There’s no putting out the fire on the hot and spicy food trend. Prepared Foods' Executive Editor–Technical David Feder interviews Frito Lay Co.’s Sr. Executive research chef Jody Denton for some inside expert insight into the latest in hot sauces and hot and spicy food products. In this interview, he shares with the Prepared Foods' audience the ins and outs of designing the next generation of hot sauce and some hints at the future of hot and spicy snacks.

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Prepared Foods discusses plant protein ingredients and formulation strategies with Charlie Baggs, president, founder and executive chef at Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations, Chicago.

Prepared Foods' Executive Editor–Technical David Feder interviews ethnobotanist and regular contributor to Prepared Foods Kerry Hughes. She discusses the trending foods, beverages, and ingredients using botanicals that caught her attention at the 2024 Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California. Among specific better-for-you and botanical ingredients Hughes notes are: aloe, ashwagandha, cranberry, elderberry, ginseng, milk thistle, mushrooms, saw palmetto, and tomato lycopene.

In this episode of Reasoned Opinion, Executive Editor–Technical David Feder’s editorial series on trends in the food beverage, nutrition, and ingredient industries, he presents the more interesting ingredients, foods, and beverages that caught his eye at the 2024 Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California.

Prepared Foods Editor Bob Garrison recaps Natural Products Expo West trends, tastes and technologies with Carolina Sasson, Chief Operating Officer at Mission Field. Mission Field, Denver, is a global consultant specializing in food & beverage innovation, strategy and insights.

Earlier this year, the Oregon cheesemakers at Tillamook released a comprehensive trend report on new ways consumers are finding to enjoy cheese. Two intriguing pairings revealed by the report included matching artisanal honeys with artisanal cheeses, and then what the trend-spotters called “the cheddar plunge”— soaking a sharp cheddar in wine, shrubs, or ale to completely change the cheese experience. David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, discusses these and other cheesy trends with Jill Allen, Director of Product Excellence in R&D for Tillamook Creamery, makers of a full line of handcrafted, specialty cheeses and other dairy products.

Cell-based meat—real meat created without involving the animal—is closer to reality than you think. A food technology company in Israel, Ever After Foods, Ltd., has passed the tipping point in overcoming the barrier of scale-up in cell-based meat production. And they’ve done so by shifting the paradigm. Ever After CEO Eyal Rosenthal went into cell-based meat cultivation with recognition that “innovation is needed to drive a production of cultivated meat that is more similar to the traditional meat.” Ever After’s technology eschewed the industry standard and is able to produce a high volume, so-far comparatively low cost product. The company already has proven its methods to be able to drop the cost of production of meat significantly and expects to have the technology refined to market scale in as little as the next year or two.