Corbion Purac extends natural line

Corbion Purac is launching Verdad Avanta C100, an optimized powder formulation that provides 90 to 120 days of Listeria control and extends shelf life for natural uncured meats. The ingredient uses vinegar and celery powder to maintain a natural label. This extension to the company’s Verdad Avanta line of clean label ingredients provides meat and poultry processors with typical cured meat color and yield improvement.

Survey: Consumers choose products with honey

The National Honey Board’s recent consumer research survey indicates that honey is a hit with consumers. Ninety-three per cent of consumers said they consider honey a natural sweetener, and 48% said they look for product labels that include honey.

Fifty-eight per cent of consumers with one or more children and 60% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 look for honey on product labels.

Consumers will even pay more for products made with honey. Nearly 60% of consumers said they would pay at least 5% more for bread primarily sweetened with honey, and about half claimed they would pay at least 5% more for food bars, ready-to-drink tea and yogurt primarily sweetened with honey.

“This independent survey confirmed our assumptions that consumers love honey,” said Catherine Barry, the National Honey Board’s director of marketing. “Many consumers think the ingredient is natural, look for it on labels and pay more for a product that is made with honey.”

Cryogenic freezer boosts throughput

Linde L.L.C. is introducing its proprietary impingement freezer that may improve throughput of such products as chicken breasts, fillets, trim, beef patties and pizza. Using high-velocity nitrogen vapor, Linde’s freezer can freeze 300% more than a standard cryogenic tunnel freezer of similar length. The process reduces dehydration and weepage losses more than most cryogenic and nearly all mechanical freezing processes, according to the company.

DSM finds U.S. adults need more omega-3 fatty acids

In a study testing 1,386 U.S. adults, DSM Nutritional Products found that 80% had omega-3 concentrations below the dietary guidelines for heart health and 95% did not achieve levels associated with cardio-protection. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee and the American Heart Association recommend two servings of seafood per week to provide the fatty acids, but less than 10% of the U.S. population is believed to achieve this.

“The results of this study offer a valuable point of reference for previous and future studies investigating the benefits of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on cardiovascular health,” said Manfred Eggersdorfer, Ph. D., senior vice-president of Nutrition Science and Advocacy at DSM and professor for healthy ageing at University Medical Center Groningen.

Stevia extract supplier to open U.S. distribution center

Sunwin Stevia International, Inc., a global supplier of stevia extracts, including Rebaudioside A98 and Rebaudioside A99, has reached an agreement to open a U.S. distribution center for its stevia extracts. Qufu Shengren Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunwin Stevia, will operate the center.

The new distribution center is expected to allow Sunwin Stevia to store stevia extracts in the U.S. warehouse and substantially shorten its shipping time for its clients and customers based in North America. The new U.S. distribution center also will serve the South American markets, Sunwin Stevia said.

“In the past three years, we have been consistently increasing our sale of stevia extracts in the U.S.,” said Dongdong Lin, chief executive officer of Sunwin Stevia. “However, one of the barriers of market penetration has been shipping time. It usually takes up to 60 days to deliver our stevia extracts to the U.S. after we receive an order. Having launched our U.S. distribution center, it will take a day or two to deliver our stevia extracts to our clients and customers in North America. We believe our new U.S. distribution center will substantially improve market penetration of our stevia extracts in North America for years to come.”

Label Insight helps grocery brands participate in SmartLabel

Label Insight is launching SmartSPEC, a solution to help grocery brands generate and maintain the product data necessary to participate in SmartLabel, a transparency initiative led
by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute.

Brands participating in SmartLabel must create a landing page for each product that features 52 required attributes, such as nutrients and allergens, and up to 197 voluntary attributes like non-G.M.O. and “no artificial preservatives.” Customers may access the pages by scanning Q.R. codes on product packaging or visiting either the brand’s or SmartLabel’s web site.

Label Insight’s SmartSPEC solution harnesses the company’s technology to analyze food products for each of the required SmartLabel attributes and nearly all the voluntary attributes, as well as provide data hosting and landing page creation services.

“Consumers are demanding more transparency from the brands they use and consume,” said Anton Xavier , chief executive officer and founder of Label Insight. “Brands participating in SmartLabel have the opportunity to establish themselves as leaders in transparency and build consumer trust and loyalty. But many brands are unsure of where and how to start. Label Insight solves this challenge with an end-to-end solution that spans data generation and maintenance to landing page creation.”

Wellmune helps keep children healthier

Kerry Group’s Wellmune helps keep children healthier, according to a study conducted by H&J CRO International, Inc. in Beijing. Sixty-two per cent of children taking Wellmune reported “good” health status compared to 15% taking a placebo. The children taking Wellmune also had two-thirds fewer upper respiratory tract infections and six fewer sick days over a 12-week period.

“Childhood is a particularly important time to support immunity, when developing immune systems are susceptible to colds and other health issues,” said Don Cox, Ph.D., senior vice-president of research and development for Wellmune, which manufactures and markets a yeast beta glucan ingredient that is part of Kerry’s nutrition and wellness portfolio. “A strong immune system provides children with a powerful defense against common illnesses that can disrupt the whole family, making it essential to provide proven nutrition that fosters healthy immune function.”