Food Processing - March 2024

in the Lab & the Plant AI

Are your product developers and plant operators ready to embrace a little artificial intelligence? Are you? • 18

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FEATURES

COVER STORY

AI in the Lab and the Plant

Are your product developers and plant operators ready to embrace a little artificial intelligence? Are you?

18

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

My Brand + Your Brand = Success

Co-branding can unite two brands to complement or for a little shock value.

24

INGREDIENTS

The Elephant in the Room: Flavoring Protein Foods

Technical strategies and tips can overcome undesirable flavors.

28

PLANT OPERATIONS

Meat and Poultry Under Scrutiny

Heavier pressure, more oversight and deeper challenges continue to blast the meat and poultry industry.

33

AUTOMATION

Conveying Product Safely and Efficiently

It seems elementary, but challenges arise, particularly as technology advances.

Credit: Derek Chamberlain, generated with Shutterstock AI

EDITOR'S PLATE

Wade Into AI With Us

Wade into artificial intelligence at your own pace and you should enjoy the water.

We’re probably a bit behind the times, but this month is our first comprehensive look at artificial intelligence. We’ve done shorter stories before, and one of my Editor’s Plates last year was largely written by ChatGPT. But in this cover story we talk about some practical applications: how AI can aid the product development process and work in the plant.

Actually, most of our plant operations stories over the past couple of years that emphasized automation were inherently talking about AI. Machine learning and big data all are components of AI, so you’ve probably been using a little AI whether you realized it or not.

Once again, I used ChatGPT (now on version 3.5) and typed in “Why is AI important for the food industry?” Within a second or two, the program spit out 302 words in answer (I include only the bullet points, no room for the details):

AI is crucial to the food industry for several reasons:

1. Optimizing Production and Supply Chain.

2. Enhancing Food Safety.

3. Improving Quality Control.

4. Personalized Nutrition.

5. Enhancing Consumer Experience.

6. Innovation in Product Development.

7. Sustainable Agriculture.

8. Forecasting and Demand Planning.

Overall, AI technologies offer numerous opportunities for the food industry to improve efficiency, quality, and sustainability while also providing enhanced experiences for consumers.

It’s pretty good but also pretty general. ChatGPT probably would have been happy to write our entire cover story, putting me and Andy Hanacek out of jobs. But I don’t think the result would have had the perspective of my 30 years of writing about food & beverage, nor Andy’s 20 years.

And that's one of the key points about using AI. Vinay Indraganti, one of the experts we talked to for this AI story, emphasized the human component. “AI in a context not related to food can work independently, be self-trained. But when it comes to food, the nuances, the emotions, the palate, the culture are so very intertwined, that AI changes from being artificial intelligence to augmented intelligence – human intelligence plus artificial intelligence.”

So, for now at least, I think our jobs are safe. We journalists have had to evolve from being strictly ink-on-paper guys to jacks of all digital trades – webinars, podcasts, social media and much more on our website, FoodProcessing.com, than we can fit into these magazines. But I’m proud we do continue

to print a magazine, and thankful that 52,000 of you take the time to at least glance at it every month.

You’ve changed, too, of course, as have your companies. Jeff Harmening, chairman and CEO of General Mills, said last month in his presentation to the Consumer Analyst Group of New York that AI will “impact how we work and how we interact with consumers.” Since 2018, his company’s team of data scientists has increased 40-fold, “and we’ve gone from running 2,000 models per month to more than 6 million models that generate more than 500 million individual predictions on a monthly basis.”

How many of you saw data scientist as a key food & beverage job title a decade or two ago?

Altogether, 12 of the 13 food CEOs at CAGNY mentioned AI in their presentations last month –don't miss that story on p12 either.

The one constant is change, right? I think another constant is fear of change. Wade into AI at your own pace, don't dive into the deep end, maybe take some swimming lessons, and you'll enjoy the water.n

Written by Dave Fusaro

EDITOR IN CHIEF DFUSARO@ENDEAVORB2B.COM

What’s New Online

Don’t miss what’s happening on

FoodProcessing.com

While we can't predict everything that will be on FoodProcessing.com for the month of March, there are a few certainties:

WEBINAR

Blueberries: Utilizing this healthy ingredient

Gain insights into the health benefits and versatility that blueberries lend to your formulations. This March 20 webinar, sponsored by U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, will explore the remarkable potential of these berries with market data and insights into their versatility in formulations and will include an inspiring culinary demonstration that will ignite creativity in product development.

www.FoodProcessing.com/ 33008575

WEBINAR

Precision fermentation

It's taken 40-plus years for this food and pharmaceutical technology to become an overnight sensation for product development. Cultivate your knowledge of the latest developments in precision fermentation and how it could

help create just about any ingredient synthetically.

www.FoodProcessing.com/ 33016402

EHANDBOOKS

Powder & bulk handling

Like webinars, ehandbooks are a great way to get educated on subjects that have or will come up in your job. Our March ebook will delve into the vagaries of powder & bulk handling. But we have plenty more topics; take a moment to scan our library of ebooks.

www.FoodProcessing.com/ ehandbooks

WHITEPAPERS

Still kinks in your supply chain?

Food manufacturers must be agile to grow with changing consumer preferences. But new ingredients and suppliers will impact many facets of the operation, from forecasting to warehousing, production and demands on equipment. Download this whitepaper to see how strategic supply chain management can help.

www.FoodProcessing.com/ 33014168

Engineering, Regulatory, T. Marzetti

Leslie Krasny

Krasny Law Office

Alvaro Cuba Simons Operations & Supply Chain Consultant (formerly of Mondelez and Kraft)

Gary M. Stibel

Founder & CEO, The New England Consulting Group

Joel Warady

President, Catalina Crunch

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR

Derek Chamberlain dchamberlain@endeavorb2b.com

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Anetta Gauthier agauthier@endeavorb2b.com

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What the Ultra-Processed Debate Misses

Fewer ingredients are not always better, especially for those with dietary restrictions.

You've seen the onslaught of coverage dedicated to the topic of “ultra-processed.” People are determined to demonize certain foods and, therefore, the food choices consumers either want to make or need to make for their personal lifestyles.

The assertions are lacking not only common sense but also understanding and empathy for the variety of dietary needs and budgets many consumers face. Ultra-processed is a term that doesn’t have a consistent, science-based definition that also stands in direct opposition to established evaluations of foods based on nutrient composition.

Much of what I’ve read falls short of considering what processing is or how it enables access to affordable, nutritional, shelf-stable items. Nor does it consider what would happen if access to processed foods is limited, including decreased diet quality, increased risk of foodborne illness, greater food waste, stigmatization of critical foods such as fortified grains, plant-based proteins or infant formula, and exacerbated health disparities.

It’s time to get real about processing and what it does for our food supply.

Fewer ingredients are not always better: We’ve seen the claim that foods should have just three ingredients. Not only is it an oversimplification, but different

ingredients serve different functions, and many are intentionally added for nutritional and food safety purposes.

This claim alludes to a false dichotomy when the number of ingredients does not equate to nutritional value. It also completely undermines consumers with dietary restrictions. While gluten acts as a binder that provides structure and elasticity to products, getting similar functionality in gluten-free products often requires a host of ingredients, such as gums, psyllium, flax, chia and alternative flours.

Thickeners, stabilizers or emulsifiers are safe and highly regulated: They're used to ensure food is agreeable to the palate – improving the sensory and nutritional profiles of foods, as well as helping to preserve foods. Food additives used in the food supply are highly regulated and regularly assessed and approved as safe by leading food safety authorities. To imply there’s a health concern with these additives goes against a slew of regulations to which food companies adhere.

As noted above, a plethora of ingredients can be used to replace the functions of gluten, including xanthan gum. If gluten-intolerant individuals were to avoid this ingredient altogether, much of their diet would be eliminated.

Added sugars and sweeteners are transparent to the consumer: Nutrition and consumer transparency are leading priorities, not

just among food and beverage companies but also for the federal government — and more specifically, the FDA.

The development of the FDA-approved Nutrition Facts label was the result of a multi-decade effort of research and stakeholder input that guides our personal nutritional choices today. That is why added sugars are listed on the Nutrition Facts label. Additionally, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, “… a limited amount of added sugars can be included as part of an overall healthy eating pattern.”

The Guidelines also say “it is important to remember that added sugars [are] just one piece of information on the label. Looking at the ingredient list and reading all the information on the Nutrition Facts label can help you make the most informed choices.”

Taking it a step further, the industry has continued to evolve with consumer demand by updating the Facts Up Front style guide to include an “Added Sugars” icon. Facts Up Front is a voluntary industry-led initiative that puts key nutritional information from the Nutrition Facts label on the front of its food packaging.

Blanket vilifications of ingredients that end in “-ose” fail a basic fact check: This, again, is an oversimplification as well as misleading to suggest ingredients

that end in “-ose” should be avoided outright. Fructose is a naturally found sugar in fruits and some vegetables, lactose is naturally found in milk and milk products like cheese, and cellulose is found in plants. Even honey, which we’ve seen suggested as an alternative to sugar, is made up of fructose and glucose.

The same goes for sugar substitutes: The WHO and FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) recently concluded that aspartame-sweetened foods and beverages “can be safely consumed daily over the course of an entire lifetime.” Low-and no-calorie sweeteners are also crucial to those with diabetes. According to the FDA:

“Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is used under the approved conditions. The sweetener is approved in many countries. Regulatory and scientific authorities, such as Health Canada and the European Food Safety Authority have evaluated aspartame and consider it safe...”

“Could you make it in your kitchen?” is not a serious question: This claim, often flippantly proffered as a suitable alternative for everyone, assumes both ability and access to a kitchen, fresh products and the luxury of time for home cooked meals. Attempting to label foods with such subjective qualifiers simply

Feeders

for Every

because they are processed misleads consumers.

Consumers deserve choices that meet their health and lifestyle needs and it shouldn’t be stigmatized; especially when food processing is critical for nutrition programs like SNAP and WIC. Claims like “can you make it in your kitchen?” also assume said consumers don’t live in food deserts and have around-theclock access to in-season fruits and vegetables. n

Written by Megan Kastner POLICY MGR.-PRODUCT POLICY Consumer Brands Assn. (www.consumerbrandsassociation.org)

‘Ultra-Processed’ Saves Lives, Feeds More

It also helps with sustainability, food waste reduction and nutrient availability.

Despite ensuring families were fed during the pandemic, processed foods are often portrayed as a villain in the global food picture. Yet, food processing has enabled delivery of more nutritious and safe food than at any time in human history, and it helps preserve food and extend shelf life, helping to reduce food waste.

While many prefer to focus on the ongoing debate over ultra-processed foods, a lack of understanding of food processing and why it is so important to global food and nutrition security demands equal attention, as noted in a white paper from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

“Sustainable Production of Nutritious Foods Through Processing Technology” explores how existing and novel processing technologies can improve global food and nutrition security while touching upon the difference between food processing and food formulation; how food processing technologies, such as fermentation, can improve nutrient bioavailability and supplement plant-based diets; as well as why up-to-date and aligned regulations are needed to accelerate the creation and adoption of sustainable food processing technologies.

With the global population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, the demand for safe, nutritious and accessible food

will only increase, as will the need to conserve natural resources. Processing technology can help bridge the gap between these two necessities.

Some of the challenges outlined in the white paper include a lack of up-to-date and aligned regulations, limited public-private funding support, unoptimized technology and inaccurate consumer knowledge about food processing.

With a growing global population, climate challenges and unpredictable crises, such as pandemics, wars and natural disasters, the time is now to future-proof the food system. Food processing is an essential bridge in the food system connecting farm to fork and beyond and ensuring food and nutrition security. Processing technologies offer a sustainable, scalable and affordable way to simultaneously improve the availability and nutritional quality of foods to help ensure food and nutrition security for all.

Numerous emerging technologies are focused on preserving food safety and quality while improving nutritional value and minimizing the impact to the environment. Further development, scaling, and adoption of these technologies can contribute to a more nutritious, sustainable and safe food supply and improve global food and nutrition security.

However, there are challenges. New technologies often take many years and significant investment,

but this can be accelerated with public-private partnerships and multistakeholder investment. Cost and system optimization are also needed to ensure affordability. Acceleration of regulatory approvals as well as adequate training and support of the workforce in the implementation of these new technologies is also essential.

Similar to the development of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) that ensure food safety, the concept of “Good Processing Practices” could be developed and implemented as standards that optimize nutritional quality and consumer acceptability of food using processes that are more environmentally sustainable. In addition to embedding of sustainability and nutrition principles, these practices could involve a coordinated approach across the food value chain to achieve a future with greater food and nutrition security.

The above is from the executive summary of “Sustainable Production of Nutritious Foods Through Processing Technology.” See the full whitepaper at bit.ly/3OywMHt n

Written by Bryan Hitchcock CHIEF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Institute of Food Technologists (www.ift.org)

IN THIS SECTION

» Snoop Dogg sues Post and Walmart

» Gluten-free diets on the wane?

» Source of applesauce contamination

CEOs Forecast Finances for the Year Underway

13 food and beverage executives pitched their companies at the annual Consumer Analyst Group of New York meeting.

The first two company presentations at this year’s Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) meetings created some interesting contrasts with the same net result. General Mills’ talk was pretty ho-hum and conservative. Right behind it was Conagra Brands’ presentation, packed with excitement and revealing a pipeline of dozens of truly novel products in new categories, even a video message from Dolly Parton.

As for what matters, sales outlooks for this year, their stories were about the same. General Mills predicts this year’s numbers will be flat or down 1%. Conagra forecasts a regression of 1-2%. A day later, McCormick joined that dubious chorus. Kraft Heinz predicts zero growth for this year.

Every February, top executives of some of the largest, publicly held food & beverage companies “sell” their companies to the nearly 500 financial analysts in attendance at CAGNY. Also making presentations this year were Coca-Cola Co., Hershey, JBS, J.M. Smucker,

Kellanova, Mondelez, Molson Coors and PepsiCo.

Every one of those processors came off a great 2023 (thanks mostly to inflation) and promises income growth this year. Most will be repurchasing shares – that’s one way to grow earnings per share. All but one mentioned artificial intelligence in some way. Nobody promised volume growth, but McCormick’s EVP and CFO Mike Smith made it a priority in his talk.

Jeff Harmening

General Mills’ sales increased 5.8%, to $17.3 billion, in its 2023 fiscal year, which ended May 28, 2023. “We’ve been reshaping our portfolio for growth,” said Jeff Harmening, General Mills’ chairman and CEO, “turn[ing] over almost 20% of our business since FY2018.” Divestitures included Yoplait in Europe, (Hamburger) Helper, Jus Rol, Knack & Back and Suddenly Salad. Acquisitions include Blue Buffalo, Top Chews, True Chews and Nudges, all in the pet food category, and TNT Crust (pizzas).

Conagra’s sales jumped 6.4%, to nearly $12.3 billion, in a fiscal year that also ended last May 28. Recall that sales were just $7.8 billion in fiscal 2017 due to divestitures and the start of a reorganization. Now the company can claim leadership in the frozen foods category, some respectable market share in snacks and stability in pantry staples.

In addition to more coffee in its portfolio, Coca-Cola is looking to grow its global reach with all brands. 2023 sales were $46 billion, up 6.3%, and net income was $10.7 billion, up 12%.

Mondelez had a good year in sales (up 14% to $36 billion) but an outstanding one in profits (up 83% to nearly $5 billion). Dirk Van de Put, chairman and CEO, especially noted a turnaround in its North American business, including the divestiture of the gums business in developed markets. 39% of growth came from emerging markets, which he noted has greater growth potential.

Dirk

Hershey touted the success of its North American salty snacks segment and detailed the digital transformation the company is maneuvering through. Salty snacks now represent 10% of the company’s revenues, driven by the SkinnyPop and Dot’s brands. 2023 sales rose 7% to $11 billion, and net income was up 13% to $1.9 billion.

PepsiCo had such a blowout year that 2023 will be a hard act to follow. Net revenues last year were $91.4 billion, up 6% from the previous year (which itself was a record). Net income was nearly $9.1 billion, up 2%, also a record. Latin America was the standout, with sales up 19%. Frito Lay North America grew 7% and beverages increased 5%. Quaker Foods saw a 2% drop, and Africa, Middle East and South Asia also declined, by 5%. Company sales are now 59% in convenient foods and 41% in beverages; 61% of sales are in North America.

Kraft Heinz Co. has “turned the corner in [its] transformation journey,” its executives claimed, and the company is now positioned to deliver top-tier returns. Carlos Abrams-Rivera, new CEO, said 2020 was spent resetting its foundation, 2021-2022 deploying a new operating model and 2023 “accelerating profitable growth.” Sales have been stuck at $26 billion ever since the 2015 merger, but have inched up the past three years, nearing $26.7 billion last year. Net income increased 20% in 2023 to $2.8 billion.

J.M. Smucker has been through a number of transformations in its history. Last year, sweet baked goods, via the acquisition of Hostess Brands, replaced dog food (divested) as a key component. But that came at a cost: The company reported a $91 million loss in its fiscal 2023 (which ended April 30), quite a reversal from the $630 million profit the year before. But Mark Smucker, chairman and president/CEO, reported “sustained momentum and volume growth across our portfolio,” and is looking forward to fully integrating Hostess Brands, acquired just last November. Uncrustables continues to be a runaway success, with the third plant dedicated to the frozen sandwiches under construction.

McCormick’s presentation was mostly about hot sauces and spices, but not so hot net income (flat at $680 million). Sales did jump 10% last year to $2.5 billion. Recent acquisitions of Frank’s Red Hot and Cholula make it the dominant player in hot flavors, a hot category. Its self-developed AI program Sage is not only making the company more efficient, it’s helping develop products for other food processors using McCormick’s industrial ingredients.

Molson Coors executives told they are capitalizing on its move five years ago to become a “total beverage company,” with good positions in beer, flavored alcoholic drinks, energy drinks and spirits. The company just experienced its third consecutive year of revenue growth (net sales increased 9.4% to $11.7 billion) and a huge reversal in net – a $949 million profit

versus the $175 million loss in 2022. The company claims to lead all U.S. brewers in dollar share growth year-to-date in 2024.

CAGNY was the coming out party for the two new companies resulting from last year’s split of Kellogg Co.

The more global of the two spinoffs, half of Kellanova's sales of salty snacks, crackers and biscuits come from outside the U.S. and Canada. Pringles is poised to top $3 billion in net sales, more than double what it was when acquired in 2012. Kellanova has added three global manufacturing facilities for Pringles in the past 12 years and has two more on the way in Mexico and Thailand. The Pringles playbook is being applied to the Cheez-It brand as well.

For WK Kellogg Co, it’s still about cereal. Executives focused their presentation less on financials and more on the opportunities the company has, and how it plans to deliver on those chances, now that it’s nearly five months old. The company did report $2.7 billion in adjusted net sales in 2023 and touted its No. 2 position in the U.S. RTE cereal market.

JBS S.A. spoke to the analysts in a closed-door session, but a Bloomberg News report said the company will delay its long-expected listing on the New York Stock Exchange to the second half of this year. According to the report, JBS views the dual listing as an opportunity to fund expansion into branded and processed foods categories.

Ramon Laguarta

Mark Smucker

Gary Pilnick

Snoop Dogg & Co. Claim Walmart

and Post Sabotaged Cereal Sales

Broadus Foods, owned by iconic rappers and businessmen Snoop Dogg and Master P, filed a lawsuit against Post Holdings Inc. and Walmart in February, claiming the two undermined the company’s cereal products by charging more in comparison to other brands and purposefully keeping the products out of stock to consumers (but present in stockrooms at stores).

The complaint states the cereal was not available in many Walmart stores within months, although

Expansions

Colorado Premium in February opened its third processing facility and its first to specialize in fully cooked sous vide proteins. The 175,000-sq.-ft. facility in Greeley, Colo., includes space for future expansion and will employ up to 275 workers when fully operational. Price was not disclosed. The new facility has capabilities for searing, par frying and sous vide cooking. Colorado Premium, headquartered elsewhere in Greeley, processes animal proteins serving retailers, restaurant chains and meal delivery services. .

Cargill purchased two meat processing plants in the Northeast U.S. from a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize USA — plants that were already staffed by Cargill employees through a long-term partnership with the grocer. The facilities, located in North

Walmart employees found boxes of the cereal in store stockrooms with indications they were not to be put out on store shelves.

The suit says the cereals were priced at $10 or more per box at Walmart, while on Amazon they were selling for $5.99 a box. And while

Kingstown, R.I., and Camp Hill, Pa., were owned by Infinity Meat Solutions and produce packaged ground beef and pork, muscle cuts and value-added products such as seasoned, marinated and breaded meats for Ahold Delhaize USA’s grocery store brands.

Petsource, a contract manufacturer of freeze-dried pet foods, announced the completion of a $75 million expansion to its Seward, Neb., processing plant, a facility that just opened in 2020. The expansion triples the capacity of the plant, adding 70,000 sq. ft. of processing space as demand for freeze-dried products in pet foods grows. The expansion created 75 new jobs, bringing the total workforce at the Seward facility to more than 150 employees.

Hope Baking Co. will spend more than $37 million to expand its bakery in Hope, Ark., an expansion that is expected to create 266 jobs over two

Post agreed to manufacture and distribute the cereal in exchange for some of the profits, the suit claims “Post ensured that Snoop Cereal would not be available to consumers or that it would incur exorbitant costs that would eliminate any profit to Broadus Foods.”

years. The expansion will produce a range of bakery items, including breadsticks, English muffins, fully baked breads and seasonal brown and serve rolls. East Baking Co. acquired Hope Baking from Southern Bakeries in March 2023.

JDE Peet’s, which claims to be the world’s largest pure-play coffee and tea company, inked a long-term global agreement to manufacture, market and sell Caribou consumer and foodservice coffee products. The deal includes JDE operating Caribou’s roasting operations in Minneapolis but excludes Caribou coffeehouses. European media were reporting JDE will pay $260 million.

Chicken processor Brakebush Brothers Inc. acquired the Lake Foods processing facility in Hartwell, Ga., which portions raw, sized, marinated and ready-to-cook chicken products.

Two Surveys Indicate GlutenFree Diets May Be on the Wane

Two recent surveys make a small case that gluten avoidance and gluten-free diets may be on the wane.

The International Food Information Council (IFIC) annually takes a Food & Health Survey. In a question about following a diet or eating pattern, 6% of this year’s respondents said they were eating gluten-free; that’s down from 9% in last year’s survey and 7% in surveys from 2018-2020.

The IFIC survey was an online survey of 1,022 Americans ages 18 to 80; it took place between April 3 and April 10 of last year.

A similar drop was seen in the Oldways Whole Grains Council’s 2023 Whole Grain Consumer Insights Survey. Significantly fewer people said they always avoid gluten: 5% in 2023, compared with 8% in 2021.

Only 1.33% of respondents say they avoid gluten entirely due to a medical diagnosis, which tracks with the estimated prevalence of celiac disease in the general population.

The Whole Grains Council report is from an online survey of 1,500 Americans, ages 18 to 89, nationally census-representative for age, gender, race/ethnicity, region and income. The survey was conducted from May 23 to June 7 of last year.

Briefly

Somerville, Tenn.-based Fayette Janitorial Service LLC (operating as Fayette Industrial) is the target of a Dept. of Labor complaint requesting a nationwide temporary restraining order and injunction, aimed at stopping the company from illegally employing child workers as further investigation continues. The DOL alleges that Fayette, which provides contract sanitation and cleaning services for meat and poultry processing facilities in about 30 states, has employed children to clean and sanitize spaces and equipment during overnight shifts at Perdue’s Accomac, Va., and Seaboard Triumph Foods’ Sioux City, Iowa, facilities. A release from the department said Fayette employed 15 child workers (some as young as 13 years old) in Virginia and at least nine in Iowa. The minors were used to clean kill-floor equipment such as head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws and neck clippers. At least one 14-year-old at the Virginia facility suffered severe injuries while on Fayette’s books.

Upside Foods, one of the two cultivated chicken companies to receive USDA approval last June, has halted construction of a 187,000-sq.-ft. processing plant in Glenview, Ill., instead expanding operations at its established facility in Emeryville, Calif. In an email from CEO Uma Valeti that was leaked to Wired, the company said the shift would cost “substantially less” than building the first phase of the Illinois facility, which was announced in September 2023. Upside still plans to build a full-scale facility, the email said, but the company needs to

deliver “key proof points” through the California facility before that plan could continue.

The FDA and Ecuadorian officials appear to have identified the source of lead-contaminated cinnamon that was used in recalled applesauce pouches sold late last year in the U.S. that has sickened more than 400 people, mostly children. Ecuador’s Agencia Nacional de Regulación, Control y Vigilancia Sanitaria (ARCSA) said cinnamon processor Carlos Aguilera is the likely source of the contamination but is not in operation at this time. The unprocessed cinnamon sticks were sourced from Sri Lanka, sampled by ARCSA and found to have no lead. The ARCSA investigation is still ongoing. Aguilera apparently supplied the cinnamon to Negasmart, which supplied the cinnamon to processor Austrofoods, which made the pouches of applesauce for the Schnucks, WanaBana and Weis brands.

Despite being a country defensive of its food traditions, the Italian government has approved Nutrinsect’s request to sell a flour made from crickets for human consumption. Nutrinsect since 2020 has raised millions of crickets at its plant in Montecassiano, but the resulting flour could only be used in pet food, according to The Guardian. However, the European Union in early 2023 approved the use of insect proteins – from crickets, locusts and darkling beetle larvae – for human consumption. The Italian government initially responded with a number of roadblocks but has since backed down.

ROLLOUT

Plant Milk Takes on the Cow

Califia Farms is rolling out Complete, a plant-based dairy milk alternative containing the nine essential amino acids along with 8g protein, a profile that resembles cows’ milk. Made from a blend of pea, chickpea and fava bean proteins, Califia Farms Complete also contains a similar vitamin and mineral profile as dairy milk. The 40-oz. plastic bottle sells in the refrigerated dairy department with a suggested retail price of $6.99.

“The level of total nutrition found in Califia Farms Complete is a powerful and unique way for consumers to achieve their nutritional needs,” says Rajneesh Hora, chief science officer at Califia Farms. “We spent a lot of time perfecting this formula to combine noteworthy amounts of vitamins, minerals and protein while delivering on the delicious, creamy consistency that’s become a hallmark of Califia’s plant-based products.”

Specialty Breads in the Ambient Aisle

Sliced sandwich breads with special content claims, such as gluten-free, low-carbohydrate and natural, often are found only in retailers’ refrigerated cases, as the low temperatures are necessary to ensure quality. Base Culture is changing that with Simply Bread. The ambient-aisle bread line comes in three varieties: Classic Sandwich, Hint of Honey and Super Seed.

The breads are made with a clean flour blend consisting of tapioca, coconut, almond, chickpea, flax and hemp. Combined, these flours create a nutrient-rich bread offering 8g of fiber per slice while delivering traditional bread taste and texture. Simply Bread includes coconut oil instead of canola oil, giving each slice a wholesome dose of healthy fat as well as a touch of honey versus refined sugar to balance the flavor.

Going Nutty Instead of Bacony

There’s a new topper in town to add craveable crunch to salads, baked potatoes, veggie sides and more. Diamond of California is rolling out Crunchy Nut Toppers, which are made with bite-sized pieces of nutrient-dense walnuts or pecans and seasoned with simple ingredients. The four flavors are bacon-free Smoky Bacon Walnuts, dairy-free Garden Ranch Walnuts, Glazed Walnuts and Glazed Pecans. A 3-oz. bag has a suggested retail price of $2.99.

“We all know a little extra flavor and crunch elevates any dish so we hope this new line of ready-touse Crunchy Nut Toppers inspires home cooks to make good food even better,” says Craig Tokusato, chief marketing officer. “We recommend using them wherever you might add bacon bits, crispy onions or croutons.”

ROLLOUT

Two Breakfast Heavyweights Join Forces

Mrs. Butterworth’s, a Conagra brand, has teamed up with Dunkin’ to launch Mrs. Butterworth’s Dunkin Glazed Donut Flavored Pancake Syrup. The new product features the sweet flavor of a glazed donut combined with Mrs. Butterworth’s signature taste. It’s a two-in-one for a memorable breakfast experience. Marketing materials encourage use on unexpected items, such as yogurt, oatmeal, biscuits and more. Developed with Dunkin’ culinary experts, the syrup mirrors the sweet vanilla flavor notes of a fried glazed donut. A 24-oz. plastic bottle has a suggested retail price of $4.19.

Dunkin’ has been busy with co-branding ventures. Earlier this year, the brand worked with Danone North America to introduce limited-edition Dunkin’ Brownie Batter Creamer. Made with real cream and real sugar, the rich, fudgy Dunkin’ Brownie Batter Creamer is a chocolate-lover’s dream. It joins other offerings under the joint venture.

Veggies From Down on the Farm

Bob Evans is helping families elevate their dinner plates with Farmhouse Favorites vegetable sides, now available in select Kroger locations. The three varieties are carrots with sweet butter sauce, green beans with herb butter sauce and sweet corn with chipotle butter sauce. The sides come in 16-oz. packs merchandised in retailers’ refrigerated department alongside the brand’s potato and pasta offerings.

The sides are ready in less than five microwavable minutes. The packaging features a vacuum seal designed to duplicate the flavor of restaurant-style vegetables. The technology ensures a crisp texture and taste. And, as an added bonus, while the veggies warm in the microwave, the packaging whistles, letting everyone know it's dinnertime.

Asian-Inspired Beverages

Moshi, a manufacturer of craft sodas and sparkling teas, adds Asian-inspired sparkling waters to its lineup. All four offerings contain 7-15% real fruit juice.

Asian Pear & White Miso is an out-of-the-box pairing of fruit with savory. The White Peach & Yuzu showcases two trending Asian flavors with the yuzu sourced directly from farmers in Japan. Fuji Apple & Concord Grape is a marriage of a quintessential Asian flavor –crisp Fuji apple – with classically American Concord grape. The last variety, Honeydew Melon & Cream, is a riff on a nostalgic Asian flavor pairing of melon and cream typically seen in East Asian sodas and desserts. This beverage is friendly for dairy-free drinkers as it uses only cream flavor.

The new sparkling waters are naturally sweetened from the fruit juice. A 12-oz. can contains a mere 25 calories. “As a former chef, I really wanted to include a savory element in one of the flavors,” said Founder Alton But. "I thought it would be a unique tasting experience in a heavily saturated sparkling water category.”

Written by Dave Fusaro and Andy Hanacek

Are your product developers and plant operators ready to embrace a little artificial intelligence? They may be more ready than you think.

See the Editor’s Plate on p7 for a story on AI in the food & beverage industry written by ChatGPT 3.5. It’s pretty good but also pretty general. All of it findable somewhere on the internet … which is exactly where ChatGPT did its milliseconds of “research.”

It also represents of one of the truisms of AI. In all its forms, AI will only give you as specific and useful information as the questions and other details humans program into it.

“Only 5% of the world we live in is structured data. The other 95% is unstructured data,” Magesh Bagavathi, PepsiCo’s chief technology officer, said in a company web posting. “AI takes disorganized information — the other 95% — and turns it into formulas.”

ChatGPT is a “generative” AI program, meaning it generates content – text, images, video, music, speech, even software code and product designs – from among many pieces of existing content. Statistical model-based AI is probably the best form for product development; it’s human-built and -managed, and there’s a finite amount of data for the software to search. Machine learning or self-learning AI would be best for the plant floor; it’s human-trained and its universe of data usually is specific to the process involved.

“The common thread with all three when applied to food

is humans,” emphasizes Vinay Indraganti, CEO and one of the founders of BCD iLabs (www. bcdilabs.com), a product development consulting service that specializes in AI.

“AI in a context not related to food can work independently, be self-trained. But when it comes to food, the nuances, the emotions, the palate, the culture are so very intertwined that AI changes from being artificial intelligence to augmented intelligence – human intelligence plus artificial intelligence,” he says.

The current fascination with AI is probably no different than what must have been some awestruck 1970s reports at what computers someday could do. Or a wide-eyed 1990s look at this newfangled World Wide Web. But alone those couldn’t create Joe Biden’s voice suggesting you not vote for him or naked photos of Taylor Swift or Alexa or Siri ordering products indiscriminately.

So, like certain trees growing in the Garden of Eden, choose the appropriate fruits and avoid the bad apples. Investigate AI with a goal to implement it in a responsible, smart and effective way. And rather than depending on the Tree of Knowledge, you better have enough wisdom of your own beforehand to get a useful result.

Following are just a couple snippets of how AI already is helping food & beverage processors.

Coca‑Cola Y3000, in both regular and Zero Sugar, "was co created with human and artificial intelligence by understanding how fans envision the future through emotions, aspirations, colors, flavors and more." The cans say it was "co created with AI."

Hasten product development

Product developers should be developing products, creating and testing formulations, not doing internet searches on available ingredients. Leave the latter to AI. AI helps accelerate the final outcome.

Before co-founding BCD iLabs, Indraganti was global vice president of digital transformation and strategy at Ingredion Inc., focusing on both R&D and manufacturing transformation. He gives a hypothetical example:

“I want to create a protein bar with 15g of protein, less than 10g of added sugar, it’s got to be nonGMO and it will be sold in these countries. And don’t forget cost.”

Instead of a product developer doing the numerous web searches to come up with options for that formula, an AI program can do the grunt work. The R&D people can take the search results and immediately start experimenting.

“The R&D person can choose among the protein sources suggested, the sugars or sugar substitutes and other parameters and start doing experiments,” he says. “In the first iteration you’ll get an outcome, good or bad. You give the program a more desired outcome – maybe a certain kind of mouthfeel, even a desired emotional response – and it will fine-tune the suggestions.”

Like the R&D process itself, the AI process will be hit or miss at first, but eventually the hits will become apparent. As the program becomes more familiar with your company’s products, ingredients used and preferences, it will become better at suggesting formulations.

“It’s like having a new employee, a trainee in the lab,” Indraganti continues. “In the beginning you have to train him or her, and that can take a lot of time. Sometimes you wonder if it’s worth the effort. But at some point the AI system will have learned so much that you see an exponential reduction in your effort and increase in its effectiveness.”

Alexia Ciarfella was a senior scientist at Mondelez International. Now, after a brief stint at Capital One, she’s in the process of co-founding an AI food product development start-up called FlavorMind (website www.flavormind.ai should be operational soon).

While at Mondelez, she helped develop an artificial intelligence tool to optimize the recipe development process of a well-known cookie. Her team’s work on this generative AI tool led Mondelez to win the “Best of Business AI” award from Microsoft in 2021, as one of the top 10 global organizations expertly using AI as a catalyst for business innovation.

Don’t Be Caught AI Washing

You’ve probably heard of green washing – an effort to exaggerate your sustainability claims – but new to the lexicon is AI washing. AI has become so trendy that some marketers are falsely claiming their products involve or were created using AI technology. It is an image-booster and may even hike sales, but it undermines trust in real AI technology and ultimately could come back to haunt you.

“My role involved leveraging my extensive knowledge of technical challenges and business needs in product development to identify key opportunities to apply AI solutions,” she says. “Our data scientist then used these insights to create computational models tailored to these specific challenges, while our sensory scientist provided the essential, structured data required to train and refine these models.

“This close collaboration ensured that our AI initiatives were well-aligned with the company's business objectives, technically sound and supported by accurate data, leading to meaningful results and practical applications within the company,” she relates.

She offers some points – not just for product developers – for considering AI for your next project:

• How do you formulate your problem in a way that artificial intelligence can solve it?

• Is your problem specific and measurable?

• Can you describe your problem quantitatively?

• What do you currently measure?

• What else can you measure?

• Are there any boundaries or constraints you need to set?

• How will you measure success?

• Do you need AI to solve your problem?

• Can AI solve your problem?

Ultimately, she suggests three steps along an AI spectrum:

1. Leverage off-the-shelf AI tools from a vendor.

2. Partner with a vendor to co-create a customized AI solution.

3. Build and maintain in-house, bespoke AI models.

What do consumers want?

Perhaps the most often mentioned use of AI is in assessing changing consumer demands and suggesting a starting point to respond to them with product development.

“AI can dramatically decrease product innovation cycles so PepsiCo teams can respond to consumer demand in shortened timelines,” says a web posting from Athina Kanioura, a PepsiCo executive vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer.

“Insights revealed people were discussing, searching for and ordering seaweed products online thanks to an AI tool that analyzed millions of social posts, recipes and menus,” she continues. “That led R&D to develop Off The Eaten Path seaweed snacks in less than 12 months. Similarly, AI insights showed that consumers were interested in immunity. Six months later, Propel with immunity-boosting ingredients was on store shelves, ready to sip.”

“When generative AI is linked to consumer insights – and is tailored to the F&B industry specifically – it has the ability to impact organizational operations in a more meaningful way,” says the founder of one enterprise insights platform.

Tastewise is an Israeli firm whose AI tools provide that link between consumer insights and product development. The company touts “real-time marketing insights and consumer intelligence.”

The Tastewise platform (tastewise.io) scours a number of sources that indicate what people are currently eating –consumers’ in- and out-of-home purchasing, restaurant menus,

even recipes and discussions about favorite dishes on Instagram and TikTok. “Traditionally, by the time you get some of those insights and start to act on them, consumers have moved on,” says

Lee Brymer, marketing communications manager at Tastewise.

“What are the most popular soups with Millennials?” he proposes. “We can get you the answer in seconds.”

On its website, Tastewise has case histories with titles like “How Campbell’s redesigned their innovation processes with an efficient, data-driven approach” and “How Treehouse used Tastewise to put the spotlight back on their pickles sales.” Both of those projects were driven by consumer data picked up by Tastewise’s AI program.

For the past two years, Campbell’s marketing, insights and foodservice teams have used Tastewise to push innovation,

To promote there’s nothing artificial in its orange juice, Tropicana released a limited-edition package of ‘Tropcn’ Pure Premium orange juice (get it? No A’s or I’s in the name!) at the giant consumer electronics show CES 2024 in January.

content strategy and sales. Tastewise says it enables Campbell to:

• Improve the efficiency of their research, marketing, innovation and sales projects.

• Back up their research with realtime consumer data.

• Introduce new marketing and sales angles for well-established products in the market.

Already in the plant

When it comes to the plant operations side of the food & beverage industry, AI might be considered a shapeshifter. Implementation at this point in time seems based predominantly on a processor’s comfort level with being a trailblazer of new concepts or waiting to see success in others’ efforts.

In some plants, AI already has begun to make a mark, refining some processes and data analyses in certain applications. For others, AI remains a technology with untapped potential to revolutionize the way the plants operate — once they get around to implementing it.

Count the poultry processing industry as one group embracing AI on the operations side, says Juan DeVillena, senior vice president of quality assurance and food safety at Wayne-Sanderson Farms (www. waynesanderson.com). From hatcheries to packaging lines, he says the industry stepped up its implementation of AI over the past several years after a slow start.

“As chicken parts move down the line to be cut and portioned, every piece is simultaneously [image] captured from multiple perspectives and developed into a 3D image, enabling the computer to direct the DSI [portioning system] cuts to get the best yields,

meeting dimensions criteria,” DeVillena explains.

Similar technology is used in beef-processing applications, says Brett Erickson, director of prepared and packaged solutions for Certified Angus Beef (www.certifiedangusbeef.com), which works with numerous plants to process its beef products.

“The machinery literally looks at each piece of meat and determines how to slice it to the most efficient level,” he says. “AI also can determine how to package the sliced product best and store the information, learning as it goes how to most efficiently produce that product and get it in the package in its final state.”

Potential remains a big draw for processors considering AI implementation. Konrad Ahlin, senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (atrp. gatech.edu), says the technology reaches across so many areas that it can be difficult to pinpoint specific impact areas, but industry continues to work to find the lowest-hanging fruit for successful implementation.

“Every bird is different, and AI gives us a tool to address these differences in our process rather than attempting to plan around them,” Ahlin explains. “We will no longer have to automate for an ‘average’ and accept the losses that come from assuming that every product is the same size and shape.”

Food safety is another area that has felt an impact, DeVillena relays. AI and hyperspectral imaging scans give processors increased confidence that product does not contain foreign material, he says, when compared to traditional hand/visual inspections

and older X-ray and metal detector technologies.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a Colgate-Palmolive division, is taking advantage of AI as a food safety tool. In opening a new pet food processing plant in Tonganoxie, Kan., Hill's specifically called out how the technology will play a role. Along with a serious dose of automation and robotics, the facility will use AI to drive its digital food safety vigilance system.

“Hill’s will utilize technology to work alongside Hill’s staff and a new stateof-the-art Mission Control Center to provide unprecedented visibility and monitoring through every aspect of pet food-making, from ingredient intake to final packaging,” Chad Sharp, director of manufacturing for the Tonganoxie Plant, said when the plant opened in October 2023.

Of course, there can be hurdles to jump and challenges to solve, says Geoff Coltman, vice president of Catena Solutions (www.catenasolutions.com). One stumbling block for some early adopters of AI has been that initial investments didn’t always take the human element into account.

the Corvette; so they’re going to run it until it runs out of gas, and then what?”

Coltman says that train of thought is why there’s a big focus to get food & beverage maintenance and operations workers caught up on these systems to ensure they succeed. As such, he says, “the ROI has yet to be realized in these investments; more investment needs to happen in order to get there” for processors.

into it. Humans are still there in order to make the decisions.”

He adds that change management, as well as education, development and the elevation of employees — or finding the right talent that understands the technology — need to be in the crosshairs during AI implementation.

DeVillena agrees that processors looking to AI to solve challenges cannot forget the people portion of the equation. “As an industry, ensuring the efficiency and safety of evolving processing technology is key, along with investing in the development of skilled individuals to operate and maintain these systems,” he concludes.

There have been a few warnings citing that old adage that “the leading edge is the bleeding edge.” Diving into a new market or technology early can be risky. But most observers think AI’s time has come, and most companies should at least start investigating.

“There are companies that have spent millions — $20 million, $50 million, $250 million — on these automated processes, machines and technologies, but they never taught their people how to use it,” he says. “They bought a Corvette, but nobody knows how to fix

In addition, some companies continue to believe the fantasy that AI will eliminate the need for human intervention, particularly on the data analysis side. AI finds the exceptions in the data and attempts to fix them, but if it doesn’t learn the proper solution through human intervention, the system will continue to kick out exceptions.

“AI, to this point, is not replacing people,” Coltman says. “AI is just a different way to work with the machines — but the machine is only learning based on what is being put

“I think we’re just scratching the surface,” PepsiCo’s Bagavathi says. “We’re going to keep seeing more ways AI will simplify our lives and make us more productive.”

As always, the human element is a critical piece of the puzzle. An AI system is only as good as the information fed into it … by humans. And all the information that program churns out is useless if people are unwilling to learn alongside the technology. Companies need a plan that addresses how teams will use AI long term.

Credit: Derek Chamberlain, generated with Shutterstock AI

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Co-branding can unite two brands to complement or produce a little shock value.

Written by Ed Avis CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Flower City Flavor Co. is not a widely known food manufacturer. In fact, its website (www.flowercityflavor. com) encourages customers to visit two local drugstores in Rochester, N.Y., to see its hot sauces, vinegars and olive oil products.

But these days many more potential customers are aware of the firm, at least its Bourbon Barrel Malt Vinegar. That’s because New York Chips (www.thenewyorkchip. com), which sells its products at Wegmans, Walmart and Tops Friendly Markets locations in upstate New York, co-branded with Flower City’s Bourbon Barrel Malt Vinegar to create their Salt & Vinegar Chips.

“When the chips first debuted, the sales of my malt vinegar increased 27% in the first month after,” says Chris Whitehair, Flower City Flavor’s owner. “When they started appearing in Wegmans, sales of the malt vinegar increased 34%.

“Malt vinegar is definitely more niche than a wing sauce or BBQ sauce, so I never expected a crazy explosion,” he continues, “but I am very happy with the visibility it brings my brand, since my products are not in those big retailers and these chips now give me the opportunity to say that I am.”

Co-branding – the practice of combining two brands in one product – can significantly boost the visibility and market of both brands. It’s a strategy that is used by food manufacturers of all sizes, from tiny Flower City Flavor Co. to Hershey Co.

“Cobranding is like cross-pollinating,” says Reilly Newman, brand strategist and founder of Motif Brands (www.motifbrands.com). “You are able to leverage existing intellectual assets from one brand and have it complement the other brand. They kind of feed off each other.”

Co-branding with New York Chips put tiny Flower City Flavor Co. on the map.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Combined power

The value of co-branding lies in the combined power of the brands involved. In some cases, the brands are clearly complementary – such as Oreo Funfetti Chocolate Cake Mix from Pillsbury, which unites the popular cookie with a well-known cake mix brand – but in other cases the brands unite for a little shock value.

Take the case of Brave Robot ice cream pairing up with Levi’s jeans in 2021. That combination obviously did not involve complementary flavors, but the ice cream brand and apparel brand generated considerable attention when the cobranded Summer Swirl ice cream flavor was introduced.

The combination made sense because both brands are involved with sustainability initiatives, says Rachel Krupa, a branding and public relations expert and founder of The Goods Mart (www.thegoodsmart. com). Brave Robot is a plant-based ice cream that touts its sustainability bona fides, and Levi’s identifies itself as focused on “climate, consumption and community.”

“We created a collaborative flavor that was blueberry, strawberry swirl and vanilla ice cream, and did a co-branded ice cream truck in New York outside of the Levi’s stores that drove people to learn about Brave Robot,” Krupa says. “It was mutually beneficial, because Brave Robot got a lot of visibility because of the Levi’s partnership, but also Levi’s got the sustainability side and the new freshness that Brave Robot had.”

Regardless of whether a co-brand collaboration succeeds because it’s complementary or it shocks consumers, it helps companies raise the profile of their

brands and extend their reach into new markets.

Consider the Hershey Co. (www. thehersheycompany.com), which collaborates on products ranging from Jolly Ranchers-themed New Balance sneakers to Hershey’s Chocolate Porter beer from Yuengling brewery to Reese’s Puffs cereal with General Mills.

“The Hershey Co. recognizes licensing as a strategic lever to brand building,” says Ernie Savo, president of Hershey Licensing Co. “Co-branding opportunities boost Hershey’s brand awareness and consumer engagement, strengthening brand loyalty among our various brands.

“It’s exciting to see shoppers engage with our brands within several top categories of food and general merchandise. Having a large presence in key spaces has allowed Hershey to capitalize on emerging trends, and has enabled Hershey to reach new audiences, leading Hershey to achieve a valuation of $1.9 billion in global licensed retail sales.”

First question: why?

Companies don’t enter into co-branding lightly. There are multiple issues to consider, ranging from finding partners with the right characteristics to deciding how a co-branded product will be perceived by consumers.

Perhaps the first consideration is to decide exactly what a company expects from a co-branding project.

“The first question anyone should ask about a collaboration is, ‘Why?’ ” Krupa explains. “Do you want to get more visibility, more eyeballs, drive sales? Or is this just a brand-building exercise?”

For example, Krupa advised McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams on a cobranding project with Martinelli’s that resulted in McConnell’s Apple Cider & Cranberry Jam flavor ice cream. McConnell’s and Martinelli’s both are long-established, family-owned California companies with similar audience profiles, so they did not necessarily reach a new market with the collaboration. But they did generate buzz.

Hershey is very active in licensing its brands. The Reese’s name is a powerful attraction for many products, including these Unilever ice creams.

“Michael Palmer, the owner of McConnell’s, said, ‘Let’s do something that’s great, that’s fun, that’s going to bring eyeballs and add visibility,’ ” Krupa says. “This cobranded ice cream was an elevated version of a regular seasonal flavor and it gives more eyeballs within their scoop shops.”

Krupa adds that the benefit of the partnership extended beyond the immediate sales of the flavor. Consumers may have heard about the collaboration and become more familiar with the brands, or perhaps even visited their respective websites. Whether they bought a pint of Apple Cider & Cranberry Jam ice cream at that point was less important than the long-term benefit of attracting potential buyers.

Newman concurs with Krupa on that point – he says the intention of many co-brands is to help a company reach a new audience that should be interested in their products based on the fact that they are already fans of the other company’s products. There is a common

Mars’ Starburst is a familiar brand that delivers strong fruity flavors, so Talking Rain licensed it for a new line of Sparkling Ice drinks.

thread between the fans of the two companies that can be exploited by a co-branded product.

“It’s not just about the products or the transaction, it’s about someone saying, ‘Hey, I like brand A, and now they’re showing me brand B, so therefore I probably like brand B,’ ” Newman explains. “Psychologically, humans like to be consistent with our internal narrative. So if I’m a big Doritos fan, and then I see this new Jack Link’s-flavored Doritos, I’m biased towards liking that. So Jack Link’s could be introduced to a market segment they weren’t being introduced to before.”

This concept applies to Hershey. Savo says the “why” behind many of the collaborations Hershey undertakes is to grow the company’s exposure in categories in which they do not normally participate.

“We select partners who are wellaligned with the Hershey Co.’s brand portfolio and messaging, and who also have the potential to succeed in their respective domains,” he says. “We choose collaborations that add incremental value to our portfolio, and we focus on building long-term relationships with partners.”

The mechanics

When New York Chips and Flower City Flavor Co. agreed on the Salt & Vinegar chips co-branding project, Whitehair sent bottles of his malt vinegar to his partner. But they didn’t glaze the chips with actual vinegar – they worked with a seasoning company to create powdered seasoning based on the vinegar.

That’s a common approach, since many co-branded products are dissimilar and the primary product just needs the essence of the partner’s product for the co-branding

to succeed. In other cases, though, actual product from the secondary partner is incorporated into the primary partner’s product.

In the Hershey collaborations, for example, the company making the final product sources chocolate and other ingredients from Hershey Co., Savo explains. This ensures that the finished good has the authentic Hershey flavor profile.

At the other extreme was the collaboration between Brave Robot and Levi’s. Obviously, the Summer Swirl ice cream flavor did not include denim, so there was no exchange of ingredients, but the spirit of the blue jeans brand was present.

Regardless of the level of actual ingredient combinations, successful co-brands require close coordination.

“One company might take the lead more than the other, but it’s very much a collaborative type of process because of the fact that you want everyone to feel part of it,” Krupa says. “You want to make sure that everyone is happy because everyone’s going to be promoting it and getting press on it. So there is a lot of trying and tasting things, making sure people like it, making sure the packaging is great. There is a series of approvals to make sure it meets the brand standards of both companies.”

Savo confirms that Hershey is deeply involved in the co-brands it participates in.

“Hershey is completely immersed within the product development process,” he says. “From the start of the relationship with the partner to when the product debuts in the market, Hershey is involved with the product ideation and its development.”

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The money

The financial relationship between the partners in a co-branding project varies. In some cases product is purchased; in other cases licensing fees are paid; and in some cases no money changes hands.

Whitehair reports that he receives a royalty check monthly from New York Chips. He gets a fee for each bag produced, both the standard 8-oz. bags and the individual 1-oz. bags. “I have saved my royalties and will be donating them to Foodlink, a local non-profit,” he notes.

Krupa says that in her experience, sometimes the company that came up with the idea covers the hard costs of the project, such as making the final product, but does not pay a licensing fee. The partner does not earn cash in that case, but benefits from the exposure.

In other cases, however, the differential between the name recognition of the brands may be so great that the lesser brand needs to pay the other for the affiliation. “Sometimes it’s obviously like, ‘Hey, we know you’re going to gain a lot from our name and likeness, so you have to pay us for it,’ ” she explains.

In the case of a world-famous brand like Hershey, a licensing fee is typical, Savo says. “When a business chooses to license a brand, there is a licensing fee or royalty involved,” he says. “This allows the business to not only leverage the brand on their packaging and marketing materials, but also benefit from the marketing and brand awareness already associated with a brand such as Hershey.”

“When one [company] approaches another [about

a co-brand project], it’s like, ‘Hey, these are the reasons we feel this is going to be great. Do you agree? Let’s jump on a call and have a conversation,’ ” Krupa says. “I always go into a

partnership by saying, ‘Here’s an initial idea,’ but I know that it could morph into something more beautiful by having a collaborative type of conversation with the other brand.” n

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: FLAVORING PROTEIN FOODS

Protein-based foods have advanced, but often taste lags. Here are some technical strategies and tips for using plant, dairy and novel protein ingredients.

Written by Claudia O'Donnell

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Plant, animal and novel protein sources all battle for a place on consumers’ plates. Deal-breakers for a food’s acceptance include cost, convenience, sustainability and nutrition, but flavor usually surpasses all.

Undesirable flavors contributed by plant proteins are an often-mentioned industry challenge. But it’s a challenge that can be overcome with the right tactics and food science.

Land Lovers (www.lovelandlovers.com) is a new company off to a great start. The company’s soy- and wheat protein-based alternative meats have garnered praise. For example, its Mongolian Plant-Based Steak

won a 2023 National Restaurant Assn. FABI Award (under the company’s previous name, Alchemeat).

Huan Xia, co-founder and CEO, explains how Land Lovers products, sold as unflavored frozen textured plant protein components, differentiate themselves in a competitive category. Land Lovers has a patented high moisture extrusion process. Still, Xia quickly adds that the university where she earned a Ph.D. in food science has many patents “just sitting there.” Much more is needed to drive a successful business.

“We focus on product cost and taste, which are the most important attributes,” Xia says. "We need to be profitable. Venture capital is helpful, but we don’t want to burn through it. Our production process is scalable and can

already manufacture, on average, some 6,700 lbs./day." She adds that the product is at cost parity with beef in the marketplace, even at this early stage.

Other product advantages include nutrition — a high protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) helps it qualify for the USDA’s Child Nutrition Program. Good customer margins can be obtained due in part to minimal product shrinkage and, in some cases, a gain of 10-15% weight as it picks up water when cooked. As for texture, the protein fibers are very similar to muscle, which gives a realistic bite.

“It’s elastic and gradually degrades in the mouth, allowing one to savor the flavor and helping to give the impression that it is steak,” Xia relays.

Regarding taste, Land Lovers provides dozens of recipes for its foodservice clients. Beyond Mongolian Plant-Based Steak, other products include Peruvian, Cuban and Asian dishes, ravioli, pot pies and Philly cheese steak.

While chefs turn Land Lovers proteins into culinary winners, product developers formulating products from scratch — especially those manufactured at a large commercial scale — need a knowledgeable, systematic approach to flavoring foods and beverages with higher protein levels.

Proteins with minimal flavor of their own, another product benefit touted by Xia, are a vital starting place for a great-tasting finished food.

Little flavor is a big thing

Flavoring high-protein foods and beverages is difficult due to

INGREDIENTS

inherent off-flavors from protein ingredients and unwanted interactions they undergo with flavorings, says Robert McGorrin, professor of flavor chemistry in the Food Science & Technology Dept. of Oregon State University.

Helping to define flavor, McGorrin explains that the perception of flavor is triggered by volatile aromas (e.g., cherry, smoky), tastants (e.g., sweet, savory) and chemesthesis, which detect chemical irritants by cutaneous neurons. Examples include pepper burn, menthol cooling or astringency.

Plant proteins are not alone in contributing undesirable flavors.

The issue also extends to dairy protein ingredients, although perhaps to a lesser degree since they are rarely asked to mimic non-dairy proteins.

One aspect of the challenge is flavor variability among different protein sources. “Even the same protein, such as a milk, pea or a soy concentrate, but from different suppliers will have different flavor profiles,” says MaryAnne Drake, WNR Professor at North Carolina State University and director at the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center.

For example, whey protein isolates can differ in the intensities of

Land Lovers textured plant protein ingredients offer a bland flavor and realistic texture to which customized flavor components can be added.

cardboard and cabbage flavors and bitterness or astringency. These are protein-specific flavors. The more dairy protein added, the more potential for protein-specific flavors (not typically associated with dairy) in the product.

Thus, bland is better. “In one study with a series of peach beverages containing 10% whey concentrate (WPC of 80% protein) from different suppliers, the beverage made from the mildest protein with the least carry-through to the beverage was the most preferred,” says Drake. Not surprisingly.

As expected, more significant flavor variability occurs between ingredient categories, such as dairy versus pea or almond protein. Plant proteins have an extensive range

of flavors because they come from a wide array of plants.

Causes of off-flavors

“Lipid oxidation and sulfur degradation products are the primary sources of flavor in dried dairy protein ingredients,” continues Drake. These compounds vary between types of dairy proteins. They are also a primary cause of flavor issues in plant proteins.

Maillard reactions play an important role at higher storage temperatures and with dairy ingredients of higher lactose levels. At room temperature, these reactions are more significant in milk protein flavor degradation than in whey.

Factors contributing to off-flavors from cheese-derived whey include the cheesemaking process (e.g., cultures used), protein manufacture unit operations (e.g., spray drying) and storage. “Shelf stability is not infinite, no matter the source,” cautions Drake. What the end user does is crucial. For example, instantization/agglomeration of a powder shortens shelf life by roughly three to five months.

raw material storage and in a finished product.

Beyond the innate reactions contributing to off-flavors, McGorrin describes how flavoring-protein interactions can cause a flavor profile to become unbalanced due to selective binding with only certain aromatic chemicals or to experience flavor fade. This includes flavor absorption (usually reversible) and flavor binding (nonreversible covalent bond formation) that inhibit the release of aroma compounds bound with proteins into the gas phase for flavor perception.

Food processors also must remember that an ingredient’s shelf life usually includes its time in

A classic case of flavor binding occurs when an aldehyde such as vanillin (the characterizing molecule in vanilla) binds with certain protein amino groups. One study found that the most significant flavor fade occurred with a 3% solution of bovine serum albumin, less so with a 3% solution of sodium caseinate, and the least with a 3% whey protein isolate solution.

Ways to mitigate

As understanding of how flavors “go wrong” increases, so does knowledge of tactics to mitigate issues. Webb Girard, senior director of R&D at the product development firm Culinex (culinex.biz) offers examples and strategies to consider.

"Plant-based 'meats' are some of the most difficult products to flavor," concurs Girard. Awareness of the

The sweetness of erythritol and the bitter notes of the chocolate flavor help mask the natural bitterness of the many plant proteins used in this powder beverage.

flavor pyramid helps maximize product development time while getting the most out of flavoring components. “Otherwise, you’re adding flavors just to add flavor.”

Start with base notes, which provide savory, non-specific meaty, umami and “mouthfeel” elements, Girard advises. Sources are yeast extracts and reaction flavors. Once the base notes are established, add protein-specific mid notes (e.g., chicken, beef), which yeast extracts and flavorings can provide. Finally, layer in the top notes. Examples include grilled, seared, smoked and caramelized.

As the formula is developed, “feather in” flavors so one isn’t unduly pronounced. The Culinex staff has found marketplace products with strong yeast extract flavors. “The developers just ‘went for the gusto,’ but the products weren’t as good as they could be,” says Girard.

“The order in which the layers are added during formula development is important,” Girard warns. Some start with a top note, like a grilled flavor for a burger. The base flavor is considered later or not at all. “This doesn’t work,” he states without reservation.

Flavor modulation is especially important for plant proteins due to their pronounced flavor. Three methods can be considered. Maskers lower the perception of undesirable flavors by distracting with aromas, flavors or sensations.

Second, blockers change the interaction between a food flavoring component and a taste receptor, which inhibits taste. Based on experience from many R&D projects, “It is hard to find the right one as every company has its blockers; they work differently,” says Girard.

INGREDIENTS

Third, enhancers increase the perception of other flavors. A practical application would be monk fruit sweeteners to block unwanted notes and enhance desirable ones in legumes and cereals.

Masking mechanisms

McGorrin delves into details of masking tactics. In a “flavor congruency” strategy, choose a flavor system that contains the same off-flavors present in the protein ingredient. Thus, peanut or nut flavors help mask earthy notes in pea protein or the beany notes in soy. In a “flavor insertion” strategy, undesirable notes complete a flavor system. The “green notes” from soy protein can improve a strawberry flavor lacking green notes. A downside to both these strategies is that they limit flavor choices.

In another example, as a beverage's pH is lowered, any soy protein isolates present become increasingly bitter. Higher levels of vanilla or peach flavors (with their accompanying higher cost) help mask these notes. To help control cost, McGorrin suggests gradually titrating the flavoring until a threshold is reached where a minimal flavoring addition makes a significant difference. Past that point, adding more flavor delivers declining flavor improvements.

As for modulating bitterness, increasing sweetness is a common tactic. Alternatively, beta-blockers such as sodium chloride (table salt), monosodium glutamate (MSG), adenosine monophosphate (AMP) or proprietary blockers can be used.

Astringency is not an aromatic flavor compound or tastant but a

mouth-drying sensation. It can be a challenge in whey beverages. Increasing a product’s pH above 3.5 decreases astringency but may also reduce heat stability, clarity and potentially food safety if carried too far. Another option to try is the addition of larger molecule carbohydrates, such as gums and soluble fiber.

McGorrin and Girard recommend that R&D staff work with their flavor supplier early in the product development process. McGorrin adds that providing as much information as possible is desirable. Key pieces of data include a product's protein level, moisture content, pH, the presence of sweeteners (both natural and high potency) and vitamins. It's also helpful to disclose heat processes and what upper temperatures are reached.

Girard addresses an issue entrepreneurs and smaller processors may face: getting the attention of a flavor house. “If permitted by the supplier, we’ve found one of the easiest approaches is to co-develop a product at their facility,” he says. “When you’re right on site, you often can get the attention of more scientists. For example, depending on your size, they may be able to offer descriptive panels.”

The flavor of high-protein foods and beverages has greatly improved over the years. Looking to the future, McGorrin advises that additional research is needed in flavor-protein interactions to better understand what types of food proteins are more reactive with certain classes of flavor compounds and how their reaction rates vary under different processing conditions.

INGREDIENTS

Non-GMO native corn starch

Novation Indulge 2940 starch claims to be the first line of non-GMO functional native corn starches. These clean label texturizers provide a unique texture for gelling and co-texturizing for popular dairy and alternative dairy products and desserts. It enables a preferred “corn starch” label, which is highly recognized and more accepted by consumers globally than gelatin, carrageenan and other common texturants. The new starch also provides cost stabilization and potential improved cost-in-use thanks to the ingredient’s reliable supply and local reach.

Ingredion; Westchester, Ill. www.ingredion.com.

Creamy product line

The new Creamy product line offers a cream-forward cheese flavor profile with savory butter base notes and a much lower usage rate than standard cheese powders. Made with real cheese, these innovative flavor ingredients provide a creamy richness with savory notes of different cheeses crafted to elevate a variety of food applications. It can

be used in sauces, soups, indulgent snack seasonings or as novel flavor additions for ice creams. Butter Buds; Racine, Wis. 800-426-1119; www.bbuds.com

Tropical flavors in demand

Consumers increasingly are seeking tropical flavors for their natural, clean-label and/or organic ingredients. A comprehensive line of tropical fruit ingredients that includes purees, juices, juice concentrates and clarified juice concentrates are natural, GMOfree, free from added flavors and colors, clean-label and produced from fresh, ripe, carefully selected fruit. Many are also organic. Flavors include acai, acerola, banana puree and flour, coconut cream and milk powder and water, dragonfruit, guava, mango, papaya, passionfruit and pineapple.

iTi Tropicals; Lawrenceville, N.J. ititropicals.com

Chicory root fibers' shelf life

Orafti Oligofructose LL is a highly soluble liquid chicory root fiber that has a significantly expanded shelf life of one year. The ingredient offers binding and humectant properties as well as sugar reduction and fiber enrichment opportunities while maintaining texture and a natural mildly sweet taste. The use of chicory root fibers in food and drink products offers a range of nutritional and health benefits as they promote the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the gut, supporting digestive health, the immune system, reduced blood glucose responses, weight management and more.

Beneo; Germany +49 621 421 150; www.beneo.com

Caramel colors for beverages

Give your next beverage that exact color that excites the senses. From a light yellow to rich amber, a light tan to dark brown, and all the hues in-between (even black), Class I to Class IV Caramel Colors offer numerous options for easy-to-read labeling requirements on non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, while providing a diverse and versatile spectrum of colors that your customers will find refreshing. Applications include soft drinks, teas & mixes, brewery products, distilled spirits and more.

Sethness Roquette; Skokie, Ill. 888-772-1880; www.sethness-roquette.com

The flavor of seafood

Looking to augment a creation with the flavor of seafood? Seafood Hasearoma enhances seafood notes for an authentic taste. It comes in three flavor offerings: shrimp, boiled crab and bonito dashi. Distinct characteristics such as roasted and umami flavors are amplified, allowing for a controlled but pronounced flavor experience. Suitable for dips, sauces, soups and more.

T. Hasegawa USA; Cerritos, Calif. 866-985-0502; www.thasegawa.com

MEAT & POULTRY UNDER SCRUTINY

Heavier pressure, more oversight and deeper challenges continue to blast all parts of the protein industry as it works to keep its plants running efficiently and safely.

KONSTANTIN KOLOSOV /SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Written by Andy Hanacek SENIOR EDITOR

Few people with knowledge of the history of the food industry in the U.S. would say the relationship between the government and meat and poultry processors ever was a match made in heaven. Some of the tiffs have led to revolutionary changes that have withstood the test of time. Others less so. And there have been times of peaceful collaboration and coexistence.

These days appear to be a time of trial and tribulation again, with the regulatory microscope returning to processing plants. In February 2023, for example, the Dept. of Labor (DOL) discovered underage workers — more than 100 in 13 plants owned by nine processors across the country — employed illegally by Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), a third-party contract sanitation

service used by many of the mega meat companies. The government embarked on a mission to root out and eliminate child labor violations throughout the industry.

USDA warned the 18 largest meat and poultry processors in April 2023 it would be supporting DOL’s efforts, saying it would use its “procurement and regulatory authorities to provide the necessary attention and increased oversight to curb this recent trend as quickly as possible.”

Unfortunately for some processors, the magnifying glass has not been kind. Several meat and poultry companies have been investigated and found in violation of child labor laws. Furthermore, just last month another third-party contract sanitation company was under investigation by the DOL for child labor violations (see News brief on p15).

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled proposed guidelines for wastewater effluent in meat and poultry processing operations that has the industry on

The EPA has proposed new guidelines for wastewater discharge at meat and poultry processing plants for 2024 that have put the industry on edge.

edge. EPA released the “Meat and Poultry Products Effluent Guidelines - 2024 Proposed Rule” on Dec. 15, 2023, putting to rest months of anticipation and concern for small meat and poultry processors, who feared the worst.

“AAMP is encouraged by the work EPA has done in the development of the proposed rule to protect the small business entities … ,” Chris Young, executive director of the American Assoc. of Meat Processors (AAMP) (www.aamp.com) said at the time. “We are happy to see EPA responded to our concerns and minimized the impact of the rule on those businesses.”

However, with the public comment period open until March 25, AAMP has worked hard to keep the industry in support of the rule as proposed — in response to voices that believe the proposed rule isn’t tough enough.

“Environmental activists are free to leave their comments as well, and one of the groups that the EPA cited in its findings has stated that the agency’s proposal

doesn't go far enough,” AAMP

said in a statement distributed via email. “If the activists get their way, the EPA’s actual guidelines on effluent discharge could force small processors to spend millions on wastewater treatment equipment or cease operations.”

Angling to automate

Certainly, processing plants offer some of the most challenging workplace environments, and as such, the ongoing labor shortage has deeply impacted meat and poultry processing plants. Of course, companies have seen this before and have been making changes to address it, says Brett Erickson, director of prepared and packaged solutions for Certified Angus Beef (www.certifiedangusbeef.com).

“Labor is still a big issue, because it's either too expensive or you can't find it,” he says. “A lot of processors are looking at how to eliminate those positions in the plants — what equipment is out there today that does the work that I need without the labor?”

Cutting, trimming, cooking, chilling and product movement have all seen innovations that have helped processors solve those issues, while improving upon yield and efficiency setbacks or bottlenecks in past iterations of the technology.

The goal today – aside from minimizing the need to hire, train and retain people who simply don’t want to work in meat plants – is to set up the lines and plants to produce more capacity with more efficiency, Erickson adds, but also less downtime at different points in the plant. Processors want to know how they can best streamline the plant’s setup and operation, and they’re looking to technology to help them.

In fact, the pump may be primed for further investment. Recent industry trade shows have produced good attendance (both reported and anecdotal) and generally positive reviews from exhibitors overall — where exhibitors have confirmed that the “right” people were visiting their booths, not just kicking the tires. Does this mean the pocketbooks

JUB-JOB / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

are opening and processors are going to be renovating, expanding or building new processing plants? Well, some of the headwinds may have a say about that before 2024 ends.

Experts aren’t predicting exploding consumer demand for meat and poultry products, and in fact, many of the market analysts we’ve spoken with in the past four to five months expect some reckoning still coming. Certainly, supply chain kinks have been worked out, and although inflation hasn’t vanished, it has eased. Consumers seemingly grew tired of constant price increases and finally began to trade out of

higher-priced food items, including some meat and poultry cuts.

To get a good idea of the peaks and valleys the industry has seen in the past year, one only needs to look at Tyson Foods. For its fiscal 2023, Tyson posted a $648 million loss, quite a reversal from the $3.3 billion profit of the year before. The company has made significant alterations to its processing structure, closing about a dozen plants (mostly chicken processing) and laying off hundreds of workers to respond to weakening demand in chicken, pork and beef. But it also made acquisitions (Williams Sausage) and opened a new bacon processing plant in Kentucky.

Tyson recently reported its first-quarter earnings for 2024. Sales inched up less than 1% but the company did eke out a $114 million profit.

“We’ve taken some steps in the right direction, but we have a lot of work to do,” CEO Donnie King said during the conference call discussing the results, and CFO John R. Tyson told Reuters afterward that plant closures are still possible. Tyson isn’t alone. The headlines besieging it paint a larger picture of some of the troublesome, whipsaw action some processors and entire sections of the industry experienced during the past year.

Automation

has very much been the answer to the meat and poultry industry’s continued struggle to attract and hire enough employees to work in its plants.

Plant-based and alternatives stalling too

For plant-based and alternative protein companies, the ups and downs haven’t been any more forgiving. From a processing perspective, the seemingly agonizing wait for processors to scale up production and build facilities to mass-produce their products appeared to finally be reaching an end.

Upside Foods, a maker of cultivated chicken, announced last fall that it would build a full-scale production facility in suburban Chicago shortly after getting USDA approval to sell its chicken product in the U.S. But just last month, those plans were put on hold.

Other companies hit seemingly significant milestones on regulatory approval, building smaller scale facilities and announcing distribution plans for the U.S. However, at the same time, the warning bells began to ring for many of them, whether they heard them or not. Once the up-and-coming darlings of the industry, a lot of these companies

have seen the air escape from their balloons heading into 2024.

Billy Roberts, senior economist for food and beverage at CoBank (www. cobank.com) discussed in an August 2023 report how plant-based meat alternatives had reached a tipping point, with even loyal consumers turned away by higher prices and other consumers balking at negative perceptions around the taste, value and versatility of plantbased alternatives.

“Whatever their reason for purchase, plant-based offerings appear to have fallen short of consumers’ expectations in terms of either cost or performance,” Roberts said at the time, adding that innovation around taste, texture and mouthfeel was essential to the future of the product lines.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are just two companies that laid off a sizable portion of their workforces in the past year. At presstime on this story, Beyond Meat announced its fourth iteration of its Beyond Burger — said to have revamped the health, taste and clean-label attributes of the product.

Smaller players such as Tindle Foods, Meati Foods, Omeat and others, have had various ups and downs, including layoffs and executive team adjustments. All this, however, stands in the face of Circana data showing that meat alternatives’ retail sales year-overyear (as of Jan. 28, 2024) were down 33.6%.

The crystal ball for any portion of the meat and poultry industry may be cracked, as there isn’t really a clear answer for what the future holds. Although some companies appear to be pulling the correct levers and succeeding, there appear to be just as many grasping for straws.

Innovative operational strategies and equipment will continue to develop, but implementation and installation slow when processors feel threatened. On the operations side, this uncertainty hasn’t seemed to stymie innovation or advancement just yet, but as history often has shown, the meat and poultry industry doesn’t typically throw financial caution to the wind when it’s blowing in a way it struggles to gauge.

NATALIIA MAKSYMENKO/ SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Conveying ingredients, products and packaged items around a plant seems elementary, but challenges arise, particularly as technology advances in other areas.

Written by Andy Hanacek SENIOR EDITOR

As any operations executive or plant manager in the food & beverage processing industry knows, efficiency and production boils down to keeping things in motion. In many cases, product standing still on a process line can mean bad news for a variety of reasons.

Over many decades, moving product around a plant has evolved from human muscle and physical activity to innovative conveyors, equipment, robotics and automation that do most of the work, tailored to the material properties of the items they handle.

Yet, conveying items around a facility isn’t as easy as turning things on and letting them roll. Processors need to be keenly aware of the factors that can impact operational

efficiency, worker safety, food safety and equipment lifespan.

In addition, although the always versatile conveyor system can move everything from individual products to packaged and palletized cartons from machine to machine and room to room, they don’t represent the only options for getting items from Point A to Point B in a plant.

The shuttling of large bins of raw materials or ingredients and pallets of packaged product on the front and back end of the operation has evolved over time from pallet jacks to forklifts in many plants — and the advent of the automated guided vehicle (AGV) has allowed processors to further minimize the heavy workloads of employees. With AGVs and additional automation through the processing stage, some companies make products that hardly any humans actually touch.

Conveying challenges

On the processing floor, however, the versatile conveyor — invisible to consumers — typically handles most of the motion needs of a food & beverage operation, for raw materials, ingredients or finished product. Conveyors can handle nearly any size product, wet or dry, in nearly any format imaginable.

Versatility, though, means choosing the right conveyor for the application is crucial. In Food Processing’s February 2024 issue, we discussed the challenges of handling powders and bulk solids. For more standard “solid” products, there remains a wide variety of options a processor can lean on: a roller (with a variety of belting material), vibratory or slide-motion conveyor. In addition, bucket conveyors and spirals can help processors take products to new heights, quite literally, within their plants.

But challenges remain for processors, as shown in a study titled “The State of Conveying for the Food Processing Industry 2023,” published by Cablevey Conveyors in December 2023. In the study, Cablevey contracted a research firm to survey 327 food processing professionals in the U.S., United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico, and found 53% said cleaning and maintenance was the biggest challenge they faced in conveying operations. Nearly all respondents agreed they would benefit if they had a more efficient way to clean their conveyor systems.

Sanitation of conveyors can be tricky, particularly when it comes to the niches and crevices inherent in the designs of some types. Industry has done well to re-engineer these

food safety fault points in most cases, but work remains to be done.

Manufacturers of the conveyor components have stepped up their innovative efforts to design food safety into their pieces of the conveying puzzle, from belt manufacturers making more reliable, hygienic designs to motor manufacturers such as Van der Graaf offering a drum motor that is sealed and able to withstand the rigors of high-pressure washdowns.

When it comes to the many machines that implement a conveyor into their operation — think metal detectors, X-ray equipment, vision systems, etc. — numerous manufacturers have designed ease of sanitation into their designs. On display at recent industry trade shows, including the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, were conveyor components that could be quickly disassembled or elevated to give the cleaning crew better access to ensure the belts, motors and framework could be fully cleaned.

One other intriguing finding in Cablevey’s survey: Neither sanitation nor maintenance was named as the top consideration for processors when selecting a new conveyor system — though they both ranked in the top four (33% each). Processors ranked energy efficiency the highest, with 42% seeking that attribute in a new conveyor system.

Minimizing manual motion

Beyond the basic conveyor system that takes product from Point A to B, technology at the individual processing and packaging stations is advancing at such a pace that material handling equipment needs to evolve to keep up.

Take the automation revolution, for example. As it becomes more challenging to find people to work in their plants, processors are

A new line of vibratory conveying systems from Key Technology is specially designed to feed pick-and-place robots. Each unit meters, separates, aligns, singulates and/or aligns product for optimal separation, speed and orientation.

Manufacturers of the components ... have stepped up their innovative efforts to design food safety into their pieces of the conveying puzzle.

being forced to bring in more automation to meet customer demand. As a processor grows, manual picking eventually doesn’t make sense for the company’s bottom line, operational efficiency or food safety goals, explains Jack Lee, group president-food sorting and handling solutions for Duravant (www.duravant.com).

“The challenge is that lining up products for presentation to a pick-and-place robot requires a degree of precision that’s unusual in conveying,” he adds.

Key Technology, which is owned by Duravant, is evolving its offerings to keep up with the automation around it. The company has launched a vibratory conveying system that meters, separates, singulates and/or aligns product, depending on the application, to provide the optimal product separation, speed and orientation for ideal presentation to pick-andplace robots.

Speaking of pick-and-place robotics, that category has advanced in a big way in recent

years, creating systems that work more efficiently, handling product more gently and continuing to raise the bar for automation on the pack-off end of the equation. Manufacturers have been focused on meeting processors’ demands for more hygienic design and efficiency. An entire sub-segment of these machines involves end-ofarm tooling and proper gripping mechanisms needed to handle fragile items, products that are inconsistently shaped or sized, messy, etc.

With the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) for inspection and vision systems on these machines, more innovative features are destined to come. n

EQUIPMENT

VFD for harsh conditions

ACS580-01 UL Type 4X/IP66 drive provides superior performance and reliability in extreme environments. This variable frequency drive (VFD) is fully sealed and weather tight with a UL Type 4X/ IP66 rating. It features NSF169 certification for food protection and sanitation and is designed for operation where extreme cold, dust and humidity are common. It prevents the ingress of liquid and dust in food and beverage applications where regular washdown, hose rinsing, splashing and exposure to common sanitizers are routine, including cleaning zones, poultry and livestock, dairy, meat, bakery and aquaculture. It also provides exceptional corrosion resistance. ABB Motion; New Berlin, Wis. 440-585-7804; campaign-mo.abb.com/ IPPE2024

decisions. In a bigger sense, it empowers customers to optimize facility throughput, prioritize maintenance, mitigate safety incidents, reduce demurrage and act on meaningful data analytics from the supplier’s line of smart, connected equipment.

Rite-Hite Corp.; Milwaukee 800-456-0600; www.ritehite.com

Smooth surface gear units

Smooth surface gear units are made from a high-strength aluminum alloy housing that provides an easy-to clean surface with an optimized design that reduces the number of trapped particles. Available gear units include a range of Nordbloc.1 helical inline gear units, Nordbloc.1 helical bevel 93.1 series and Universal SMI worm gear units. Additional protection options such as potted terminal boxes, Quadralip seals, condensation

Material handling software

Rite-Hite One Digital is a comprehensive software platform that helps unify material handling operations in warehouses, distribution centers and other industrial facilities. In addition to connecting the supplier’s smart-enabled high-speed doors and loading dock equipment (such as levelers, barriers, vehicle restraints and controls), it also collects and analyzes data from that equipment, helping facility managers and teams to see trends and make data-based

drain holes and moisture-resistant varnished dipped windings are also available to keep moisture and unwanted debris from entering the gear unit. Smooth surface IE3 motors with a variety of protective coatings and finishes are also available in a HM series.

Nord Drivesystems; Waunakee, Wis. 608-850-1444; www.nord.com

Painted washdown motor

The U.S. Motors Painted Washdown Motor is a three-phase,

totally enclosed fan cooled unit for use where appropriate in food processing, dairies, canning, meat packing and other applications. It features an inverter grade insulation system and rust inhibitor on rotor. It’s coated with USDA-approved non-toxic white epoxy paint.

Nidec Motor Corp.; St. Louis www.usmotors.com

Oil condition monitoring

The Sense-2 oil condition monitoring kit provides real-time data about machine oil quality to optimize maintenance and reduce operating costs. The plug-andplay system accurately identifies when oil reaches the end of its life, superseding traditional timebased maintenance schedules, which can result in oil being discarded prematurely with the potential of wasting up to 50% of its useful life. Sense-2 real-time monitoring uses sensor technology and associated analytics to detect any issues before any damage occurs, identifying subtle changes in oil condition early. It can be fitted easily and efficiently to any existing equipment in any application and is configurable to any oil type.

Tan Delta Systems; England +44 (0) 7930 697773; www.tandeltasystems.com

Multi-shaft mixer for viscous formulations

Capable of processing viscous solutions, dispersions, suspensions and emulsions with viscosities in the hundreds of thousands of centipoise, these multi-shaft mixers are built for longevity, speed and efficiency. The VMC-100 is designed for vacuum operation up to 29.5”Hg and supplied with interchangeable 100-gal. mix cans, a custom electro-hydraulic system and three independently driven

agitators. The high shear mixer is capable of introducing powders sub-surface while the batch is low in viscosity; and the solids liquid injection manifold (SLIM) technology avoids dust, lumps and fish eyes.

Ross Mixers; Hauppauge, N.Y. 800-243-7677; www.mixers.com

Increase run time and yield

The seamless infusion vessel helps UHT (ultra-high temperature) infusion systems have longer running times, less product waste and more yield while increasing efficiency and system performance by linking the vessel bottom and pump housing without a sealing gasket which has better water-cooling on the pump casing and impeller. This results in eliminating product buildup, decreasing waste, longer production runs before cleaning, increased system efficiency and overall sustainability.

SPX Flow; Charlotte, N.C. www.spxflow.com

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