New ingredients from Cargill, DDW, Chr. Hansen and more!

Three or four decades ago, consumers had few choices when it came to ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages. The available assortment consisted mainly of milk, soft drinks, juice/fruit drinks and alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer.

The perception of any flavor (F) is a combination of appearance (A), aroma (A), acidity (A), taste (T), texture (T) and temperature (T), or "FAAATTT." Although these attributes hold for most foods and food ingredients, they do not capture the whole of the chemical and physical challenges in flavoring plant-based frozen desserts.

New ingredients from Cargill, Chr. Hansen and more!

These days, terms such as keto, paleo, high-protein, plant-based, vegan, even "pegan" (paleo-plus-vegan), describe not just diets but entire lifestyles.

In the dairy aisle (and elsewhere), crowing about a formulation's natural colors barely merits a pat on the back anymore. These days, consumers expect natural ingredients, colors included, in their food and drink, and they won't settle for less.

New flavors from Balchem Ingredient Solutions, Citromax Flavors, Edlong and more!

If William McCormack, business development manager for nutrition at Wauconda, Ill.-based Synergy Flavors, noticed anything at the recent Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., it's that the current fad for plant-based dairy alternatives is anything but a fad.

New ingredients from Cargill, Chr. Hansen, and more!

You can learn a lot by hanging out at your local coffee or tea shop. You can learn, for example, what all the cool kids are drinking.