There’s a trend that’s catching on with select ingredient markets: specifying product origin. For some time, the vanilla industry has made a practice of indicating if beans used to make extract came from Madagascar, Tahiti, or some other tropical climate.
Inulin and oligofructose have moved into the mainstream of functional ingredients and now consumer education must intensify. That was the message of the opening presentations of the 5th Orafti Research Conference held at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in late September.
Milk can be efficiently processed into a variety of dairy foods with a little help from acid-producing bacteria and/or food-grade acidulants. Indeed, milk, an almost neutral fluid with a pH in the range of 6.4 to 6.8, can become hard cheese when it drops about one pH point; a soft, fresh cheese when it drops another; and yogurt when it drops a bit more.
The Dairy Foods staff recently agreed to stop using trademark (™) and registration symbols (®) in editorial. The primary reason is that often status changes from the non-legally enforceable ™ to the U.S. trademark office-approved ®, and we cannot monitor these changes.
The stabilization of dairy products is becoming increasingly important as opportunities for product innovation present themselves in the retail, foodservice and industrial markets. Performance expectations are more specific and product labeling is more demanding, making the design of stabilization systems more challenging.
If anyone has any doubts that the food and beverage industry is in the midst of a major makeover, with most new products wearing a health and wellness halo . . . then read on. This year's picks for Dairy Foods' annual Best New Products of the Year all have a good-for-you note . . . even superpremium ice cream shapes up.
Lifeway Foods' President and CEO Julie Smolyansky and her brother, CFO Edward Smolyansky, presided over the closing bell ceremony of the NASDAQ stock market on January 4, the second trading day of 2006.
Folks in the dairy industry often refer to the franchise we no longer own (calcium), the one we will always own (whey proteins) and the one we still have the chance of owning if we act responsibly, but also aggressively (probiotics). I would like to propose another one: chocolate.
As you read this Dairy Foods, the annual international issue, it should become apparent that the rest of the world is much more adventurous in its use of flavors and flavoring ingredients.
