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IngredientsFormulationFlavors & Seasonings & SpicesCost ReductionSugar Reduction

Kerry: Reduce Cocoa, Sugar

Kerry Group’s Smart Taste taste solutions address market demands without compromising on taste

By Prepared Foods Editorial Staff
Kerry logo
IMAGE COURTESY OF: Kerry

PHOTO COURTESY OF: Kerry Group

October 3, 2025

Kerry Group’s new Smart Taste is a proprietary range of taste solutions to help food and beverage manufacturers address today’s most pressing challenges without compromising on taste. 

Smart Taste represents the next evolution of Kerry’s leadership in taste. It combines deep market insights, world-class flavor creation, and unique food science expertise to meet the growing challenges facing the food industry. From rising nutritional demands and regulatory requirements to cost pressures, supply chain disruptions, and sustainability goals – Smart Taste is designed to address these complexities without compromising the exceptional taste consumers expect. 

“In today’s complex food and beverage landscape, great taste alone is no longer enough,” said Leigh Anne Vaughan, vice president of Strategy & Marketing – Taste. “Our Smart Taste proprietary solutions directly address our customers’ pain points by optimizing flavor profiles in a way that reduces reliance on costly or volatile ingredients, supports cleaner labels, and meets evolving regulations, cost-effectively and sustainably. Most crucially, Smart Taste solutions also retain the great taste expectations of consumers, because at our core, we believe there can be no compromise on taste.” 

Smart Taste leverages Kerry’s market leading and differentiated capabilities across Dairy Taste, tastes of Fire- cooking, Tastesense Salt, Sweetness and Masking, Cocoa and Citrus portfolios. From supply constraint mitigation to regulatory pressures, Smart Taste empowers brands to confidently protect product taste while addressing ongoing challenges such as: 

• Cocoa Crisis: Kerry’s cocoa boosters enable up to 50% cocoa reduction while preserving indulgent taste, delivering up to 40% cost savings and reducing carbon emissions by up to 48%.

• Sugar Reduction: Kerry’s Tastesense Sweetness allows for up to 100% sugar reduction while rebuilding mouthfeel, enhancing sweetness perception and masking off-notes – ensuring regulatory compliance and consumer satisfaction in reduced sugar and sugar-free products.

“We’re responding to an unprecedented level of market uncertainty that affects every stage of the production process – from raw material supply, to managing the cost of delivering the final product to consumers,” said John Savage, president and CEO of Taste. “At the heart of Smart Taste is the deep integration of advanced scientific processes that go far beyond traditional flavor creation. It combines Kerry’s expertise in flavor development with broader capabilities in food science and processing – including strategic investments in technologies like biofermentation and AI. These investments continually add new dimensions to the Smart Taste offering, enabling Kerry to push the boundaries of innovation and rapidly solve taste challenges that extend well beyond delivering great taste alone”. 

Smart Taste enables food & beverage manufacturers to develop smarter, more resilient taste solutions to meet the evolving industry demands – delivering on nutrition, sustainability, supply chain stability, and cost-efficiency, all without compromising on taste. 

Learn more about Kerry Smart Taste.

KEYWORDS: cocoa food supplier food technology

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