When food color innovation turned decisively toward nature for its sources of desirable pigments, food color technologists worked overtime to develop cost-effective, clean-label colors. Some shades proved an extra challenge, with stability and fixing being major trouble spots. Red colors figured largely in that task.

Sun Chemical introduces SUNFOODS™Natural Colorants, a product line available in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. SUNFOODS natural colors can match a wide array of industry standard and custom colors that can be applied to a variety of food and beverage products.

Oterra now offers ready-to-use Red and Pink ColorFruit® and FruitMax® blends for plant-based meat and seafood.

Common technical challenges that arise when formulating with natural colors in bakery applications include color degradation during processing, color bleeding, and color fading over the product’s shelf life. “When selecting natural colors for bakery items with longer shelf lives, developers must consider various factors to maintain product quality,” explains Nidhi Jaiswal, MS, a food scientist specializing in human nutrition.

Three of Innova Market Insights’ Top Ten Trends for 2021 have everything to do with health (including immunity, food and mood and “nutrition hacking”). Meanwhile, Innova also identifies “transparency” as another key topic resonating with today’s consumers. This focus relates to the ethical, ecological and clean label aspects of a new product.

Clasen Quality Coatings is a world-class manufacturer of confectionery coatings, chocolate and fillings. Our product line includes milk, dark, white, yogurt, peanut, colored and flavored formulations. These products are ideal for numerous applications in bakery (including bars), ice cream and frozen novelties, trail mixes and snacks, cookies and confections.

The new, naturally derived preservative is not the first clean label mold inhibitor to reach the market, but it is the first to equal the performance of calcium propionate without adversely affecting product flavor.

Looking ahead to 2030, the food and beverage color palette will almost exclusively contain vibrant, naturally-derived hues that offer clean-label charm, as consumers continue to seek better-for-you products.

Bascom Maple Farms, the trusted source and supplier of 100% pure and organic maple syrup and maple sugar, is hosting IBIE 2022 attendees this week in Las Vegas. Visitors to IBIE booth #7026 can sample a beautiful array of great-tasting natural and organic maple syrups and sugars.

The trend toward global culinary exploration is driven by younger generations. Among those participating in our annual surveys, Millennials and Generation Z globally are somewhat more likely to express interest in more unusual, adventurous and exotic flavors.

Applegate Farms LLC, the maker of natural and organic meat, announced its latest innovation: APPLEGATE NATURALS® Fully Cooked SUNDAY BACON® Bacon, the newest addition to the iconic APPLEGATE® bacon lineup.

The company will exhibit 35+ products across 15+ brands in one Nestlé USA booth (#527) – in addition to separate booths for Nestlé Health Science brands Solgar® (#3739), Vital Proteins® (#3215), Garden of Life® (#4031), Orgain® (#2037) and Nuun® (#715), and pet food brand Castor & Pollux® (#1017) – to highlight innovation across the plant-based and nutrition, health and wellness categories that remain an integral part of its business strategy.

Kemin Industries invites 2022 SupplySide West Exposition (SSW) attendees to visit booth #5245. Kemin will feature its naturally sourced functional ingredient solutions including a range of health-forward concepts created for the expo event, Nov. 2-3, 2022 in Las Vegas.

In the expanding nutrition market, perception is key. Consumers want to discover new products that contain appealing clean ingredients with powerful benefits known to fuel vitality, health, and well-being.

DolCas Biotech, LLC has attained two Health Canada natural product licenses, one for its concentrated turmeric extract, Curcugen®, and the other for Ginfort®, a powerful ginger extract in powdered format.

Nutraland USA, Inc., will use its SupplySide West booth, #6951, to introduce Somato™, a whole-food derived melatonin sourced exclusively from tomatoes. This innovative ingredient is poised to revolutionize the natural products industry, offering an eco-friendly, natural alternative to synthetic melatonin for use in functional foods and dietary supplements.

Watch or listen to a Prepared Foods interview with ethnobotanist and contributing editor Kerry Hughes discussing the trending foods, beverages, and ingredients using botanicals featured at 2024 Natural Products Expo West.

The competition invited university students across the United States to develop unique snack products highlighting the nutritional and functional benefits of eggs, aligning with today’s consumer preferences for new and exciting snack options. 

Mineral expert Omya used Fi/Hi Europe to showcase a range of natural ingredients that address processing challenges while also offering health benefits.

Lipid balance was achieved with no concomitant reduction of plasma CoQ10 levels, a phenomenon typically associated with a number of lipid-lowering drugs. Other related parameters, such as fasting blood glucose, homocysteine levels, and apo-B/apo lipoprotein levels, also tended to lower. This potentially widens Tri-low’s scope for targeting diabetic dyslipidemia.

Gums and hydrocolloids are a diverse collection of polysaccharides that create gel-like formations when in contact with moisture. They are extremely versatile, improving texture, mouthfeel, and physical appearance in foods and beverages. Gums can be used to increase viscosity levels or benefit flow. They are especially prized for increasing stability in an ingredient matrix.

CP Kelco said it has made extensive progress in expanding biogums production capacity at two of its plant facilities: Okmulgee, Okla.; and in Wulian, China.

Nexira will use this year’s Food Ingredients Europe exhibition, Dec. 6-8 in Paris, to launch its new range of natural and efficient texturizers under the naltive™ brand.

After teamwork between technical experts and developers, Nexira is proud to present naltive™, specially designed to match the market needs of formulators and consumers.

Come and (re)discover Nexira’s deep commitment to sourcing, all the technological properties of acacia gum and locust bean gum, the nutritional benefits of prebiotic acacia fiber as well as its latest launch: a new combination of acacia and carob fibers.

Sugarbreak is empowering consumers to proactively achieve better health through a comprehensive, medical community-endorsed system that uses all natural, scientifically-proven ingredients to help manage blood sugar as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Kalsec introduces DuraShield™ Antimicrobial Natural Food Protection Blends. This unique product harnesses the enhanced synergies of natural antioxidants combined with natural antimicrobials to improve both shelf life and food safety in a variety of applications, including meat and poultry, deli salads, dips, sauces and dressings.

Lycored has increased its range of natural astaxanthin products with the launch of an oleoresin as well as a microencapsulated starch beadlet, rounding out the company’s application capabilities for the antioxidant.

Layn Natural Ingredient Corp, Ltd. introduces SustaNX, the newest ingredient in its Plantae™ PRESERVATION series of clean label, natural, polyphenol-rich antioxidant preservation solutions for food, beverage, flavor, fragrance, and pet food.

MANE will present a broad spectrum of savory solutions especially adapted for use by flavor houses and ingredient blenders. It also will demonstrate and explain how sustainability drives its latest new product innovations.

natural bliss introduced two plant-based creamers with functional benefits: Vanilla Flavored Creamer with Prebiotic Fiber and Sweet Almond Flavored Creamer with Protein & MCT Oil.  

Kemin Industries will showcase its complete line of clean label ingredient solutions for foods during the Institute of Food Technologists 2022 Annual Meeting and Exposition (IFT22) in Chicago, IL, July 11-13. Attendees are invited to visit booth #S0421 and discuss opportunities to reduce food waste, improve yield and extend product shelf life, while maintaining a clean label.

Layn has a long, respected reputation as the globally leading direct manufacturer and innovator of monk fruit and stevia extracts, and over the past three decades has consistently expanded its ingredient portfolio to include a full range of botanical extract ingredients with broad consumer and application appeal.

FFP’s new clean label antimicrobial ingredient, VegStable® Secure, helps brands naturally protect a variety of foods from pathogens and spoilage—with no compromise to functionality or taste.

Symrise Diana Food, the leader in natural health solutions, introduces a clinical study demonstrating the efficacy of whole fruit cranberry extract high in proanthocyanidins as a natural support for urinary health. 

Results of a new study reveal Arjuna Natural Pvt, Ltd.’s proprietary turmeric extract as effective as paracetamol in reducing pain and other symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA). 

Z Natural Foods, a provider of natural and organic foods, announced the launch of its latest innovation: Vitality Blend, a vanilla-flavored natural coffee creamer.

This month, pizza lovers will be able to find PORTA Roman-Style pizzas Nationally at Whole Foods, Sprouts and select natural retailers.

Florida Food Products (FFP), a leader in clean label food and beverage ingredient solutions, is exhibiting at SupplySide West 2023 (SSW23) in Las Vegas, October 25–26, 2023. FFP is helping inspire SSW attendees to create the next generation of health and wellness products with a menu of great-tasting concepts. 

In this podcast, Scott Dicker, market insights director at SPINS LLC, discusses those natural and organic categories that are doing well (think global flavors, at-home meals) and he shares an inside look at SPINS’ top trends for 2024!

Phytolon, a biotechnology company that offers natural food colors via fermentation-based technologies, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, announced the successful completion of the first development milestone of their multi-product collaboration to produce natural food colors and the resulting distribution of an equity milestone to Ginkgo.

Next In Natural, a firm specializing in bespoke operations for emerging organic food and beverage companies, announced the expansion of a new M&A division and the appointment of Ted Tieken as chief future officer at its helm.

A Prepared Foods infographic highlighting 2024 trends in Natural & Organic seen at Natural Products Expo West.

Prepared Foods surveys natural sweetener ingredients for use in food and beverage product development.

Food and beverage manufacturers will be able to see the difference natural colors make for themselves in a wide variety of applications in the Beverage, Candies & Confections, Snacks & Bakery Goods, Meat Alternatives, and Nutraceutical categories. Colors are available in liquid, concentrate, and California Natural Color’s proprietary crystal color technology.

Just in time to provide real immune support throughout the winter, these gourmet elderberry gummies are made from fresh, sustainable, wild picked California elderberries. 

The FDA considers the term “natural” to mean that nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food.

In the rush to eliminate these sugars, developers often overlook the variety, richness, and culinary versatility that natural caloric sweeteners provide. Such sugars—also termed “nutritive sweeteners”—not only offer sweetness but can add layers of flavor, color, and even nutritional benefits, all in a clean-label format. 

The National Wood Flooring Association’s (NWFA) inaugural Leadership Development Summit will take place from October 10 to 12 at Live! by Loews – Ballpark Village in St. Louis, Missouri, and is designed to provide NWFA members with opportunities for professional growth, networking and business development.

The open house offers NWFA members an opportunity to tour the new state-of-the-art facility, which will serve as the central hub for technical training, industry events, and member activities.