innovations your company is most proud of?
La Tourangelle is setting up a new molecular distillation unit at our oil mill in Woodland, California. This new processing capability will give us the unique ability to remove harmful contaminants from fragile high omega-3 oils and also extract and concentrate the valuable nutrients found in our specialty oils (walnut, almond, avocado, olive and so forth). This investment will open many new opportunities in 2022, and we look forward to leveraging the AOCS community to explore all the benefits of this technology.
I understand you are launching Kohlmeyer Labs as a sister company to La Tourangelle. Can you tell us more about this new company?
Kohlmeyer Labs will be our sister company in charge of pioneering and marketing the extraction of unsaponifiable and other valuable components from California specialty oils using our solar-powered molecular distillation unit.
If La Tourangelle is focused on food and packaged goods, Kohlmeyer Labs will be more tech driven and ingredients focused, with an emphasis on partnering with leading manufacturers of supplements, cosmetics and functional foods.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges for your company next year?
Just like for everybody in the industry, inflation and the logistic challenges we are facing make operating our business challenging. It remains to be seen what will be the impact of all these price increases on consumption.
Why is AOCS Corporate Membership important to your organization?
La Tourangelle is passionate about making specialty oils. We started small and are continuously growing. It is important for us to connect with the AOCS community. We want to connect with folks sharing our passion, connect with researchers and learn. We strongly believe in the power of making good food to improve community, nutrition, fight global warming and reduce pollution.
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