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Stop Being So Defensive!
The food & beverage industry lately has been too busy apologizing; it needs to go back on the offensive by adding ingredients for health, not just removing things.
Alot of things have put the food & beverage industry on the ropes lately. Ultraprocessed foods in general, and the seven petroleum-based colors in particular. Mega mergers that aren’t working out. Some plants using undocumented immigrants; some that not too long ago were using children on the overnight shift.
The anxiety is only building as we all await the second Make America Healthy Again report. While there are plenty of reasons to be defensive, maybe it’s time to go on the offensive.
I recently stumbled onto a stack of old magazines, two companion publications that were bundled with Food Processing back in the early 2000s: Wellness Foods and Food Creation. Does anyone besides me remember them?
Each was started just before I got to Food Processing, at a time when food & beverage processors seemed especially proud of the job they were doing. And aggressively developing truly novel products.
True to its name, Wellness Foods focused on then-nascent efforts to make foods and beverages healthier – not just removing or replacing problematic ingredients but adding ones that could impart health. FDA-certified health claims were relatively new back then – most came into being in the 1990s and early 2000s – so many
processors and ingredient suppliers were pursuing a claim.
Food Creation acknowledged the ascent of research chefs who were creating gold-standard products and challenging their product development teams to replicate them – and at that time, healthier dishes were very much on the minds of R&D chefs.
“Soy isoflavones impart health” read one of the headlines in Wellness Foods. “Flaxseed may
In the early 2000s, processors were adding good ingredients, not just removing bad ones.
slow certain cancers.” “Juices may delay Alzheimer’s.” Every issue had stories linking ingredients to health, as well as processors who were adopting those ingredients and proudly staking a health claim.
Stories told of General Mills switching all its cereals to whole grains, Quaker Oats developing an instant oatmeal with 50% more fiber for heart-health, Odwalla adding a bevy of antioxidants to its Mo’Beta beverage. Even a Wrigley probiotic gum.
More headlines: Functional beverages booming. Focus on eye health. The calcium-vitamin D duet. Berries pack a powerful antioxidant and vitamins punch. Resistant
It was a time of adding ingredients to improve health, not just removing things deemed “bad.” Which would you rather have: a breakfast bar that can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, sharpen your kid’s focus in school and improve everybody’s gut health, or a duller-red M&M?
There was a lot of pride and creativity back in the Wellness Foods days. Nowadays it seems R&D teams are busier finding ways to reduce the cost of ingredients, to replace synthetic color additives and to remove added sugars. Those are all necessary pursuits these days, but it’s backpedaling, apologizing, fixing things that somebody decided were broken – and not all of them are. It’s not swinging for the fences, nor creating products that will impart health.
As we start football season, I look to my own beloved Pittsburgh Steelers for metaphors. They've always had a great defense that can help them win games, but it's the offense that does win games. n
Written by Dave Fusaro
EDITOR IN CHIEF
What’s New Online
Don’t miss what’s happening on FoodProcessing.com
October is a web-only month for us, no magazine, so look for these features only on www.FoodProcessing.com:
FEATURE
Does sustainability still matter?
Are consumers still clamoring for it? And, with the new administration in place, are food & beverage processors still pursuing and emphasizing sustainability the way they have in the recent past?
INGREDIENTS
Global insights into emerging proteins
Proteins are still hot, so product developers are looking for new sources with new benefits. We'll look at protein sources that are emerging in other countries but not yet popular or in widespread use in the U.S.
SURVEY
How does your manufacturing look for 2026?
How optimistic do you plant operations people feel going into 2026? Will your plant's production increase or decrease? Has immigration enforcement
impacted your facilities? Those are a few of the questions in our annual Manufacturing Outlook Survey. There are only 12 questions, and if you give us your name we’ll enter you in a drawing for one of four $50 Amazon gift cards. Give us 5 minutes of your time and come January we’ll give you the food & beverage industry’s collective outlook for the new year.
PODCASTS
Danone, Sargento, others
For those who like to listen, we continue to build our podcast library. Danone on the kids market, Sargento on bolder flavors, the hurdles in sustainable packaging – those are some of the many topics presented by industry experts. See the whole list at: www.FoodProcessing.com/ podcasts
EHANDBOOKS
Issues important for your job
This is a busy month for ehandbooks. Look for ones on Mixing & Blending, Intelligent Manufacturing and a preview of Pack Expo Las Vegas. Check out our entire library of ebooks to bone up on issues that can help you do your job better. www.FoodProcessing.com/ ehandbooks
EDITORIAL TEAM
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Dave Fusaro dfusaro@endeavorb2b.com
SENIOR EDITOR
Andy Hanacek ahanacek@endeavorb2b.com
EDITORS
CONTRIBUTING
Ed Avis, Claudia O’Donnell
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Mohamed Z. Badaoui Najjar, Ph.D. R&D Senior Director–
Dystopian or utopian? Advancing science could turn food into a luxury good, eating into an indulgence.
Your daily sustenance fits in the palm of your hand: a few precisely calibrated pellets, tailored to your DNA, your microbiome, your Tuesday workout. No monocultures, no over-fertilized fields, no factory farms.
Breakfast is a sip, lunch a whisper. Then, on Saturday night, you savor a bowl of ramen — not out of need, but desire, like a cigar or a nostalgic black-and-white film. Nutrition becomes the silent foundation; eating, a cultural flourish.
This isn’t some distant fantasy of wealthy longevity buffs; it’s the next act of a technological, scientific and economic revolution already simmering, poised to rewrite the story of our diets, our diseases, even our humanity.
Why bother with meals anymore? The reality is sobering: Our soils are exhausted: The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that 33% of the world’s arable land is degraded. Each year, erosion strips away another 24 billion tons of fertile topsoil.
Our food is nutrient-poor. A study by U.S. agricultural researcher Donald Davis found that between 1950 and 1999, vitamin C in common fruits and vegetables dropped by up to 30%, calcium by 27%, iron by 37%. The FAO says more than 3 billion people suffer from malnutrition — not for lack of calories, but for lack of access to nutrient-rich diets.
Poor nutrition is now the leading cause of death globally: The Lancet pegs it at 11 million deaths annually, outpacing tobacco or hypertension. Healthcare is a system built for sickness, not health. We treat symptoms, not causes.
But what if we flipped it? What if health weren’t just the absence of disease, but an active, moldable state — nurtured, supported, designed? Prevention funds instead of insurance premiums. Health, not sickness, baked into your paycheck. Companies like Rootine are already blending bespoke nutrient cocktails from DNA and blood tests, juggling hundreds of micro-building blocks. Multiply Labs 3D-prints pills with surgical precision. Bioniq, backed by Cristiano Ronaldo’s star power, delivers granulated blends of 120 nutrients, fine-tuned to your biomarkers.
Synthetic biology — lab-grown proteins, nanocapsule calories — promises a full nutritional payload. A daily handful of custom pellets staves off hunger, meeting your needs for vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids and fiber. Quasi-vitamins, bioflavonoids, whatever your data demands. Pair that with AI diagnostics scaling up from today’s Fitbits, and your “core” becomes a dose as personal as your Spotify playlist.
What was once a basic need turns into a human indulgence.
Eating as an act of pleasure, culture, connection, not survival. Daily intake decouples from the grind of delivering calories and micronutrients. Your body gets what it needs, down to the milligram.
The set table becomes a performance, like live music in the age of streaming. Those who can afford it don’t celebrate necessity, but delight. On one side, the nourished — efficient, controlled, measurable. On the other, the eaters — slow, analog, steeped in stories. An ancient relationship inverts. No longer eat to live, but live to eat.
Soon, nanobots could monitor our health from within. Drug delivery, cancer treatment, blood purification — Ray Kurzweil predicts these tiny allies will course through us by 2030. Ethical and legal knots like privacy and misuse still need untangling, but technical hurdles (think power supply) are shrinking. Rapid leaps in biology and chemistry loom ahead.
If our bodies become as transparent as a car’s dashboard, are we more than machines? Dish soap swapped for vitamin D, oil changes for cell swaps. Warning lights, status reports, prevention over reaction — a technical tweak.
Why might this cultural flip happen? Nestlé 2.0 or Nature’s Way could dominate a “core” market, turning a $10 trillion food industry into a lab-to-mouth pipeline. Margins here could dwarf
Big Pharma: a daily essential, no expiration, subscription-locked. Rarely has history offered more “dry powder” to burn. Investments will follow, especially from private equity and institutional
coffers. Billions, even trillions, wait to flood exponential tech and business models, primed for the right signals. What signals might accelerate this? They’re as clear as the pills
in your hand: What if we tackled global crises — microplastics, waste, land depletion, hunger — not with sanctions or caps, but with science, tech and, above all, economics?
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When companies spot the potential and governments see the possibilities, change speeds up. Over the next decade, new industries and scientific leaps could reprogram our cultural lens, driven by a health revolution that doubles as the growth engine we need. Incentives shift behavior — and this “core market” is brimming with them.
Yet people cling to the familiar. You crave the crunch of a carrot, the sizzle of a steak, the whiff of a strawberry. Food’s mess — its rituals, its warmth. Critics will point to studies, experts to science’s gaps: Long-term data on capsule diets is thin. “One missing nutrient, one disrupted gut-brain dance — what then?”
What does it mean if PharmaFood Inc. increasingly controls kids’ essentials? Headlines will flare, voices will clash, many will nod and clutch the old days. But those foundations fade in an era of breakneck AI, quantum computing and our growing knack for hacking biology and chemistry — maybe even evolution itself.
Would you trade necessity for freedom — or just one master for another? Will you pop the pill? For now, at least, you can chew on it. What does it mean to you — utopia or a tasteless void? n
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Ultraprocessed Foods: What are We Even Talking About?
Despite its ubiquity, the term ultraprocessed lacks a clear and accepted definition.
In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” This aptly describes the current dialogue, in both the scientific and regulatory communities, regarding ultraprocessed foods (UPFs).
The term ultraprocessed has become commonplace across media, scientific publications and government pronouncements relating to food products in the U.S. and elsewhere. You know a term has become part of the modern lexicon when the established pillars of journalism like the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal and The Onion have all opined on it.
Everyone in the field continues to discuss ultraprocessed foods as if they have a common understanding of the term, when there is no clear consensus. The May “MAHA Report” made extensive comments about the dangers of UPF while noting that “there is no single, universally accepted definition of UPFs.”
A common understanding of the term is necessary to ensure that emerging scientific data and regulatory schemes concerning UPFs are intelligible, well-founded and reasonably consistent – much less actionable.
The term ultraprocessed (adj.) is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as follows:
Of food: subjected to a high degree of industrial processing during manufacture, and usually containing large quantities of additives such as salt, sugar, fat, preservatives or artificial colors and flavorings.
This definition was only adopted in 2024, while Oxford notes a steep increase in its usage starting in 2020. So where did it originate?
The term ultraprocessed food was coined by Carlos Monteiro, a Brazilian epidemiologist, in his novel 2009 paper. This was incorporated into a larger “NOVA” food classification system developed by Dr. Monteiro in a 2010 paper and later expanded upon. By 2019, Dr. Monteiro had issued a lengthy report on ultraprocessed foods, diet quality and health for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). As noted in that report, “ultra-processed foods is a concept and a term only used by the NOVA food system classification.”
The NOVA system seeks to classify all foods and food products into four groups that have since been modulated. The groups include the following (with my comments):
→ Group 1 - Unprocessed and minimally processed foods: Edible parts of plants (e.g., fruits, seeds,
roots) or from animals (e.g., meat, milk), fungi, algae, etc., and items minimally processed from such ingredients.
→ Group 2 - Processed culinary ingredients: Oils, butter, lard, sugar and salt. All delicious.
→ Group 3 - Processed foods: OK, now we’re talking. These include canned or bottled vegetables preserved in brine, whole fruit preserved in syrup, tinned fish preserved in oil, processed meats (e.g., ham, bacon, pastrami, smoked fish), freshly baked breads and simple cheeses with added salt.
→ Group 4 - Ultraprocessed foods: These are your grocery store center aisle offerings: carbonated soft drinks, packaged snacks and candies, various pastries, donuts, neon breakfast cereal, pizzas, chicken nuggets, sausages, burgers, hot dogs and similar foods that 3-year-olds willingly eat.
The groupings are sensible, but the primary importance hangs on the ability to determine whether a given food product is simply “processed” or “ultraprocessed.” With the increasing reports of “associations” and “links” between these ultraprocessed foods and all manner of illnesses — from Parkinson’s to cancer — industry needs to have some guideposts for assessing the
classification status of their food products. Without clearly defined categories, the self-reporting that serves as the basis for many of these studies is flawed, which raises questions about their overall reliability of the study findings.
NOVA's not the only one
Despite the prevalence of Dr. Monteiro’s publications, the NOVA system is not the lone food classification system that accounts for ultraprocessed foods, and the definitions vary. Schemes also have been proposed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Food Information Council Foundation and the University of North Carolina.
As recently as April, a task force established by the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) proposed its own rationale for defining the role of processing in food classification systems. The scheme evaluates foods using various key properties: nutritional value, safety, sustainability, palatability, affordability and convenience. The aim of the IUFoST approach is to mitigate some of the confusion that has arisen over the NOVA system.
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety published a report in January essentially indicating that it was too early to draw conclusions regarding UPF, and that more studies are required to analyze all risk factors, including chemicals resulting from processing.
Even the World Health Organization has joined the fray with a
recent call for experts to “develop a guideline on consumption of ultraprocessed foods” with the first order of business being the establishment of a definition.
Perhaps the FDA can clear things up. The term “processed food” is defined in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to include “any food other than a raw agricultural commodity and includes any raw agricultural commodity that has been subject to processing (e.g., canning, cooking, freezing, dehydration or milling).” However, the agency has provided no definition for the term ultraprocessed –although FDA officials cite research that “points to” UPF being “associated” with diet-related diseases.
Discussions at a December 2024 Nutrition Regulatory Science Workshop, held jointly by FDA and the National Institutes of Health, presented myriad examples illustrating the murky distinctions that need to be made for a UPF determination. For example, more processing steps are used to produce cows milk than almond milk, but conventional milk is considered minimally processed, while almond milk might be deemed ultraprocessed.
Health & Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spoken out strongly against chemicals in food and has denounced UPFs. Many of his statements suggest that the use of food additives or colorants alone is sufficient to render a food product ultraprocessed.
If the waters weren’t muddy enough, numerous U.S. states are proposing legislation to restrict or ban ultraprocessed foods or certain food additives that are associated with UPFs. Despite public
pronouncements that these efforts target ultraprocessed food, the bills typically focus only on food dyes and other additives.
Both California and Pennsylvania have introduced bills that propose to define ultraprocessed foods with the exact same language, which suggests that the UPF classification relates only to the presence of food additives rather than any degree of actual processing.
With the various definitions arising across the U.S. and the patchwork of state legislation targeting UPFs, the thought that FDA would not step in to offer some clarity in the situation is … inconceivable.
Emerging scientific studies highlight the potential health risks due to “links” or “associations” (not causation) between consumption of UPFs and negative health outcomes. That literature is widely broadcast and increasingly cited in litigation and legislation.
But is it sensible to assert consensus regarding the harm(s) resulting from UPF if every entity under the sun is still trying to cobble together a workable definition?
It would seem that we should arrive at a clear legal or scientific definition for UPF before the legislation and litigation start flying. In the meantime, do not assume that anyone speaking to you about ultraprocessed foods knows exactly what they’re talking about. n
Written by Mark Thompson
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
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Middle East, African Markets Hungry for U.S. Food & Beverage Products
nterprising food and beverage processors in North America know that global growth, particularly into emerging markets clamoring for new products and American tastes, can lead to extremely lucrative business. Leena Al-Kathiri, senior business development specialist for Salalah Free Zone in Oman, says consumers in the Middle East and Africa continue to seek more innovative, convenient food and beverage products as income and urbanization rise. And Asyad Group and Salalah Free Zone can help U.S. companies tap into those markets in a structured, supportive way, with a foundation for business already set and ready to roll.
Food Processing: Can you briefly introduce the Salalah Free Zone and explain how it enables international investors to access regional and global markets through its integrated logistics ecosystem and investor-friendly environment?
Leena Al-Kathiri: Salalah Free Zone (SFZ) is a strategically located industrial and logistics hub on the southern coast of Oman, directly adjacent to the Port of Salalah — one of the busiest and most efficient trans-shipment ports in the region. Positioned outside the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea bottleneck, Salalah offers a geopolitically safe and stable location for investors seeking uninterrupted access to global markets.
As part of Asyad Group’s integrated logistics network, SFZ connects seamlessly to sea, road and air corridors, enabling efficient trade across the Middle East, East Africa and South Asia — reaching more than 2.5 billion consumers.
Backed by Oman’s longstanding political neutrality and security, SFZ provides a risk-mitigated base for international businesses. Investors benefit from 100% foreign ownership, 30-year tax exemptions, duty-free operations and fast-track business services — all within a pro-business, stable regulatory environment.
FP: What are the key food and beverage industry trends shaping the Middle East and Africa, and how are these driving demand for innovative production and supply solutions?
LA: The region is witnessing surging demand for food and beverages due to population growth, rising incomes and urbanization. Consumers are increasingly looking for healthier, halal-certified and convenience-focused options. In parallel, regional governments are prioritizing food security and encouraging local manufacturing to reduce import dependency. These trends, combined with the need for reliable coldchain logistics and sustainable practices, are driving innovation across the value chain. Salalah Free Zone supports this shift by
Leena Al-Kathiri Senior Business
Development Specialist, Salalah Free Zone
offering temperature-controlled storage, reliable utilities and a secure environment for food companies to localize production and serve regional demand quickly and efficiently.
FP: Why should North American food manufacturers and suppliers consider establishing a presence in Salalah Free Zone instead of relying solely on exports?
LA: Salalah’s location offers a compelling alternative to traditional export models. Unlike hubs exposed to geopolitical flashpoints, SFZ is located along the Indian Ocean — outside the volatile Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea — ensuring business continuity and shipping stability.
By establishing a base in SFZ, companies can eliminate long lead times, reduce tariffs through Oman’s Free Trade Agreements and benefit from lower production costs and efficient infrastructure. The zone’s proximity to high-growth markets, coupled with its secure and politically stable environment, makes it an ideal gateway for North American companies looking to scale in the region.
FP: What challenges should food companies anticipate when entering this region, and how does Salalah Free Zone — through Asyad — help overcome these barriers?
LA: Companies may face challenges such as adapting to local regulatory frameworks, managing regional distribution and maintaining cold-chain integrity. Salalah
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Free Zone addresses these through its streamlined one-stop-shop services for company setup, licensing, customs and utility connections. In addition, Asyad’s integrated logistics platform ensures reliable multimodal connectivity and end-to-end supply chain support. Located in one of the most politically stable and neutral countries in the region, Salalah Free Zone significantly reduces operational risks associated with regional tensions, providing investors with peace of mind and long-term predictability.
FP: For North American food companies considering their first investment in the Middle East, what are the top takeaways you’d highlight to encourage them to explore Salalah Free Zone further?
LA: First, Salalah Free Zone offers strategic and secure access to more than 2.5 billion consumers across three continents, with zero customs duties thanks to Oman’s trade agreements. Its location outside high-risk zones like the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea ensures supply chain resilience in times of regional instability. Second, SFZ provides a highly competitive and stable investment environment with 100% foreign ownership, 30-year tax exemptions and world-class logistics infrastructure. Backed by Oman’s reputation for peace and neutrality, Salalah offers food companies a low-risk, high-opportunity entry point into the Middle East and beyond. n
Food For Thought
Hear the conversation by tuning in to Food Processing’s Food For Thought podcast.
IN THIS SECTION
» Post Holdings COO retiring
» Texas AG goes after Mars, Kellogg
» Pilgrim's plans $400M Georgia plant
Kraft Heinz Takes $9B Writedown, Won’t Deny Split
The $9.3 billion non-cash impairment acknowledges the decline in the company’s stock price and market capitalization.
raft Heinz delivered more grim news to investors when reporting its second quarter financial results on July 31. Net sales decreased 1.9% – all the fault of the North American segment – organic net sales decreased 2.0% and the company took a $9.3 billion non-cash impairment loss, resulting in a net loss for the quarter of $7.8 billion against sales of under $6.4 billion.
Probably more interesting was CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera’s answer during the Q&A portion of the earnings call with financial analysts. When asked about a potential breakup of the company, as has been rumored, the CEO said:
“Our board is working with urgency on an evaluation of those strategic options to unlock, as you said, long-term strategic value creation … And so any actions, if any, will be consistent with that goal of unlocking that long-term shareholder value.” So that was not a "no."
The huge impairment charge primarily was driven by a sustained decline in the company’s stock price and market capitalization
– meaning the venerable old company, actually two hundred-year-old companies, ain’t worth what it/they used to be worth.
While the small International Developed Markets ($897 million in sales) and Emerging Markets ($698 million) segments eked out 1.3% and 4.2% increases, sales in North
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
America fell by $164 million (3.3%) to $4.757 billion. Gross profit was a respectable $2.2 billion.
Kraft Heinz sales were $26.5 billion one year after the 2015 merger. In the years since, only 2023 sales eclipsed that, and only by $153 million. Last year’s sales were $25.8 billion.
Who doesn’t like a good beer cheese soup, especially with fall approaching? Two 150-plus-year-old brands are paired in two new Campbell’s Chunky products. Campbell's Chunky x Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Cheese with Potatoes & Chorizo Soup has the usual cheese and potatoes but also some savory chorizo sausage and “infused” with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. PBR also appears in Campbell's Chunky x Pabst Blue Ribbon Beef, Bacon & Beer Chili with Beans. Both just in time for soup season but only available at Walmart for a limited time.
Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Yili Top World’s Most Valuable Brands
Nestlé remains the world’s most valuable food brand, Lindt is a name to watch and Coca-Cola is the world’s most valuable non-alcoholic drinks brand globally – all according to a new valuation by Brand Finance.
Brand Finance is a global brand valuation consultancy based in London. “Bridging the gap between marketing and finance, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organizations make strategic decisions,” they explain.
The firm has been doing this valuation of the world’s leading food & beverage brands for 11 years, conducting original market research annually on 6,000 brands and surveying more than 175,000 respondents across 41 countries and 31 industry sectors. They figure the collective value of the world’s top 100 food brands stands at $250.8 billion in 2025.
Despite experiencing a small decline in brand value, down 4% from 2024, the Nestlé brand was tops for the 10th year in a row. Its brand value is $20.0 billion, more than $7.0 billion greater than the second most valuable food brand, Lay’s (with a brand value of $12.7 billion). Including the other brands it owns (Stouffer’s, Carnation, Purina, etc.) Nestlé also holds the top spot as the most valuable food portfolio of brands, with its wider portfolio valued at $65.4 billion.
Nestlé has strong consumer familiarity (9.7 on a scale of 10), understanding (7.6) and credibility (7.4), but lower engagement (5.8), preference (6.3) and price acceptance (6.3). “These scores underline the challenge Nestlé faces: maintaining its premium pricing without
McCormick was the "strongest" North American brand, in fifth place with a score of 89.6; strength is scored on evaluations of marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance.
The report called out Swiss chocolate brand Lindt (up 14% to $4.9 billion), which ranked among the top 10 most valuable food brands globally and the top six strongest food brands. Brand Finance says Lindt achieves a perfect 10 out of 10 score for price acceptance in core markets, including Germany, France, Spain, the UK and Switzerland, “showcasing its ability to command a price premium and defend margins.”
Coca-Cola (brand value up 32% to $46.3 billion) is the most valuable non-alcoholic drinks brand for the 11th year running. Its brand value is now more than double that of runner up, Pepsi (brand value up 12% to $22.5 billion). Coca-Cola is also the strongest among the top 50 non-alcoholic drinks brands, with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 93.4 out of 100.
Chinese dairy Yili maintains its position as the world’s most valuable dairy brand, with a brand value of $11.2 billion. Finnish dairy cooperative Valio has emerged as the strongest dairy brand and is the strongest European brand across all sectors in 2025, with a BSI score of 96.3 out of 100.
People
Jeff Zadoks has announced his intent to retire in January as chief operating officer and executive vice president of Post Holdings Inc. He’s been with Post 14 years, was promoted to chief financial
officer in 2014, then chief operating officer in December 2022. Nicolas Catoggio will retain his duties as Post Consumer Brands president/CEO while adding Zadoks’ COO responsibilities until a replacement is found.
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Waltham, Mass.-based fruit processor Welch’s named Cees Talma CEO. He brings more than 30 years of experience leading global food, beverage, consumer goods and health & wellness companies, with the past 11 years focused on leading mission-driven and family-owned companies. Most recently, Talma was CEO of Nature’s Way, a health & wellness products company.
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) hired Allison Thomas as its new chief operating officer, effective Aug. 25. Thomas will report directly to USDEC President/ CEO Krysta Harden. Thomas joins USDEC following a 25-year career at USDA, where she most recently was deputy administrator for trade policy and geographic affairs at the Foreign Agricultural Service.
Cal-Maine Foods Inc. appointed Keira Lombardo to be the company’s first chief strategy officer. She brings more than 20 years of experience with food and agriculture companies, most recently as CEO of Dairy Max, and earlier held a strategy role at Smithfield Foods.
Jim Koch, Boston Beer Co.’s founder, brewer and chairman of the board, re-assumes the CEO title on Aug. 15, taking over for Michael Spillane, “who has decided to step down as CEO to focus on important personal matters.” Spillane, who was CEO for 1.5 years, will remain on the company's board of directors, on which he has served since 2014, now in the capacity as a non-executive director. Koch was CEO from Boston Beer’s founding in 1984 until January 2001. He also has been chairman since 1984.
Allison Thomas
Expansions
JBS USA will purchase an Ankeny, Iowa, production facility from Hy-Vee, which closed it, and build it into the largest ready-to-eat bacon and RTE sausage plant in the company’s U.S. portfolio. The company will invest $100 million to buy the 186,000-sq.-ft. plant and renovate it to produce the RTE meat products. The plant is expected to be operational by mid-2026 and to create about 400 jobs.
Nature’s Bakery, part of the Mars Inc. family of brands, opened its new snack bar baking facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The $240 million facility was announced in January 2024, and it spans more than 339,000 sq. ft. and will employ more than 230 new
workers — with a production capacity of more than 1 billion snack bars possible per year.
Perdue Premium Meat Co., a division of Perdue Farms, cut the ribbon on its new Sioux City, Iowa, case-ready pork production facility. The 225,000-sq.-ft. plant represents a $60 million investment that should create more than 100 jobs.
Canadian baker Vibrant Health Products Inc. will build its first U.S. facility, a bakery in Rossville, Tenn., according to Gov. Bill Lee and the state’s economic and community development organization. Vibrant Health will invest $48.5 million over the next five years to renovate and build out a former Kellogg/ Kellanova Eggo facility that closed
to automate?
in 2024. It will create 394 jobs and will start out producing bread products for U.S. customers, with plans to expand processing capacity for additional products.
BioMADE, the Dept. of Defensefunded Manufacturing Innovation Institute, announced the expansion of its national pilot plant network with a new $40 million bioindustrial manufacturing facility near Ames, Iowa — its third major site, alongside ones in Minnesota and California. The new plant, set to open in 2028, will accelerate scale-up for agricultural bioproducts, chemicals and food, while strengthening domestic supply chains and rural economies – as is the mission and mandate for this public-private partnership.
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Texas AG Goes After Mars, Kellogg Over Colors
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton forced two big food companies into the public eye last month, revealing an agreement with WK Kellogg Co to remove synthetic colors and announcing he’s considering charges against Mars for not doing so.
WK Kellogg Co signed an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement with the Texas attorney general to remove artificial food colorings from its cereals by the end of 2027. It promises no more than Kellogg already had in a July 22 public pledge.
Mars has not signed an agreement. So Paxton’s office on July 16 revealed an investigation into the candy-plus company for reneging on a 2016 public pledge to “remove all artificial colors from its human food products” – as quoted by the Texas AG.
Mars has not responded publicly and directly to the Texas issue, but the company did announce in August it will offer “options” made without FD&C colors in four of its leading products: M&M’s Chocolate, Skittles Original, Extra Gum Spearmint and Starburst Original fruit chews.
They’re coming sometime in 2026 but apparently online only.
Paxton called the Kellogg agreement “historic.” “While other companies have verbally committed to removing food dyes, Kellogg is the first to officially sign a legally binding agreement confirming that it will remove food colorings,” the Texas announcement pointed out.
The attorney general’s announcement did not specify which colors. Red 3 already is banned as of Jan. 15, 2027, and federal officials have received promises from at least a dozen food, beverage and ice cream companies – Kellogg included – to meet a suggested Dec. 31, 2026 deadline for removal of at least six more petroleum-based colors: Blue 1&2, Green 3, Red 40 and Yellow 5&6.
After its 2016 promise, Mars, which makes M&M’s, Skittles and other brightly colored candies, removed the synthetic colors from its products distributed in Europe but “chose not to remove the toxic dyes from products sold in the U.S.,” according to Paxton. He’s investigating the company “for deceptive trade practices that violate Texas consumers’ rights.”
Mars did not say if or when other products will be reformulated without banned colors. “When we have identified fully effective, scalable solutions across the entire portfolio, we will share additional item commitments and timelines.”
Mars also repeated assertions that consumers are not that concerned about synthetic colors in candy and other products considered indulgences.
Pilgrim’s Pride Plans $400 Million Plant in Georgia
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. will build a $400 million poultry plant in LaFayette, Ga., according to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. It should create 630 new jobs at full capacity.
The new facility will produce a variety of fully cooked chicken products to support the company's fast-growing value-added business. “This significant investment will allow further growth of our prepared foods business by expanding brands like Just Bare, Pilgrim’s and Gold Kist, and supporting increasing demand in retail and foodservice channels,” said Pilgrim’s CEO Fabio Sandri.
Just Bare Lightly Breaded Chicken from Pilgrim’s took the top spot in Circana’s most recent New Product Pacesetters, the top-selling new products of 2024, selling $368.4 million in its first year.
The project is expected to get underway in the fall of this year, and hiring is expected to begin in 2027, aligning with the expected completion of the first phase of construction.
Pilgrim’s, which is majority-owned by Brazilian meat giant JBS, already has an estimated 7,500 employees and seven food production facilities across the state of Georgia.
Acquisitions
Wayne-Sanderson Farms has acquired Bethlehem, Ga.-based chicken processor Harrison Poultry. The purchase, price of which was not disclosed, includes live production, hatchery, feed mill, manufacturing, production and transportation facilities and equipment associated with Harrison’s Bethlehem and Crawfordville area operations. The acquired company employs more than 1,000 and produces nearly 400 million pounds of poultry products annually under the Golden Goodness, Pollo Eldorado and Al Marwah labels.
B&G Foods sold its Le Sueur brand of sweet peas, green beans and carrots to McCall Farms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and this transaction does not include the Le Sueur brand in Canada. The sale is the latest trim of the company’s portfolio over the last two years and represents its ongoing efforts to reshape its portfolio. In November 2023, B&G sold the Green Giant canned vegetable product line to Seneca Foods Corp.
Dole Plc has found a buyer for its fresh vegetables division — a divestiture the company initially attempted to make to Fresh Express Inc. in 2023 but decided to cancel in 2024 in the face of a Dept. of Justice objection. Instead, a portion of the Dole Fresh Vegetables Division has been sold for $140 million to Arable Capital Partners LLC, which will combine it with its Organicgirl LLC business (under og Holdco LLC). Dole will retain the Huron, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., facilities post-transaction.
V2food, an Australian plantbased meat analogue company and certified B Corp, has acquired Daring Foods, a maker of unbreaded plant chicken analogues in the U.S. V2food also revealed a relationship with Ajinomoto, without going into details.
Ferrara Candy Co., the U.S. sugar candy business of Ferrero Group, though its European holding company has begun “exclusive discussions” to acquire CPK Group, a French manufacturer and distributor of candies and chocolates, from Eurazeo, a global investment group.
FOOD PROCESSING MAINTENANCE SOLUTIONS
Price was not disclosed. The likely deal was announced July 11, one day after Ferrara’s parent Ferrero disclosed it’s buying WK Kellog Co. for $3.1 billion.
Health-Ade, maker of kombucha tea beverages, has been acquired by Generous Brands, a Butterfly portfolio company, adding it to the company’s stable of brands that includes Bolthouse Farms, Evolution Fresh and Sambazon. The seller, private equity firm Manna Tree Partners, will continue on as a minority shareholder.
Potato processor (and agricultural giant) J.R. Simplot Co. has an agreement to acquire Belgian potato processor Clarebout Potatoes. Price was not disclosed.
Eshbal Functional Food Inc., now settled in Vancouver, is making its second acquisition in a month, signing a binding letter of intent with Gluten Free Nation Actually, the acquisition will be of Starcall Broadcasting LLC, doing business as Gluten Free Nation, a Texas-based company specializing in sweet and savory gluten-free baked goods, including cookies.
ROLLOUT
Dairy Drink for GLP-1 Users
The demand for nutrient-dense foods continues to rise as consumers prioritize health-conscious choices. One in four people in the U.S. (27%) report being on a weight loss journey, and nearly 10% of the U.S. population has used a GLP-1 medication, according to Gallup. So Danone North America is launching a first-of-its-kind drink featuring a patented blend of nutrients—whey, leucine and vitamins--designed to help build and retain muscle mass during weight loss.
Oikos Fusion delivers 23g of complete protein, 5g of prebiotic fiber, and key vitamins like D, B3 and B12, in a compact, lactose-free, 0g added sugar drink. The refrigerated, 130-calorie cultured dairy drink comes in 7-oz. bottles in mixed berry, strawberry and vanilla flavors.
“People on a weight loss journey often eat less, so it’s crucial to focus on the nutrient density of the foods they do eat,” explains Whitney Evans, director of nutrition and scientific affairs at Danone North America. “When protein needs are not met, the body will start breaking down muscle to get the amino acids it needs. Fiber is also important because most American fall short on fiber intake.”
Better-for-Kids Lunchbox Snack
Just in time for back to school, Trubar Inc., a better-for-you snacking company focused on delivering plant-based protein products made with clean, recognizable ingredients, is entering the kids’ snack bar category with Trubar Kids. The product is completely free of peanuts and tree nuts, making it an allergy-friendly school snack.
After a successful early trial in 40 Sprouts Farmers Markets, the five-pack box is available exclusively chain-wide across 400 Sprouts Farmers Markets in 24 states. The bars come in Iced Oatmeal Blast, Pop Goes Confetti and Fudge-tastic Brownie varieties. Each bar delivers 8-9g of plant-based protein and 7-8g of fiber per bar, depending on the flavor. All are under 140 calories. A 12-bar box will follow in mid-to-late September and will be available nationwide at Amazon, Walmart.com, Hy-Vee and trubar.com.
Now PepsiCo Has Two Prebiotic Colas
Soon after PepsiCo Inc. , purchased Poppi functional sodas in May, the company introduced Pepsi Prebiotic Cola . The Poppi product combines prebiotics, fruit juice and apple cider vinegar to create a low-calorie soda with no more than 5g of sugar per serving.
New Pepsi Prebiotic Cola marks the first significant innovation in the traditional cola category in 20 years. The beverage includes 5g of cane sugar, has 30 calories and contains no artificial sweeteners. It delivers the classic crisp, refreshing taste of Pepsi, with the added functional ingredient of 3g of prebiotic fiber. It’s available in 12-oz. single cans for trial and eight-packs of 12-oz. cans.
“Poppi represents a compelling strategic fit within our short- and long-term vision for the future of beverages,” says Ram Krishnan, CEO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S.
“Pepsi Prebiotic Cola represents the next leap forward in giving consumers choice, optionality and functional ingredients in their cola experience, without sacrificing the iconic Pepsi taste we’re known for delivering.”
ROLLOUT
Fresh-From-the-Freezer Snacks
Farm Rich, a division of Rich Products, has been making some of America’s favorite frozen snacks since 1977, including the country’s bestselling mozzarella sticks. The company adds a hearty twist to its best seller with Italian sausage mozzarella cheese sticks with 12g of protein.
There’s also new Buffalo style chicken roll-ups featuring 9g of protein. They’re made with savory chicken, melty cheese and a kick of Frank’s RedHot sauce, rolled in a crispy flour tortilla. A sweet treat are new chocolate brownie bites.
Farm Rich also created a line of breakfast items, including sausage stuffed biscuits, which feature savory sausage, eggs and cheddar cheese and provide 12g of protein per serving. A serving of the high-protein cinnamon French toast sticks packs in 13g of protein thanks to the addition of whey protein concentrate and soy protein isolate. There’s also bacon breakfast rollups, loaded hashbrown bites and maple French toast bites.
A What-Took-So-Long Sweet Collaboration
The rumors are true. The Reese’s and Oreo brands are answering fans’ call to collab and unite their iconic flavors with two new products. Introducing the Reese’s Oreo Cup and the Oreo Reese’s Cookie. The cup brings together milk chocolate and white creme peanut butter cups with Oreo cookie crumbs, while the cookie features signature Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies filled with a Reese’s peanut buttery creme with Oreo cookie crumbs.
“At Reese’s, we’re obsessed with pushing the boundaries of what chocolate and peanut butter can become, and our fans fuel that fire,” says Dan Mohnshine, vice president, U.S. confection marketing at Hershey Co. “When we heard the incredible demand for a Reese’s and Oreo mashup, we knew we had to make magic happen. This isn’t just another product launch. It’s two legendary brands coming together to create something absolutely unprecedented that’ll blow minds and taste buds everywhere.”
Boosting the Nutrition in Dino Nuggets
Real Good Foods Co. has added lightly breaded frozen dinoshaped chicken nuggets to its lineup. The high-protein, grainfree products are marketed as being “made with real ingredients and no artificial additives.” They are made with a gluten- and grain-free breading that is a blend of chickpea flour, whey protein concentrate, seasonings and whole eggs.
The company also has a new line of breaded chicken products made with pure beef tallow instead of industrial seed oils.
“This is another example of Real Good Foods listening to our community and finding ways to satisfy their desire to live a healthier lifestyle,” said Rikki Ingram, chief marketing officer. “We didn’t just want to play in the dino nugget space, we wanted to completely reimagine it. Our new dino nuggets deliver 13g of protein per five-piece serving, making them a more wholesome option than leading competitors.”
FOOD & BEVERAGE
ENTREPRENEURS
How Caulipower, Chomps, Farm to Pet and Goodles stand out in a crowd.
Written by Andy Hanacek
SENIOR EDITOR
o you want to start your own food or beverage company? Could you create the next Chobani, the next Poppi? Could you blaze your own trail to success, following your own plan for growth? Opportunities abound if you know where to look and how to capitalize.
Chobani was founded 20 years ago by Hamdi Ulukaya, and continues to grow and thrive in the categories in which it plays. Better-for-you soda brand Poppi came about and rose to prominence in the past decade, and it was acquired by PepsiCo earlier this year. Co-founder Stephen Ellsworth offered advice to burgeoning entrepreneurs during a Whole Foods Market “Beyond the Board” podcast this past June: “Fail fast … stay agile, adapt and pivot. The only constant in S
this world is change, and the more you’re able to embrace that, pivot and stay agile, the better you’re going to be.”
Regardless of where you end up, you have to start by taking a leap and filling a gap in the market, says Sam Gazdziak, communications manager at the American Assn. of Meat Processors (www.aamp.com), which represents small and mid-sized meat and poultry companies.
“There are real opportunities out there for small companies to find a niche and thrive in it,” he says. “It's not a difficult formula for a newcomer to the industry to copy, but they have to be realistic about the work involved; there are no overnight successes in our industry.”
The four entrepreneurial food & beverage companies featured on the following pages have stood out in the crowd. They disrupted traditional food categories by bucking longstanding ideas, creating products that consumers (both human and pet) clamored for and could get nowhere else. Take heed, and you too may fly far.
The Story, from Gail Becker, founder of Caulipower
In 2016, I founded the company based on a confluence of events in my life. I was in corporate America, very frustrated and I was looking to do something more meaningful. My father had passed away, and I wanted to change my life and do something to help people. Also, I'm the mom of two boys with Celiac disease, who were diagnosed at a time when there was no gluten-free food in the store. I had watched gluten-free options in the industry evolve, and what I noticed was how much junk the industry was putting in gluten-free food. I waited around for someone to do something, and no one ever did. So I put all those things together, and we launched Caulipower in 30 Whole Foods stores in February 2017.
and that’s a notable part of our business. We also just launched pizza snacks, which is exciting.
What keeps you up at night today, and how are you trying to position the company to weather those challenges?
coming down the line, and we're very excited by them because we see so much opportunity.
What’s the best advice you can give other food & beverage entrepreneurs?
I want to make sure that we don't lose what brought us here, no matter how big we get. We want to make sure we still have instilled the company values and the mission that brought us here. Then also continue to listen to our consumers and create products they need. There are still categories that are ripe for disruption in much the same way that the frozen pizza category was when Caulipower first disrupted it. We have some new products, new platforms
Entrepreneurs need to come to the food industry with the acknowledgment of two things. One, there is something that you have to offer — maybe a background in sales or marketing or finance or something else. Two, don't be afraid to hire and surround yourself with people who are experts in the industry, because entrepreneurs should constantly be learning from people who have done this before. Then, once you know the rules that you need to follow and what has been successful, determine which rules you're going to break. What are you going to do differently? Will you be faster, better, cheaper, look different? It’s really important for entrepreneurs to know which rules they’re going to follow, and which rules they’re going to break.
How does Caulipower’s product stand out?
Why can't better-for-you foods taste good too? We make great-tasting frozen foods that are better for you and incredibly convenient — Caulipower created the category. There wasn't a Caulipower-like product in the frozen pizza category before Caulipower. We're famous for having created the No. 1 better-for-you pizza, but we also make chicken products,
The Story, from Rashid Ali, CEO and co-founder of Chomps I co-founded Chomps alongside my business partner, Pete Maldonado, in 2012. This all started when we met at a poker game years ago. Pete mentioned he was starting a company and we quickly realized our complementary strengths — Pete’s entrepreneurial drive paired with my background in finance and operations — made for a strong partnership. We launched Chomps as a small startup, selling meat sticks directly to customers through Facebook ads from Pete’s apartment. We turned a profit within the first 30 days, and we’ve been growing ever since.
How does Chomps’ product stand out?
We’ve always focused on a great tasting snack that uses high-quality, real ingredients. Our meat sticks are made with high-quality, thoughtfully-sourced, grass-fed and grass-finished beef and venison and antibiotic-free turkey — all with no sugar, hormones or artificial preservatives.
What were some of the early challenges for Chomps?
Our original idea was a mailorder business called Logic Meat Locker, focused on delivering high-quality, grass-fed frozen meat.
We launched in 2012 but quickly ran into a major hurdle — shipping frozen meat at a small scale was prohibitively expensive and logistically complex. While exploring our next move, we noticed our co-packer was also producing meat sticks, which sparked a new idea: What if we created a shelf-stable, better-quality version of the meat snacks we grew up eating? That insight led to a major pivot, and Chomps was born.
What's a recent challenge the company successfully solved?
Keeping up with demand is one of the biggest hurdles — and as the fastest growing snack brand in the U.S., we’re continuously looking for ways to tackle this. In order to meet demand, we recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Mexico,
Mo., in partnership with Western Smokehouse Partners. This opening, along with six other facilities across the country, will help double Chomps’ production by 2026.
What keeps you up at night today, and how are you trying to position the company to weather those challenges?
As the company has grown, we’ve been very intentional with the team we’ve built around us, starting small and gradually hiring folks. Especially as we scale and add more employees, it’s really important to me that Chomps maintains an exceptional, people-first culture.
What's the best advice you can give other food & beverage entrepreneurs?
Be resilient and relentless. Pete and I both come from immigrant families, and that upbringing instilled in us a deep sense of grit, resourcefulness and drive. We learned early on to stay curious, work hard and keep moving forward — even when the path wasn’t clear.
The Story, from Jackson Jones, founder and CEO of Farm to Pet I was working for a large financial company and had always spent time in and around manufacturing. We didn't really have a go-to treat for our dog, Rooney. A friend had casually mentioned some simple-ingredient treats the dog loved, and I thought I could make something similar. I had no background in the pet business or food manufacturing, and I couldn’t find any single-ingredient options for dogs. They all had additives, and most of the additives were not healthy for the dog. Also, protein was a very low percentage of what was in the treats. So I worked to make something that would be the simplest, healthiest protein treat you could give a pet.
We're not putting in additives or changing our formulas, so we've been able to lock in production techniques and sourcing to make a nice, consistent product.
was very adamant about wanting the same final look for the product. But there were just challenges on the dehydration end and having the right equipment to cut the sweet potatoes. So we shelved that. To make our fish treats, which turned out really well, it took a couple iterations, but I think most challenging was beef. We had to get a very, very lean beef cut to make the dehydration work.
How does Farm to Pet’s product stand out?
We have beef, fish, turkey breast and chicken breast. From a vision perspective, we are very lucky to be able to say that our product portfolio is very slim compared to many other companies. We produce four primary products.
What were some of the early challenges for Farm to Pet?
The first challenge was finding the chicken supply and a facility to make the product. I found a very, very small facility next to a poultry business and purchased a couple dehydrators. My operations manager, Frankie — who's still with us today — and I started making these in batches, and we had to figure out how to build a company out of that. Growth is hard when you're self-funded, using money you're making from your operations with very limited investment — making sure you manage the cash flow and the investment side to keep up with the growth that you have and that you want.
Were there any challenges with creating the new varieties that you’ve rolled out?
We thought sweet potatoes might be something we could make into our chip format, and I
What’s the best advice you can give other food & beverage entrepreneurs?
You have to be very comfortable with being uncomfortable. When you start a company, especially as a single founder, you don't have a CPA or someone managing production schedules for you. So you really have to quickly learn all these different abilities. As an entrepreneur, if you enjoy that and you aren't afraid to learn new things, I think it's a wonderful opportunity.
The Story, from Jennifer Zeszut, co-founder and CEO of Goodles Goodles was founded by Paul Earle and me in 2021. Born in Santa Cruz, Calif., Goodles exists to make noodles “gooder.” Mac and cheese is a beloved category, but when we came on the scene, it was a bit of a guilty pleasure due to nutrition and ingredients. We improved the nutritional profile and flavors for adults, bringing people back to the category, giving mac and cheese a resurgence.
How does Goodles’ product stand out?
The mac and cheese category hasn’t seen a real challenger in over 30 years, but we knew it was possible to make a boxed mac and cheese that tastes amazing and packs in nutrients, for both kids and adults. Goodles eats like a balanced meal and has the same taste as a staple childhood snack. Many adults have lost sight of enjoying what they eat by swapping yum for nutrition. We believe in a healthy reimagining of nostalgic foods that are always delicious. We only hit retail shelves three years ago, while competitors had decades’ head start. But Goodles now drives 68% of the growth in the category as we continue to bring more adults “back to mac.” In fact, millions of people are trying Goodles for the first time every quarter. And we’re selling a box of mac roughly every half a second now.
What were some of the early challenges for Goodles?
What’s the next big thing we should expect from Goodles?
We knew we couldn’t outspend our big CPG counterparts, who are strong traditional marketers with much deeper pockets, so we had to out-weird them. We are an authentic, scrappy, cheeky brand that leads with creativity and joy, and you can always count on Goodles to go (way) over the top. That authenticity is something that can’t be copied, and it’s also what our community really connects with.
Our latest launch — Microwaveable Cups — is our big bet right now, and the response has been incredible due to the convenience and on-the-go nutrition. At launch we had an expected inventory for months, but Cups sold out in just 11 hours. But don’t worry, we’re restocking this month. Also, Goodles is “noodles, gooder” so we’re always expanding flavors, formats and channels — all while staying true to our core.
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R&D TEAMS OF THE YEAR
DOLE PACKAGED FOODS’ ‘FRUIT ENGINEERS’
Fruit is a versatile palette that can range from simple, dried products to indulgent crème-based desserts, even energy and digestive drinks – and Dole’s product development team has gone to both ends of that spectrum.
Written by Dave Fusaro
EDITOR IN CHIEF
They call themselves “fruit engineers,” and that’s a good thing considering every product they develop must be based on fruit.
Instead of a restriction, fruit offers a wide-ranging palette to work in, says Kimberly Galante, global head of product development and innovation at Dole Packaged Foods –winner of our R&D Teams of the Year poll in the medium-sized company category.
“Fruit is a great ingredient, a great medium. It can be the hero or the complementary flavor,” she says. “It’s a differentiator. It provides natural sweetness, some acidity, nutrition and an emotional element.
“If you look at a spectrum, fruit can be all the way to the left side, where it’s the hero – all about the naturalness of the fruit, with fewer ingredients in the product. Then you can go all the way to the right, where you’re creating an indulgent experience and fruit is complementary to that indulgence.”
And Dole Packaged Foods has indeed gone to both ends of that spectrum.
What used to be a singular Dole company began to split in 2013, with Dole Packaged Foods being acquired by
Itochu, a large Japanese trading company. Eight years later, the produce side of Dole merged with Total Produce Plc of Ireland to create Dole Plc, based in Ireland.
The roots of both Doles go back to 1901 as Hawaiian Pineapple Co. “Pineapple is the foundation of Dole; it’s our heritage,” says Galante. Despite that nostalgia, the company proclaimed 2025 “the year of the mango,” symbolic of its move into other fruits and other flavors.
Back in 1901, Dole’s packaged foods/ value-add business was simply fruits in cans or made into beverages. Single-serve Dole Fruit Bowls, debuting in 1999, were a first
R&D TEAMS OF THE YEAR
step into the convenient snacking category. A logical follow-up was frozen fruits in 13 varieties.
Innovation cranks up
Innovation kicked into high gear with the dawn of the 21st Century, as Dole’s fruits, particularly pineapple, found their way into a portfolio of indulgent treats, beverages, even frozen foods - all under the Dole Packaged Foods portfolio.
Those early fruit bowls recently were augmented with Fruit Parfaits, still fruit-forward but in apples & crème and peaches & crème. Dole Whip is another dessert/snack. A longtime favorite of Disneyland visitors, the cross between a sorbet and soft-serve ice cream finally made it into grocers’ freezer cases in April 2023, and in the past year was reformulated based on consumer feedback. Just relaunched this June, it comes in pineapple, of course, but also mango. Another frozen snack is Smoothie Bowls.
The R&D team developed its own, unique drying method in March 2023 to create Good Crunch, dried fruits in pineapple, pineapple & chili and banana. The canned juices got a jolt of energy with Energy Delights (with vitamins B6, B12 and C and 80mg of caffeine); others help the gastrointestinal tract with Digestive Bliss (50% fruit juice, vitamin C and 4g of plant-based fiber).
The “fruit engineers” – the formal name is Product Development Innovation Team – number 30 across the globe. Fourteen
For 17 years now, Food Processing has asked food & beverage companies to nominate their research & development groups for our annual R&D Teams of the Year competition. This year, 1,112 readers and website visitors read their 150-word essays and elected as winners:
• Campbell’s V8 team in the large category (more than $751 million in sales). Runners-up were Tyson Foods and Grupo Jumex’s Odwalla team.
• Dole Packaged Foods in the medium category ($100-750 million sales). Runners-up were Califia Farms, Lifeway Foods and Rubix Foods.
• Bitchin’ Sauce in the small category (less than $100 million sales). Second place goes to Beleaf Vegan.
are in Dole’s Westlake Village, Calif., headquarters – although they moved into a new building this past January. Offices and labs are functioning but a test kitchen, to the delight of their resident chef, should open by the end of this year.
Sixteen more team members are elsewhere in the world, primarily in manufacturing plants in Thailand and the Philippines. “Once we figure out the benchtop work, we’ve done that iterative cycle of formula work and we’re
Dole's California R&D team; that's Kimberly Galante in the green top in the center.
ready to scale it up. That’s when our factory team helps – making sure what we developed on the bench can actually come to life in a factory,” says Galante.
Their process is Stage Gate. “It begins with a start gate, concepts validated by consumer pre-work. Marketing is closely involved in the process. Then we prioritize. There are numerous gates and check-ins all along the way. We give updates to leadership. The whole team hears progress reports at each of the gates. Eventually we get final approval and execute.”
The length of any project depends upon the product, but most simple new products, such as flavor extensions, take 9-12
months, Galante estimates. A real breakthrough product could take 1-2 years, she says.
Dole Fruit N Crème Dessert is an interesting case. It actually was created more than 20 years ago, “the first innovation I launched after arriving at Dole,” Galante recalls. “It was the first time we started exploring indulgent offerings.”
There have been a few launches that didn’t work out but were interesting attempts: Wiggles fruit juice gelatins, fruit-based vitamin chews and probiotic fruit sodas. All fruit-forward and gallant tries.
How much further could Dole Packaged Foods take its fruits while staying within the business’ mission – accessible fruit nutrition?
Food For Thought
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They were sampling coffee with pineapple juice at Natural Products Expo West in March, although no such product is on the launch pad. “There are possibilities, for sure. We’re constantly looking at the white space and figuring out what consumers want.”
The white space? “We’re always looking at the competitive landscape in different categories – snacks, cans and beverages are where we’re strong. A lot of it is listening to our consumer base, how Dole can answer people’s cravings but also provide better nutrition through the goodness of fruit. Our R&D team always has their ear very close to the ground to push the product portfolio forward.” n
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SUBSTITUTES EASING SKY-HIGH COCOA PRICES
Cocoa is a familiar flavor, but partial replacements are offsetting some of skyrocketing cost for processors.
Written by Dave Fusaro
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Raw cocoa prices for decades hovered between $2,000 and $3,000 per metric ton, but beginning in 2023, they began a climb that broke $12,000 a ton last year. While they have moderated a bit since, the commodity still is trading above $8,000 – and that has food processors looking for alternatives.
“Cocoa market prices remain high due to low stock levels and a large supply deficit observed over the last few years,” French supplier Prova said in its August 2025 market report. “The ICCO [International Cocoa Organization] recently updated the figures for the 2023/2024 season [when] global cocoa production fell by 12.9% to 4,368 million metric tons, with a supply deficit revised upwards of 494,000 tons, much higher than the figure observed in previous shortfall years.
“However, for 2024/2025, the ICCO is forecasting surplus supply, with the harvest expected to be better than the previous year
due to improved weather conditions,” the Prova report continued. “Despite this, production will still fall short of 2022/2023 levels. The start of the intermediate harvest (April to September) has however been disappointing, with a lower bean quality resulting in a lower butter and powder yield.”
So while cocoa’s prospects are improving, it will take a while for the beans to mature and be harvested, the ingredient to be processed and prices to come down.
Hershey Co. in July confirmed it’s raising prices on its chocolate candies by "low double-digit" percentages, with most price hikes coming in the fall. In some cases, pack sizes will get smaller; in others, list prices will rise. “This change is not related to tariffs or trade policies,” a Hershey spokesperson told us. “It reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa.”
Hershey is not alone. Also in July, Swiss chocolatier Lindt acknowledged it already has increased prices by 15.8% in the first half of this year. Nestle’s financial reports have included references to price hikes. While Mondelez has been quietly working them in over the past year, the company is cautiously
Barry Callebaut Invests in Cultured Cocoa Research
Barry Callebaut, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa ingredients, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) to explore the potential of cocoa cell culture technology.
Cocoa cell culture is an emerging field that enables the cultivation of cocoa cells in a controlled environment. While still in the early stages of development, this technology presents promising opportunities to:
• Develop new chocolate products with unique flavor profiles or enhanced health benefits
• Provide an alternative cocoa source to diversify our cocoa portfolio
• Strengthen supply chain resilience while supporting traditional cocoa farming communities
“This partnership reflects our proactive approach to building innovation capabilities that will shape the future of chocolate,” says Dries Roekaerts, president of customer experience at Barry Callebaut. “We are not replacing cocoa from farms, but rather preparing for a future where we can offer consumers additional choices and ensure long-term supply security.” The company also notes this collaboration is part of Barry Callebaut’s long-term commitment to innovation and sustainability in the chocolate industry.
optimistic about the cocoa price outlook, citing improving market fundamentals and a promising West African pod count.
Ingredients to the rescue
Cocoa is a complex flavor, and it’s also familiar to almost all consumers, so replacing it is tricky. Ardent Mills and Prova introduced solutions at the July IFT FIRST food ingredients show.
Wheat is the main ingredient in Ardent Mills’ (www.ardentmills.com) Cocoa Replace, the toasting process providing most of the sensory (both flavor and color) attributes of cocoa. Based on U.S.-sourced wheat, it not only provides a cost savings but also a stable, domestic supply.
By replacing up to 25% of the cocoa powder in standard formulations, Cocoa Replace can provide significant cost savings. It also lowers the fat content of the final product, since cocoa powder typically has 10-12% fat.
Ardent Mills sampled a devil’s food cupcake at the IFT show with a quarter of its cocoa substituted with Cocoa Replace. As a single-ingredient solution, it simplifies reformulation and keeps label changes to a minimum, especially in chocolate products already based on wheat.
“We believe cocoa prices will remain high for another three-plus years,” says Stefan Bucher, senior principal scientist. Ardent Mills focuses on mostly bakery applications, and the firm showed prototypes at the IFT show for cakes, muffins, brownies, cookies, pancakes & waffles, quick bread and pumpernickel bread.
Prova, too, showed cocoa substitutes at the show. “We put together a toolbox that included flavor samples and their respective usage rates and organoleptic sensory charts,” says Justin Demers, director of applications and product development for Prova (provaus.com). “We've validated these flavors specifically for compound companies to reduce up to 30% cocoa in their products.” Protec is the name for all of Prova’s technical solutions; Cocoa Reduction Flavor Solutions are within that. “All cocoa powder/ solids have unique flavor profiles,” Demers continues. “We create tailor-made solutions for our
Barry Callebaut is partnering with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences to explore cocoa cell culture technology.
customers, but this box shows a selection of what types of profiles we can target, even with off-theshelf options.”
Prova’s applications focus on baked goods, sweet confections, beverages and dairy-based creations. “All of the solutions are similar in the sense that they are composed cocoa/chocolate flavors that are designed to supplement up to a 30% reduction of cocoa powder in different applications. There is no single key ingredient, and they all have unique cocoa/ chocolate flavor profiles. They are formulated with the specific solubility and processing tolerance of each application in mind.”
A year ago, Planet A Foods (planet-a-foods.com), based in Germany, was using sunflower seeds and oats as main ingredients for its ChoViva cocoa replacers. But this year, “We’ve updated our recipes and are using sunflower seeds and grape seed flour as main ingredients,” says Marketing Manager Jessica Karch.
INGREDIENTS
The company began developing its solution in 2021, before the current cocoa price spikes. So reducing the cost was not the company founders’ intention – they learned that demand for cocoa was causing mass deforestation, exacerbated by climate change, so they set out to create chocolate without cocoa.
“Planet A Foods isn’t just about ChoViva — we’re an ingredients company working to de-risk global supply chains by developing alternatives for endangered ingredients,” Karch explains. “Our overall vision is to save 500 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.”
ChoViva has not made it into the U.S. market yet, but it’s currently an ingredient in chocolate-flavored cookies, peanut butter cups and cereal found on German and Austrian grocery store shelves –altogether, it’s in approximately 70 products in nine countries worldwide. A launch in the U.S. has been a goal. “It’s on our list, and we’re already in talks with
several partners,” says Karch. A cocoa butter alternative also is in development.
Briess Malt & Ingredients (www.briess.com) dark-roasts malted flours that can provide cocoa flavor and varying shades of brown color. T. Hasegawa’s (www. thasegawa.com) Cocoa Powder Replacer was designed specifically for beverage applications, and comes in both powder and liquid forms.
NotCo (tech.notco.com), the Chilean food tech company in which Kraft Heinz has an investment, is combining two ubiquitous technologies to help. Its Giuseppe AI platform can create customized cocoa-free chocolate alternatives that mimic the taste, texture, and melt of traditional chocolate without relying on the strained cocoa supply chain. Using precision fermentation, the NotCo team optimized a blend of upcycled ingredients and sustainable crops to craft an alternative that resembles real cocoa flavor. n
Planet A Foods’ ChoViva cocoa replacer is showing up in chocolate products in Europe.
Source: Planet A Foods; Photographer, Daniel Schvarcz
PLANT OPERATIONS
DESIGN YOUR PLANT WITH FOOD SAFETY IN MIND
Food & beverage processors need to ensure their facilities are built and maintained to support food safety rather than to create added risk.
Written by Andy Hanacek
SENIOR EDITOR
Designing a new manufacturing facility or renovating/expanding an existing one in most industries often causes an intense act of juggling the various requirements, regulations and financial restraints that impact the way the final result looks and operates. Multiple inputs and ideas are the rule, not the exception.
In the food & beverage industry, the same applies. However, the design of plants making products for human consumption must take into account an additional factor: food safety. Regulations help guide processors toward best practices to keep the product stream safe through proper facility design, but Adam Rosenberg, project manager, packaging engineer and junior partner for Dennis Group (www.dennisgroup.com), explains that there is a balancing act that they need to master before foundations are laid and structures assembled.
The Covid-19 pandemic shifted the mindset of more processors toward the value of food-safe facility design, Rosenberg adds. Since then, more processors have recognized the importance and value it brings, despite the impact on the bottom line.
“More companies are getting on board with understanding that defining food-safe design holistically as an organization is critical to the success of a growth strategy,” he explains. “And it’s much more critical than simply executing a project to build a nice plant.”
“What drives decisions for the vast majority of companies and people is value,” he says. “You can build a pharma-grade facility, but that’s not going to be the right value if you’re making jams or coffee, for example — some level of focused design is required.”
Some companies are taking cues from sanitary equipment design practices to improve their facilities, Rosenberg says, applying those principles to building elements in some instances.
Nevertheless, processors sometimes need to be shown the way and given more of a reason to commit to what they might view as an extra expense, says Pablo Coronel, senior fellow-food process & food safety for CRB Group (www.crbgroup.com).
“After so many years of GMPs and FSMA hammering on everybody, you would think they wouldn’t, but you still see people trying to take shortcuts on food-safe design,” he says. He points out that even some plants built in the past five years lack basic design features that help with food safety, such as coved corners, properly sloped floors and harborage-free equipment footings.
Photo: Branislav Nenin / Shutterstock.com
PLANT OPERATIONS
But processors don’t always think about inaccessible corners or areas like curbs and floors, places the product doesn’t touch, Rosenberg adds. “They’ll get a fancy, shiny piece of stainless-steel equipment and think that’s it, it’s food-safe. But then they install it in a corner that can’t be cleaned or swept out easily because of the way they installed it. No one’s going to ever spend the time required to wash that area.”
Different
And that type of oversight allows dirt, residue and tiny bacteria to accumulate — which will happen given the slightest opportunity, Coronel says, adding: “We need to have a second wave of training and hammering this into companies.”
Divide and conquer
Separation of different zones in a plant determined by food safety risks — or “hygienic zones” — has become popular beyond plants in the meat & poultry industry, where separation of raw production from ready-to-eat has been common for years now. Coronel says the practice has spread throughout the food & beverage industry.
“Even bakeries have the front end and the back end of the oven, separating the areas handling cooked and non-cooked bread,”
he says. “You’re also seeing a lot more of environmental monitoring and minimizing the risk for recontamination of the product after the kill step.”
Because the industry handles such a wide variety of products and packaging formats, this approach cannot be applied generally, however. Risk to product safety should be assessed first. Even meat & poultry companies can drill down further and set up additional zones with varied food safety requirements (and
Photo: Juice Flair / Shutterstock. co m
categories and different operations (processing vs. packaging, for example) require various levels of cleanability to avoid contamination of the final food or beverage product.
Designing separate zones and handling areas for incoming raw materials and ingredients, particularly if they are allergens, has become commonplace in the design of food & beverage processing plants.
thus, design elements) on the ready-to-eat (RTE) side as well, Rosenberg says.
“On the RTE side, the packaging operation still has product exposed to the environment, but then it’s in its primary packaging, reducing risk, then on a pallet,” he explains. “Hygienic zoning considers high-risk, medium-risk, low-risk areas of the plant, so you wouldn’t need a stainless steel support in a warehouse, for example, because it would be a separate zone from the food safety risks in the zones before it.”
Keeping incoming materials segregated also comes into play when designing facilities. Furthermore, it does little good to create hygienic zones and not pay sharp attention to setting up air-handling systems that serve only that zone. Contaminants can be carried through the air, and mixing air from different zones can create greater risk to food safety. These two factors come into play particularly when processors have to work with allergens.
“We think of air as something that goes in the food, so air has to be very clean when it gets in
touch with the finished product,” Coronel says. “If you have an area where you have allergens, you have to have different air-handling units so that you don’t contaminate one with the other.”
Playing defense
Food defense continues to emerge as an extended concern when it comes to the safety of the food supply for processors and regulators alike. Coronel says food defense concerns are starting to drive facility design decisions for many.
“Before, food plants we’re pretty much open, on the edge of the road, with no fences, so anybody could basically have access,” he says. “Now they’re trying to build them a lot more securely to prevent access to anybody who doesn’t belong there.”
Rosenberg, too, has seen the mentality change across the industry, with processors limiting and monitoring access to facilities. Beyond adding fencing to a property, companies that have people sign in and out of a facility is also “just a good practice to
implement for health and safety, record-keeping and documentation purposes.” Many of the changes try to anticipate and prevent incidents (accidental or not) from occurring, he says.
“You might have a hatch on a silo for a ready-to-eat product that used to simply have to be closed, but now you have a food-defense requirement that says it must be locked and have controlled access, because someone might open the hatch to look inside and something might fall out of their pocket into the product,” he says. “And that’s not even a high-risk food product.”
Technology and automation also have driven a different type of requirement to handle cybersecurity demands. Rosenberg says protecting the plant’s network has become critical to protecting the safety of the food supply, and companies are starting to develop plans that work within those parameters.
“With automation, one of the challenges is the increased risk that somebody will get into your system and take control of your robot,” he says. “It’s a whole new realm of possibilities and challenges.” n
Photo:
Written by Andy Hanacek
SENIOR EDITOR
KLUBRICATION: GREASING THE WAY TO EFFICIENCY
eeping processing plants humming takes more than just great design and excellent equipment; it takes proper maintenance of that machinery, and one of the key pillars of maintenance is a focus on proper lubrication.
Food & beverage plants forever chase peak efficiency, and lubricants can help them get closer to that holy grail, according to Richard Camper, president of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Assn. (ILMA) (www.ilma.org) and executive vice president of Hasco Oil Co. (www. hascooil.com)
“There are a lot of opportunities for manufacturers to wring some efficiency out of their operations,” he says. “Lubricants are a low-risk, high-reward way to
Food-grade lubricants continue to improve and help processors achieve more bottomline improvements than simply keeping machinery humming along.
do that, and they probably should be explored in more plants.”
Advances in lubricants can help processors increase efficiency in three areas: energy efficiency, waste reduction and lower water consumption. Driving improvements in those base areas will drive down costs and make an operation “better as a whole,” Camper states.
Long-term performance of the lubricant remains a top demand, but products that can help with that challenge also assist with those other targets, according to Jim Girard, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Lubriplate Lubricants Co. (www. lubriplate.com)
“The long-term solution is more and more synthetic H1 fluids and synthetic H1 greases,” he says. “Synthetic products last longer, and frequently they are biodegradable, which helps with lowering the carbon footprint.”
In addition, since these lubricants last longer, the frequency of disposal of used material is lessened, minimizing the environmental impact as well. That fits in with what Camper sees as a fourth demand from customers that is gaining steam: the emergence of a “do no harm” strategy when it comes to the environment outside the facility.
“Some larger companies want to be better corporate citizens and ensure that the products that they’re using are benign,” he says. They’re looking at bio-based, plantbased, hazard-free raw materials throughout their operation to help minimize those impacts, and lubricants can help there as well.
Dig into the details
Camper looks at the food & beverage industry’s maintenance teams and gives them an “above average” grade overall when it comes to implementing and following a lubrication program properly throughout the plant.
“There’s a hyper-awareness about the equipment that really stems from a need for cleanliness,” he says. “If you’re paying a lot of attention to your machinery that deeply, that’s usually going to translate over to the lubrication program.”
However, there are always opportunities to improve, he says, starting with the basic blocking and tackling of identifying and using the right lubrication with the right equipment.
“Right product, right place; that’s critical,” Camper says. Technicians cannot fall into the trap of substituting an oil or grease that merely is similar to one that may have run out of stock, as that might
lead to the next technician simply replacing that product, leading to early failure of components or the entire piece of equipment.
Camper also suggests that maintenance teams dig deeper and identify the equipment that, should it fail, would hamstring the entire operation — and then really dive into ways to reduce failure risk.
“It then comes down to ‘Are we using the most optimal lubricant on the market to maximize uptime for this equipment?’ ” he says. “Then, they also should have an oil analysis for this piece of equipment, on a quarterly basis at a minimum, just to make sure that everything looks good.”
Lubricant analyses have improved over the years, Girard says, especially with the rise in data capture, storage and power.
“Lubricant analyses can be tracked today, where you send your oil samples to the lubricant lab, you get a report, but now it’s logged into the system, and the next time they send another sample from the same machine, you can start to see trends,” he says.
Another change has been training, where interactive and virtual lessons have grown more common, especially for distributors, salespeople and customers. Lubriplate offers its own training course, called Lubriplate University, which has grown from originally targeting sales staff and distributors to actual users of Lubriplate’s products. Suffice to say, it has helped both to develop that relationship.
“Through training, the maintenance staff can begin to understand things like ISO viscosity and how that relates to their gearboxes, or flash point and how does that relate to the hydraulic systems.” Girard
explains. “You can accomplish this [and more] through training, and you also can get them to trust you through training, which is extremely important.”
Without that trust, operators very well could sit on products they’ve always used, when new technologies are driving improvements in lubricants themselves, Camper explains. Food & beverage processors need to be on the lookout for better opportunities that aren’t far over the horizon.
“There are a lot of novel base oils that are coming out, either synthetic or bio-based, that have shown some really impressive lubrication characteristics, which have implications for energy efficiency and waste reduction,” he says. “Those are winding their way through the industrial side, and if they demonstrate some efficiency improvements, that should translate really well to the food manufacturing industry.”
Current innovation notwithstanding, Girard adds that processors need to know the reality that today’s food-grade lubricants have come a long way, offering a much better lifespan than their ancestors.
“As industry has evolved with additive technology and synthetic fluids — the polyalphaolefins and polyalkylene glycols for example — now food-grade lubricants frequently last longer than general industrial lubricants,” he says.
“The old thinking that food-grade lubricants don’t last as long is quickly dying out.”
That is good news for processors looking to improve their operational efficiency, the workload of their maintenance teams, their risk profile and their impact on the environment all at once. n
EQUIPMENT
Motors for global use
Facility managers can simplify operations and cut costs with globally compatible Baldor-Reliance GNEM motors. They offer global compatibility, energy efficiency and robust construction, making them practical for manufacturers operating across international markets. They’re particularly
suited to air handling/HVACR applications. With variable speed drive, dual frequency support and a broad tri-voltage range, they operate across a wide range of configurations without modification. The motor supports NEMA frame sizes from 56 to 286T and is available in rugged rolled steel or durable cast-iron frames with a choice of open drip-proof (ODP) (IP22) or totally enclosed fan cooled (TEFC) (IP44) enclosures.
ABB Motion; Fort Smith, Ark. new.abb.com/motion
X-ray inspection for poultry
The IX-PD-Poultry (IX-PD-45A2-P) will help manufacturers take highspeed bone detection to a new level. This X-ray inspection system is designed to meet the large-volume throughputs of modern poultry plants while being able to adapt to a wide variety of cuts. It not only detects bone and foreign bodies but also reduces the probability of false rejects, therefore
eliminating an otherwise costly and labor-intensive rework process.
Ishida; Birmingham, UK 44 0 121 6077700; www.ishidaeurope.com
Prevent moisture in pneumatic conveyors
Product conveyed with hot air from a pressure blower heats up, which can cause evaporation, condensation and sweating in storage — leading to caking, clumping, mold and mildew. Heat exchangers can prevent the cycle of evaporation and condensation, without requiring costly dehumidification
equipment. They cool, dehumidify, reheat and filter low-pressure conveying air. They’re easy to install, efficient and reliable. Design pressures from full vacuum to 15psig are available.
The DZS 600 VSD+ and DZS 1200 VSD+ dry, oil-free claw pumps are powerful, energy-efficient, economical and easy to control and maintain. They're also simple and modular in design. Some key attributes of this design are its small footprint, real-time access to important parameters and ease of use. Typical areas of application for
the vacuum pump are CNC routing, pneumatic conveying systems and central vacuum systems. Atlas Copco; Michigan City, Ind. 800-848-4511; www.atlascopco.com
Making kettle-style chips
The BatchWright frying system is for kettle-style potato chips and other root vegetable snacks. Claiming to be the highest-capacity batch fryer on the market, it produces uniform, premium-quality products at rates up to 650 lbs. (295 kg) per hour while offering precise temperature control over the frying curve. Featuring advanced filtration, hood-down operation and energy-efficient heating,
this compact industrial fryer achieves consistent product quality, improves production efficiencies and reduces operating costs. It’s available in two sizes and can make kettle-style chips from potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots and other root vegetables.
