Baking & Snack - May 2007 - 52

I N N O VAT I O N S

INGREDIENT TECHNOLOGY

cranberry-based ingredients, driving new product development and insight into applications. "As a popular
and process-tolerant ingredient for baked foods and
snacks, cranberries are particularly suited to this arena,"
Ms. Girard said.
This group innovated the company's new BerryFusions Fruits, sweetened dried cranberries infused with
flavor, the latest being an apple cinnamon blend. The ITG
center has facilitated a number of new product launches
over the years. These include low-moisture products, new
flavored BerryFusions introductions, low-sugar products
and different-sized pieces such as diced and double-diced
sweetened dried cranberries for more piece identity in
baked foods and snacks.
"We also focus on process tolerance and continue to
develop versatile ingredients that maintain piece identity
and inhibit color and flavor bleed," she said. "Our test and
pilot work is extremely successful in developing products
that meet current and future customer requirements.
"Our team works closely with our customers to overcome any issues or problems and come up with solutions
and alternatives," Ms. Girard continued. "We offer customized solutions for different ingredient requirements
depending upon the specific application. We specialize in
offering unique cranberry ingredients to meet the customers needs, especially unique flavor needs."
By giving special attention to industrial users' needs,
the ITG center enables the continued development and
success of these ingredients. "For Ocean Spray ITG to
stay innovative and competitive, we rely heavily on the
expertise and foresight of our R&D colleagues," Ms.
Girard said.
R&D CENTRAL. Not all ingredient suppliers have chosen
the innovation center route; however, R&D remains central to their mission. Through the disciplines of research
and technological exploration, these companies explore
opportunities for their customers.
Virginia Dare, Inc., based at Brooklyn, NY, provides a
good example. This flavor supplier is long known for its
pre-eminence in vanilla, cocoa, tea and coffee extracts,
sweet goods flavors and beverage development. It creates concepts and prototypes for its customers based on
their requests, and it uses trend information, primary
and secondary research to benefit the customers who
use these materials.
"Virginia Dare is actively involved in understanding
consumer insights through its primary market research
programs," said Anton Angelich, group vice-president of
marketing for Virginia Dare. "Understanding consumer
insights leads the way to the innovative technical development of new flavors and flavor systems for products
with real consumer demand."
This company recently explored Hispanic consumer
preferences in depth, reporting its insights at the 2006
56 / BAKING & SNACK / May 2007

ᮤ At the Ocean
Spray Cranberries
R&D lab, ITG principal
food scientist Kristen
Girard readies an
analytical sample
of sweetened dried
cranberries
developed for bakery
ingredient use.
OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES ITG

Institute of Food Technologists annual convention and
Food Expo. These trends have the potential to change the
food preferences of mainstream American consumers.
"This research has led to creating highly appropriate and
innovative flavors for bakery, snack, confectionery and
beverage applications for this demographic market segment," Mr. Angelich stated.
Another industry-changing trend being explored by
this company involves whole grains and healthy eating.
"More and more consumers are becoming interested in
applying more health and wellness to their lives via food,
and they are seeking 'nutritionism' solutions," Mr. Angelich explained. Because many of these new foods also
bring undesirably bitter or "beany" flavors to the plate,
Virginia Dare has been innovative in creating flavormasking systems that make products containing these
ingredients more pleasing to the taste.
Innovations of this sort continue to be the primary assignments given to ingredient company R&D departments.
BEYOND BRICKS. Innovation centers are not always
built of bricks and mortar.
Archer Daniels Midland Co., Decatur, IL, tapped into
the Internet's virtual reality world for a new Webinar
venture it describes as a "co-innovation opportunity" for
product developers. Recently it focused on snacks with
improved nutritional profiles.
Like its earlier Webinar about cocoa powder selection, the snacks Webinar was led by ADM experts and
guided food manufacturers through the complexities of
"smarter" snacks including formulating for heart health,
digestion and reduced trans-fat content. It also detailed
emerging consumer trends in the snack food market. A
trans-fat Webinar session is set for the near future. The
programs are available on the company's new Web site,
www.admworld.com/resourceful and require visitors to
register to access content.
Whether organized as innovation centers, assigned
to R&D departments or offered in virtual form, activities by ingredient suppliers to support their customers
with inspiration will continue. The formulating approach, successful in years past, moves forward at an
ever-quickening pace.
Ⅲ

http://www.admworld.com/resourceful

Baking & Snack - May 2007

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