CONSUMERS
New research results show that flexitarian consumers are driving the demand for plant-based foods. They are especially interested in transparent labels, sustainability, health, and exciting new food experiences. This global survey was conducted by the market research agency InSites Consulting on behalf of BENEO, with 11,990 consumers in 10 countries participating.
With one in four consumers globally calling themselves flexitarians, and only 7% across the world (10% in the United States) identifying themselves as vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian, flexitarians have become the most important target group for manufacturers of plant-based products.
Compared with other consumers, flexitarians are especially interested in sustainability and transparent labels: 84% are concerned about climate change and the environment, 86% want to know how their food is made and what is in it, and 60% consider product quality and traceability labels when shopping (compared with 41% of the general population).
Flexitarians are also interested in health and exciting new food experiences. The majority of those surveyed take active steps to make their diets healthier, with about seven in 10 paying attention to on-pack information and nutritional claims (compared with five in 10 in the general population). Half of the flexitarians surveyed want to keep up with the latest food trends, creating exciting product development opportunities for those producers who can meet their demand for more adventurous foods across a range of applications and cuisines.
HEALTH
Particularly during the pandemic, many consumers have turned to Zoom and other digital video platforms to stay connected with their professional and social communities. The effects of hours of video interaction on vision health, such as blurry vision, have been well documented, creating a wide body of evidence that digital eye strain is yet another fallout from the pandemic.
A new clinical study supported a black currant extract’s beneficial effect on symptoms of digital eye strain. The study, which used CurrantCraft European Black Currant Extract (Artemis International), showed that participants taking CurrantCraft saw a 29.9% reduction in blurry vision during the 70-day trial period. Participants in the black currant extract group also experienced a greater improvement with dry eye and eye strain compared with the placebo group.
NUTRACEUTICALS
Prenexus Health announced the release of its new report titled The Shroom Boom: Functional Fungi for Digestion. The report explores why the medicinal mushroom market continues to grow post-COVID and how fungi is teaming up with digestive health to satisfy consumer demand. Both the medicinal mushroom category and the prebiotic market are showing significant growth.
The Shroom Boom looks at why consumers, especially millennials, are turning to these two markets, and how the marketplace is responding with innovative products. The report also covers new ingredient formulations offering CPG manufacturers turnkey solutions to launch products that merge digestive health with functional fungi.
NEW PRODUCTS
Eaglestone Equipment introduced the 1150 Fabric Constant Turn Conveyor to help food processors speed up production lines and keep products moving efficiently. This conveyor’s unique and sanitary design is ideal for food processing applications, such as cookie and bar production, as it maintains product orientation while small diameter discharge rollers allow for tight transfers.
Florida Food Products launched a new Box of Chocolates cocoa flavor collection. The six sweet and chocolatey natural cocoa WONF flavors include White Chocolate Cocoa, Dark Bitter Cocoa, Belgian Cocoa, Cocoa Berry, Coffee Cocoa, and Mayan Cocoa. These flavors are available in natural, liquid, non-GMO, allergen-free, and water-soluble versions.
Thermo Fisher Scientific provides laboratories performing food safety analysis with a new ion chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (IC-MS/MS) workflow solution for regulatory compliant, cost-effective, and reliable analysis of quaternary ammonium pesticides (quats). The new Thermo Scientific Dionex IonPac CS21-Fast-4µm ion exchange column enables scientists to easily and accurately determine and quantify the four cationic pesticides: diquat, paraquat, mepiquat, and chlormequat.
Loryma expanded its range of functional extrudates that optimize the nutritional values and mouthfeel of applications in the sports nutrition, snack, and convenience sectors. The cereal crispies (Lory Crisp), protein crispies (Lory IsoCrisp), and breadcrumbs (Lory Crumb) are available in various shapes, colors, and sizes, and are derived from wheat and other raw materials. In addition to wheat, corn, rice, and quinoa are also suitable as a base for Lory Crisp crispy extrudates. Depending on the raw material, various attributes such as high-protein, low-fat, high-fiber, and sugar- and salt-free can be achieved, as can organic certification. Protein-rich Lory IsoCrisp is made from whey and milk protein. Loryma offers extruded breadcrumbs (Lory Crumb) based on maize, rice, and potatoes for different types of processing and end products.
INDUSTRY UPDATE
Two baking and food industry suppliers, Specialty Milling and Dakota Blenders, have joined forces and rebranded as DakotaMB to better reflect the company’s growing and diversifying customer base. The unified name and brand allow DakotaMB to better serve its baking industry customers who make both whole grain bakery foods and indulgent sweet good offerings.
AIDP announced Puremune, a branded insoluble yeast beta-glucan from Immudyne Nutritional, has secured a product license from Health Canada indicating it as a source of yeast beta-glucan with immunomodulating properties at just 30 mg per dose.
Sneha Karthikeyan has joined the AAK U.S. Customer Innovation team as senior confectionery scientist.
Bartek Ingredients has begun construction of a state-of-the-art, vertically integrated facility that will become the world’s largest malic and food-grade fumaric acid production plant. When completed in the fourth quarter of 2023, the $160 million project will double Bartek’s capacity.
BENEO announced a $54 million investment in a new pulse processing site in Offstein, Germany. The site will produce protein-rich pulse ingredients for food and animal feed. It will focus initially on protein concentrate, starch-rich flour, and hulls from faba beans, with the option to process other pulses in the future.
Burcon NutraScience Corp. announced that it has received a co-investment from Protein Industries Canada for the development of high-quality protein ingredients from sunflower seeds.
Flavorchem continued its commitment to customer collaboration and innovation with a new state-of the-art pilot plant at its Downers Grove, Ill., campus. The fully automated, custom-designed pilot plant utilizes the latest in thermal processing capabilities and features three separate dedicated spaces for extractions and experimental technologies.
Cargill has expanded the processing capabilities of its sweetener plant in Cikande, Indonesia, to more than double the company’s production capacity for organic, non-GMO tapioca syrup. The company says its plant upgrades, which include additional filling stations, blending and storage tanks, and warehouse improvements, will enable it to achieve its annual tapioca syrup production volume target of 12,000 metric tons by 2024.
CuliNex, a clean label and plant-based formulation consultancy, announced that Carrie Schuman has joined the team as director of people operations.
EnWave Corp. announced that it signed a technology evaluation and license option agreement with Goldencrops Corp., a Southeast Asian ingredient manufacturer, to evaluate the commercial use of EnWave’s Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV) dehydration technology to produce a variety of fruit, dairy, and grain products. Goldencrops will rent a 10 kW REV machine for intensive product development at its manufacturing facility. If commercially viable ingredients are developed under the agreement, Goldencrops will then purchase REV machinery to begin commercial production.
Primient was established as the result of Tate & Lyle selling a controlling stake in its primary products business in North America and Latin America to KPS Capital Partners. The new privately held company is majority-owned and controlled by KPS, while Tate & Lyle retains a minority stake. The Primient portfolio includes expertise and solutions across a wide range of application areas including acidulants, animal nutrition, industrial starches, personal care additives, and sweeteners.
GNT published a new report that sets out its plans to become the sustainability leader in its field. Each year, GNT produces more than 11,500 metric tons of EXBERRY concentrates from edible fruit, vegetables, and plants—enough to color over 40 billion servings of food and drink. To ensure the company is fit for the future, it has unveiled a sustainability road map for 2030 to optimize its environmental and social impacts across its global operations. It features a total of 17 targets for 2030, including cutting the product environmental footprint for EXBERRY product ranges by 25% and reducing the intensity of factories’ CO2-equivalent emissions by at least 50%. Furthermore, due to GNT’s strong vertical integration, the company will soon be able to report on greenhouse gas emissions for 80% of EXBERRY products.
Tate & Lyle announced it has acquired substantially all the assets of Nutriati, an ingredient technology company developing and producing chickpea protein and flour.
Innophos announced the release of a new video demonstrating the advantages of Chelamax Chelated Minerals. In the Chelamax video, Innophos presents scientific data proving the benefits of chelation in an easy-to-understand format that covers what chelation is and why it matters, the company’s industry-leading three-step process to prove chelation, and an explanation of how minerals are absorbed in the digestive system, as well as results from a recent study showcasing the absorption of Chelamax zinc glycinate vs. zinc oxide.
Kemin Industries recently added an interactive bakery and snack guide, Baking a Difference Today and Tomorrow, to its website. The guide for bakery and snack producers helps users learn more about clean label solutions to ensure products stay fresher longer and succeed in a dynamic and competitive marketplace. The Kemin interactive bakery and snack guide demonstrates how the right clean label solution can provide stability while meeting a brand’s goals for clean, simple labels.
Alliance Machine Systems International announced the appointment of Marius Batrin as president of the company.
BW Flexible Systems announced the appointment of Chris Frank to the role of vice president of operations.
MartinBauer and all the companies in its global nature network are taking responsibility for the CO2 emissions produced by their business operations. For the first time in its history, the group has calculated its corporate carbon footprint, which has now been checked and certified by an independent external body. The group’s goal is to make its business operations climate-neutral by 2030. This commitment includes all greenhouse gas emissions from the group’s more than 30 sites worldwide and within its global supply chains. The nature network is striving to prevent emissions where possible, to continuously reduce them, and to compensate only for those that cannot be avoided.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
In THE 22nd edition of its Flavor Forecast, McCormick identified three themes: Food Stories, Plus Sweet, and Time as a Luxury Ingredient.
Food Stories recognizes both a flavor and the story behind it. From professional chefs and restaurant operators to the grandmothers passing down recipes to keep generational techniques alive, this year’s food story celebrates the power of women in food and flavor in a contemporary way.
Plus Sweet looks at how sweetness finds new dimensions through subtle and unexpected flavor combinations. Consumers are moving away from overly sweet tastes and incorporating a symphony of other flavors to achieve surprisingly balanced results, according to McCormick.
Time as a Luxury Ingredient highlights time as an irreplaceable and precious ingredient—after periods of isolation and reflection have put the value of time into perspective. The report finds that many are rethinking the ways they use time as it relates to food, whether investing it to build flavor or finding smart shortcuts to spend quality time outside the kitchen.