“For the first time, we’ve created a whole new variety of vegetable to create the natural color our customers are asking for,” says Jakob Dalmose Rasmussen, vice president, Commercial Development at Chr. Hansen Natural Colors. 

Golden orange sweet potatoes are enveloped in spicy cinnamon and rich, dark maple with a sprinkle of brown sugar.

Starches, flours, and fibers are poised to generate much greater interest in food product development based on the continued emergence of novel sources and continued emphasis on sustainable, non-GMO, ancient/ heritage/ native/ non-traditional plants providing them.

Carolina Innovative Food Ingredients (CIFI) is launching four new ingredient brands and two other new products at this year’s IFT Booth 561. These new offerings join CIFI’s existing line of 100% Carolina-made sweet potato ingredients, which can replace artificial sweeteners and other unpopular ingredients in clean-label applications.

Not long ago, the sweet potato was considered a seasonal, fall food that was mainly eaten at Thanksgiving. Today, this popular ingredient shows up year-round on grocery store shelves and restaurant menus.

Sweet ‘n Savour Fries can be fried or oven baked.

The company also unveiled five new cereals, including Chocolate Toast Crunch (a variation on Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and Dark Chocolate Crunch Multi Grain Cheerios.

It’s a side dish that’s big on color (orange) and operator convenience (microwaveable).

In the coming year, food forecasters expect less emphasis on the center-of-the-plate proteins and more importance on vegetables and grains previously relegated to the perimeter. “When the New York magazine declared, ‘Vegetables are the new meat’ [November 2010], chefs started paying more attention,” says Kara Nielson, “trendologist” for the Center of Culinary Development, San Francisco.