Flowers Foods’ latest addition to its product portfolio—Mrs. Freshley’s Cinnamon Coffee Cakes—is sure to please cinnamon lovers.

Demand for chocolate in snack and bakery items is driven by two core consumers: Luxury seekers; and healthy snack eaters who both share a common desire for great-tasting chocolate produced in a sustainable fashion. 

What entices each bite of a mini salted-maple, toasted-almond Cronut—as I recently relished at Donut Savant in Oakland, CA..

Snack producers and bakers have expanded their explorations into sweet-savory profiles, with sweet-salty, sweet-spicy and sweet-herbal all gaining favor.

Cracker Jack’D, a Frito-Lay brand, has added a protein-packed snack mix to its product line—Cracker Jack’D Protein Mix.

Better-for-you ingredients and innovative flavors continue to keep potato chips at the top of consumers’ list of favorite snacks, while the classics still resonate.

In the wake of strong demand for Donkey Chips, the company needed new equipment to significantly increase production of its line of tortilla chips. Here's how they did it.

The global processing and packaging provider will highlight its start-to-finish solutions for the snack industry via an interactive booth experience at SNAXPO in Houston.

The flexibility to produce different flavors, shapes, sizes and types of products is high on the list of qualities that snack and bakery makers are seeking from manufacturers offering griddle equipment and fryers.

Fryers continue to see ongoing improvements related to hygienic design, oil management and energy efficiency. Equipment suppliers are also offering models that occupy a smaller physical and carbon footprint, and that include adaptability to handle a diverse array of products.

PPM Technologies has updated its Snack Frying System.

Bakeries and snack makers in the market for ovens, proofers, fryers, and dryers have a healthy list of features and benefits in mind. These include capabilities for customization and flexibility, reliability and consistency, temperature control, faster processing times and continuous production, and automation that operators can control and monitor remotely.

Snack and bakery companies looking to purchase new or improved ovens, proofers, fryers, and dryers have a long list of requests when it comes to features and benefits, according to manufacturers of those types of equipment.

Olli Salumeria and That's it. Fruit Bars bring new snack packs to retaill.

KIND's new Savory Bars bring forth a unique mix of nuts and a smokey and spicy profile, resulting in a bold taste in every bite, per the brand.

The companies are empowering consumers to "act" and make an impact with every bar.

The gluten- and peanut-free formulation is designed to be school-friendly.

Each box contains eight individually wrapped bites, and they are available in Apple Cinnamon and Double Chocolate flavors.

The Small Batch Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Kids Bar features just five ingredients.

RE:DO plant-based, high-protein bars were created with Olympian input.

Known for its plant-based, real-food ingredients, Laird Superfood’s Pumpkin Spice line is crafted with a signature blend of ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon, plus real pumpkin.

The new think! Minis offer a conveniently sized snack option at 100 calories and 6 grams of protein per bar, in dessert-inspired flavors.

The new bar includes 20 grams of protein, the flavor of key lime pie, and no added sugar.

This product not only offers a healthy snack option, but also addresses the growing concern of packaging waste in India.

Atkins has introduced a new creative campaign, "Atkins Way," an embodiment of the brand's new emotional brand positioning, along with a series of new product offerings.

Sized for little hands, Zbar Halloween Minis are available in a 20-ct chocolate chip flavor.

Skout is collaborating with cookbook author Caroline Chambers and her snack expert kids to launch Caro’s Beast Cookie Kids Bar, Caro Chambers bundle, and a bundle and book.

The snack bars, made with whole-grain oats, are vegan, non-GMO, gluten-free, kosher, and free from soy.

The bars include a pumpkin spice-inspired base with chunks of white chocolate pieces, topped with graham cracker-flavored clusters and a gourmet drizzle.

The performance bar brand recently won a GNC competition that landed its products on the store’s shelves across the country.

Kellanova has rereleased a slew of seasonal products for autumn and Halloween.

Previously only available in four-packs, single-serve Organic Snack Bars are now available at select 7-Eleven and Circle K locations in San Diego and Los Angeles to meet the desires of today’s busy, health-conscious consumers.  

Snack producers and bakeries can travel multiple avenues toward improved operational efficiency. Additional automation is a natural progression.

Thermal management is crucial to processing, storing and delivering several types of snacks and baked goods. The latest systems cover a wide range of functions, including chilling dough, cooling product after exiting the oven, and refrigerating or freezing finished product. Specialized cold storage facilities also are part of the mix.

The human-machine interface (HMI) is essential in an operator’s daily work, as it represents how he or she can use and control the equipment, via technology. These days, using an HMI is all about fostering an easy user experience.

Siemens recently announced a limited-time offer, effective until May 31, 2017. Under this program, users of any machine tool with SINUMERIK CNC onboard will receive a variety of additional services, plus training and a 10% discount on spare parts orders. 

Production of artisanal style bread and roll products from a dough band is currently experiencing rapid growth. This method of production being the only way to ensure gentle handling of highly hydrated doughs.

The Beckhoff Automation booth (S-6302) will be the center of automation technology (AT) and IT convergence at Pack Expo 2017 in Las Vegas.

Inside the proceedings of PACK EXPO Las Vegas, including a survey of new packaging equipment, materials, technology and more.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, the domestic baking industry consumes an estimated $800 million worth of purchased fuels and electricity per year, as noted in its guide, "Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the Baking Industry" (Nov. 2016 update, available on www.energystar.gov).

WP Bakery Technology’s tried and tested control system will be launched on the market in the third generation at the iba 2018.

Beckhoff Automation will demonstrate its new AMP8000 distributed servo drive system alongside a complete lineup of automation hardware, software and networking solutions at Pack Expo 2018 in Chicago.

This past year has been an exciting one for the baking industry, especially in terms of the progress made on revising the ANSI/ASB Z50.2 Bakery Equipment Sanitation Standard (formerly known as the “BISSC Standard”). Representatives from across the baking industry, including bakers, bakery engineers, bakery equipment manufacturers and academics have come together to give their input on updating this standard.

Is it just me or does it seem like the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate came out just last week? 

During and since the two-week government shutdown, there has been a lot of analysis from across the political spectrum. The analysis includes a lot of finger pointing and blame assessment. At the end of the day, it was the abdication of leadership by all parties and no coherent strategy for how to end the stalemate that lengthen the shutdown.

Are you thinking about restocking your packaging supplies? If you are, then you have a lot to think about before making the investment. 

Multiple prevailing trends at the consumer and regulatory levels will factor into the business concerns of the bakery industry over the coming year. These include product-development dynamics like non-GMO, nutritional labeling, transparency and food safety—all of which have the potential to positively influence overall shopper perceptions related to bread and the other baked goods that play a part of dietary patterns.

One of the strangest, most-convoluted policy fights in the history of modern food just cleared a major hurdle in July with President Obama’s expected signature of the GMO Labeling agreement between Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

With the election of Donald Trump, and a slightly narrower Republican majority in Congress, Washington and the national punditocracy is both stunned and clamoring to find meaning in the election results.

With great trepidation that this column will become immediately obsolete or at least very dated in the short time from submitting it to publication, I want to address the whirlwind of regulatory relief announcements from the new Trump Administration.