The impact of yogurt, probiotics and the gut microbiome has exceeded expectations and been tied to brain, digestive and immune function. 

AAK, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of value-adding specialty vegetable fats and oils, announced Sneha Karthikeyan has joined the US Customer Innovation team as senior confectionery scientist. Karthikeyan will oversee all co-development activities at AAK’s Customer Innovation Center in Edison, N.J.

Steve Kelleher, Research Fellow, Kemin Food Technologies, North America, will present the session, “Solubilized Proteins as a Fat Block in Production,” which highlights recent research exploring methods to reduce the amount of fat uptake while retaining moisture in deep-fat-fried protein products.

This next major milestone demonstrates Remilk's continued leadership in the rapidly developing category by offering consumers animal-free dairy products identical to its traditional counterparts but free of lactose, cholesterol, and hormones, thus severing the dairy supply chain's reliance on animals.

Want to listen to industry news and views on the way to work? Catch a quick video on a lunchbreak? Prepared Foods now goes anywhere—and everywhere—to cover critical topics.

Bay Area-based New Culture announced the hiring of Josh Kittleson, PhD, as the company's vp of biology. New Culture is part of the global movement to an animal-free dairy future, offering animal-free dairy products that are indistinguishable from conventional products in taste, texture, function, and nutritional content. Adding Kittleson's deep synthetic biology and R&D management expertise, the company has brought on board an industry leader to accelerate the time to market of its animal-free mozzarella.

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) announced its annual event will return both in-person and online with a new and improved lineup of content and programming. IFT FIRST: Annual Event & Expo, whose updated brand is an acronym for Food Improved by Research, Science and Technology, will take place July 10-13 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

That cherry flavor you enjoy in candy and soda is likely a combination of aromatic and flavor compounds discovered through the study of plants in laboratories far from cherry trees. It and the sweet scent of your almond extract may actually be courtesy of a petunia flower.

In response to growing supplement and food trends, Pharmactive Biotech Products, S.L.U. introduced Aged Black Garlic+ (ABG+®), with a sweet, “social” flavor that is odor-free and thus suitable for functional gummies. The science-backed ingredient delivers wellness benefits and won’t stimulate reflux the way fresh garlic can. Grown from a special variety of garlic, and cultivated just two hours from Pharmactive’s facility, it is gently processed using green technology. This method generates low waste and significantly reduces the environmental impact.

MeliBio, Inc., a food-tech company focused on creating real honey without bees, announced a $5.7M Seed round to scale its proprietary technology of precision fermentation and plant science and launch its first line of commercial products. The round is led by Astanor Ventures, with participation of existing and new investors.