The new lab will assist customers throughout the development process, from proto-cepts to larger scale samples.

With more than 10 new laboratories, GCI’s S.M.A.R.T. Center focuses on developing custom flavors and colors, as well as extracts, flavor modifiers, and ingredient enhancers.

This facility opened November 1, 2018, and houses Comax’s administration, sales and customer service teams. Strategically located in Shanghai, this facility is committed to better serve Comax’s Chinese and Asian Pacific regional customers.

The board of directors elected Brian Smith to serve as president and COO, effective Jan. 1, 2019. He will report to James Quincey, the company’s CEO. Smith is a 21-year Coca-Cola veteran who currently serves as president of the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) group.

Sargento Foods Inc. announced that John Rodgers, Ph.D. has been promoted to vice president – research and development and Vijay Krishna has joined the Sargento team as vice president – quality and food safety systems.  

Nicole DeBloois is promoted to director of research and development. Nicole has been with JMH Premium for over 11 years in a wide range of expanding R&D roles and responsibilities. During that time, she has consistently demonstrated a skill for fostering internal and external relationships that have resulted in delivering exceptional product development results. Of Ms. DeBloois, Kevin Dulin, CEO of JMH Premium said: "Her technical expertise is well established and she has created a development team that works collaboratively and effectively in delivering custom product formulation and premium customer service."

Along with network operations in Bernardino, Calif., and Atlanta, the 103,000-square-foot Bedford Park facility provides Home Chef with the capacity to grow well beyond its current cadence of delivering three million meals per month.

Second-generation stevia extracts were all about high-purity Reb A. In contrast, today’s third-generation stevia extracts are based on better tasting steviol glycosides with the highest commercial value, Reb A, B, C, D and M. 

For more than a decade, this unique event has given food and beverage researchers a quick, convenient deep dive into industry trends, new ingredient technologies and formulation strategies. 

Chef Christian "Kit" Kiefer, a chef and certified culinary educator and former restaurant owner, who created many popular menu items for restaurant chains and Fortune 500 companies, has been hired by St. Louis-based Kent Precision Foods Group as Corporate Culinary Chef of the Research & Development Department.