General News
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Givaudan reveals new approach to satisfying sugar reduction
14 November 2018A global leader in the creation of flavours and fragances, working in close collbaboration with partners, Givaudan has unveiled its new reduced-sugar products that "still aim to satisfy". These products will have a 50% reduction of a sugar without sweeteners being added, in an aim to deliver the global consumers interest in healthier options, in relation to ever growing health concerns. The challenge being combining healthier, lighter products that still act an enjoyable treat which appeal to the consumers. Having worked with a Michelin Star Chef, they investigated what ingredients and factors were important besides sweetness and discovered a range of natural ingredients and techniques that they could utilise to develop interesting, complex flavours and texture. Nely Vasblom, Product Manager Beverages, explained: “Increasingly, the food industry is being challenged by the public and regulators to play its part in reducing sugar consumption. In Europe and across the Middle East and Africa we have seen fiscal measures, such as taxes introduced on sugar sweetened beverages, to encourage people to consume less sugar. “Alongside this, we have also seen consumers becoming much more conscious about what they eat, seeking out healthy, low sugar products that don’t use sugar alternatives and a shift in taste preferences for some consumers, towards less sweet drinks and products. “It is this underserved consumer space that we have focused on to deliver natural, less sweet products with a fully satisfying taste. We think this will offer an exciting new approach for our customers seeking to address the challenges of sugar reduction.” Givaudan and Michelin starred Chef Thomas Buehner, launched the event at Het Amsterdamse Proeflokaal culinary school in Amsterdam recently, where two consumer concepts were tested including: a 50% reduced sugar orange drink and a new reduced sugar peach yoghurt drink. In order to achieve sucess, a new technique called Hollistic language has been developed, which uses sensory-profilling methodology, allowing Givaudan to understand consumers experience.
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American Heritage releases new brand identity
14 November 2018American Heritage Chocolate has announced its new brand packaging and identity. The company, made by Mars Wrigley and developed in 2006, is introducing a new image which aims to develop their colonial roots, embracing and focusing on the cultural influence, history and global connection of chocolate. Gail Broadwright, Director Sponsorships and family properties, commented:"To emphasise chocolate's global, cultural influence, a story of connection that brings people together, spanning time and place, we are moving away from a singular, historical perspective to a more universal exploration of how this super food has impacted the world around us." The new logo is a heritage tree which symbolises a flourishing cocoa tree, while the new tagline 'Savour the stories' continues to convey the message of its historical roots. Along with new packaging, they are launching a new website, product formats and an updated recipe which encompasses the flavours and blend of indredients including: chilli peppers, vanilla and crisp orange which were available in the 18th century. They have also continued their mission of education partening up with with National geographic to publish 'Great Moments in World History: Global Stories Where Chocolate Sparked Discovery, Innovation, and Imagination!' Broadwright adds: "We want to promote three key ways chocolate can be experienced and enjoyed: entertainment, creation and education. From the events we do with historic site partners and food festivals, to our website and social media programming that shares classic, international and innovative recipes, to our amusing, multi-media glimpse at the history of chocolate with our series 'A Day Without Chocolate,' we aim to bring chocolate to life in a variety of engaging ways."
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Sugar reduction not key factor in purchase decisions
07 November 2018New research by Innova Market Insights suggests that sugar reduction and clean labelling is significant, but not predominant in sugar confectionery. The findings show that across the 10 highest consuming nations for both sugar confectionery and gum, consumption is increasing, with CAGRs ranging from 0.5% to 3.0% over the 2010-2022 forecasted period. Global sales were worth US$85.8 billion in 2017 and are expected to reach around US$100 billion by 2022, Innova found. Commenting on the report, Lu Ann Williams, Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights, said: “While concerns about the unhealthiness of sugar confectionery are apparent when consumers are questioned, this does not necessarily relate to their actual purchasing or consumption habits.” According to the report, the three leading drivers of choice are flavour, cost, and indulgence. Indulgence is the key factor that Italian, French and Russian consumers pay importance to when buying sugar confectionery. In other countries, flavour and cost are more important considerations. But beyond these three factors when buying sugar confectionery, certain health aspects may have an influence on the choice of one product over another. The report also reveals that while sugar-free gum has been around for many years, sugar-free confectionery as a whole has yet to become such an established sector. According to Innova Market Insights data, just 6% of sugar confectionery launches in the 12 months to the end of June 2018, used a sugar-free positioning, compared with over two-thirds of gum introductions. Across the 19 countries surveyed by Innova Market Insights, an average 24% of respondents claimed to be influenced by a sugar confectionery product’s sugar content and a similar amount by whether the product is natural or not. This means that around three quarters of respondents across the 19 countries were not influenced by sugar content, therefore there are still a minority of people who look for these products. The report reveals that “with a greater focus on sugar intake, however, companies are making concerted efforts to reduce sugar in their products; indeed, sugar reduction is perhaps a bigger trend than sugar-free as it offers more scope for manufacturers and is less impactful on the taste of the finished product”. “Given the growing momentum behind reducing sugar intake, some may argue that sugar confectionery and to a lesser extent gum is on shaky ground,” notes Williams. “However, these products are enjoyed the world over and there are plenty of ways in which companies can head off any future downturn in consumption and sale. “Key will be the creation of interest and excitement in the category and giving consumers a reason to purchase their products over other snack foods perhaps perceived to be healthier. “ The use of flavour will continue to be important to achieve this, but there is also a need to switch to natural flavours following the move to natural colours,” Williams explains. “Companies can also look to use more indulgent premium flavors, targeting the adult market with more value-added premium-style offerings,” she concludes.
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Lindt rolls out “first-ever Asian flavour”
30 October 2018At this year’s Tax Free World Association (TFWA), Lindt & Sprüngli showed off its increased profile with a new range of Lindor products. Lindt also introduced its Lindor turbo promotion programme and an extensive sampling campaign. The latest addition to the Lindor family is the Lindor Matcha Limited Edition 387g, the company’s first-ever Asian flavour, exclusively for the Asian market. It has a white chocolate shell infused with a matcha-flavoured filling, and is designed to appeal to Asian consumers’ fondness for matcha, as well as their love of chocolate. Matcha is an Asian speciality – a traditional finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves – and a flavour that is also growing in popularity among international travellers. The launch will be supported with an extensive marketing package featuring Japanese decorative elements such as paper fans, tatami mats and matcha tea props, and includes trial offers, sampling campaigns, expansive PoS visuals and gifts of Japanese knot bags with purchases of Lindor Matcha. The campaign will run for six months starting from mid-October at major airports & downtown duty free in the Asia Pacific region, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Osaka, Taipei and Malaysia. Peter Zehnder, Head of the Lindt “We’re delighted to be expanding our much-loved Lindor Limited Editions range with new Lindor Matcha, a flavour that is very much on-trend and will meet demand from growing numbers of Asian travellers. “As a global brand, it’s vital that we consider the regional preferences of consumers. We’re confident Lindor Matcha will be a popular choice with duty free shoppers and help grow Lindt’s market share in the Asia Pacific region.”
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Mars partnership to protect cacao from climate change
25 October 2018Mars is set to work with crop improvement company Benson Hill Biosystems to improve the productivity and climate resilience of the cacao tree. Mars will employ Benson’s CropOS™ to improve the productivity, stress tolerance and climate resilience of cacao trees. Healthy, productive cacao trees benefit the millions of smallholder farmers globally who depend on the trees for their livelihood, but climate change and increasing disease pressure put production at risk. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ computational platform and suite of breeding and genome editing tools “leverage the natural genetic diversity of plants to improve the sustainability, nutrition and flavor profiles of crops with greater precision than previously possible, dramatically improving the cost and timelines to develop new products”. Mars has committed to sustainability throughout its operations, including sharing its expertise in science and technology to enable farmers to plant high-yielding, climate resistant, water and nutrient use efficient and disease-resistant cacao. Commenting on this strategic partnership, Dr. Howard Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer of Mars, said: “We want to enable farmers to produce more cocoa from less land. Benson Hill has built an impressive data and machine learning platform designed to provide insights that can improve crops faster. “By tapping into the natural genetic diversity of cacao, we can speed up the evolutionary process necessary for improved productivity, disease resistance and resiliency to climate change.” Ray Schnell, Plant Science Discipline Leader, Corporate Innovation at Mars, added: “Mars has invested in cacao breeding for over 20 years including sequencing the genome of important parental lines and evaluating large progeny trials. By leveraging Breed, powered by CropOS, we aim to use predictive analytics to significantly accelerate the cacao cultivar development program, which will benefit cacao breeders and farmers globally.”
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LCF success for 2018
18 October 2018The London Chocolate Forum has been and gone for another year, leaving delegates with key industry insights in their minds. With a 30% increase in delegates in comparison to last year, the LCF welcomed talks from a range of key note speakers. Representing Euromonitor, Karine Dussimon explained the latest chocolate trends, noting that the sugar reduction issues are becoming more noticeable in the market and Jenny Hearne from Watch Me Think took a look at what consumers really consider to be a healthy chocolate. The quality and topics of the lectures were considered to be one of the highlights at this year’s show along with LCF founder, Angus Kennedy’s exclusive interview with HRM Oba Dokun Thompson – King of Eti-Onie, Nigeria. Commenting on this year’s forum, Rolf Steinemann, Product Manager at Bosch Packaging Technology, said: “As one of the leading packaging equipment manufactures for the chocolate industry we need to stay very close to our customers and provide technologies that help them to be successful. Therefore, we are always up to date on the latest trends. The Chocolate Forum is a great opportunity to learn and to discuss with key people the challenges of the industry.” Overall, this year has been bigger and better than previous years and the team at LCF look forward to welcoming everyone back again next year.
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Barry Callebaut to expand into Russia
17 October 2018The Barry Callebaut Group has signed an agreement to acquire Inforum, a Russian B2B producer of chocolate, coatings and fillings. This acquisition is set to ‘strengthen’ Barry Callebaut’s presence and production capacity in the Russian market. Inforum was founded in 1989 by four entrepreneurs and started its business selling cocoa products. Sales revenue in 2017 was about RUB 5.1 billion (CHF 86 million / EUR 77 million). The company operates a production site in Kasimov, Ryazan Oblast (285 km southeast of Moscow) and employs more than 300 people, who will transfer to Barry Callebaut upon completion of the transaction. As it stands, Barry Callebaut has a chocolate manufacturing plant near Moscow, which became operational in 2007 and also has a CHOCOLATE ACADEMY™ centre – a training center for professional users of chocolate – in Moscow. In Russia alone, Barry Callebaut currently employs around 80 people in Russia. Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group, said: “We are delighted to join forces with such an established, locally engrained Russian company. Inforum’s heritage and local knowledge, combined with our innovation capabilities and international experience, will reinforce each other’s strengths. Together, we will be able to bring further excellence and innovation to the market and to serve Russian consumer chocolate manufacturers even better.” According to a statement by Barry Callebaut: “The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions. Expected completion is by the end of the calendar year. The parties have agreed not to disclose any financial details of the transaction.”
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Mondelēz International to make all packaging recyclable
10 October 2018Mondelēz International has announced a new commitment to make all packaging recyclable and provide recycling information by 2025. The company will work in partnerships so that packaging can be collected and recycled in markets around the world. This new commitment is part of the company’s strategy for a circular packaging economy and will help deliver its long-term vision for zero-net waste packaging. The company’s new strategy will address two objectives: making it easier for consumers to recycle packaging and supporting industry coalitions to improve recycling rates. As part of this, the company is committed to: ensure all paper-based packaging is sustainably sourced by 2020; have recycling information provided for customers; and to support industry coalitions and public-private partnerships to develop waste-management infrastructure to reduce wate and improve real-world recycling rates. Rob Hargrove, Executive Vice President, Research, Development, Quality and Innovation, said: “As the global snacking leader, we’re committing to using sustainably-sourced materials and recyclable packaging as part of our active contribution to reduce packaging waste and establish a circular economy for packaging. “Plastic waste and its impact on the planet is a broad, systemic issue that our consumers care deeply about, and which requires a holistic response. Together with partners from across the industry, as well as public and private entities, we can help to develop practical solutions that result in a positive environmental impact.”
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Knighton Ingredients reveals “game-changing” chocolate application at the LCF 2018
10 October 2018Knighton Ingredients has today (11th October) announced its newest application capability for its long-established chocolate powder ‘NovaCote’. Knighton’s NovaCote chocolate powder removes the need to temper chocolate, a process that would normally be carried out to ensure the finished product has ‘snap and sheen’. It has been produced by taking liquid chocolate and putting it through a cryogenic process, which alters the crystalline structure of the chocolate. Results have been confirmed by research undertaken by Campden BRI and PAS and demonstrated that, the changing of these crystal structures allows NovaCote to ‘seed’ untempered chocolate and it is anticipated that this will improve production time, reduce waste and allow manufacturers to innovate Commenting, Paul Cannings, Business Unit Director for Ingredients said: “The process of tempering is something that artisanal and home chocolatiers spend years learning to perfect to ensure that their finished products deliver exactly what the consumer is seeking. “A process that even for those who know what they are doing is time consuming, can be messy and can very quickly go wrong” Knighton Ingredients announced this latest application development today at The London Chocolate forum. An annual event which sees some of the biggest names globally meet to discuss, learn and understand matters of importance to the chocolate industry. Cannings, continued: “We couldn’t think of a better location to introduce NovaCote’s expanded capabilities to the industry. “NovaCote is a product that Knighton has historically supplied to the food industry for use in beverage and baking products. Through the work we have undertaken with artisanal chocolatiers, we are confident that as we see more people produce at home following the success of programmes like Great British Bake Off, NovaCote really does bring something exciting to the chocolate industry.” For more information visit: www.knightonfoods.com
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Are you ready for the London Chocolate Forum?
10 October 2018Doors open at 8am tomorrow (11th October 2018) at The Crystal, London Docklands for one of the most important events in the chocolate industry. The London Chocolate Forum 2018 will have a host of major names from the chocolate industry gathering together to listen to a selection of speakers and understand the latest going on in the industry. The aim of the event is to provide an outstanding networking platform across the entire section of the industry and enable delegates to tune into trends and NDP and get inspired! The LCF is now a well-established leading event in the industrial chocolate sector and now one of the largest of its kind in the world. There will be major suppliers showcasing world-leading packaging and processing and technology, along with ingredients and insights for NPD. Meanwhile, delegates can hear from a wide range of industry key note speakers and experts in the multi-million-pound lecture hall. California Almonds return as event sponsors with Lu Ann Williams of Innova Market Insights, Innovia Market insights commissioned to present trends on clean labelling and ‘clean label chocolate innovation’. We are also pleased to welcome back key sponsors, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate with their speaker, Ilco Kwast, Marketing Director, who is really pleased to be presenting this year and is sure to provide some fascinating insights as they always do. Meanwhile Erik Bruun Bindslev, Managing Director, Europe, at Guittard Chocolate Company will be giving a very interesting paper on creating a chocolate brand that stays relevant and flexible in a world of changing consumer demand. On that subject, Angus Kennedy, Founder of the London Chocolate Forum also has, what he describes as a spectacular interview that will be staged live at the event with his special guest; a Nigerian King. 2018 is also sponsored by Fererro and Ritter Sport who will be making sure delegates will not be short of chocolate! And if that’s not enough, the LCF is also running and conducting their own chocolate consumer research in conjunction with Jenny Hearne, Head of Thinkers’ Thoughts, Watch Me Think, where we go right onto the street to see what consumers really think of chocolate. The organisers expect the event to be fully subscribed as its free to attend for trade only. On top of that Kenned's returns with its own film crew, documenting the event. If you would like to take part in this short film, get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41 = 'editor' + '@'; addy89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41 = addy89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41 + 'kennedys' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_text89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41 = 'editor' + '@' + 'kennedys' + '.' + 'com';document.getElementById('cloak89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41').innerHTML += ''+addy_text89e285a1b762d62ed95e2e41cd186c41+''; If you have any questions get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloakf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addyf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84 = 'enquiries' + '@'; addyf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84 = addyf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84 + 'londonchocolateforum' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_textf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84 = 'enquiries' + '@' + 'londonchocolateforum' + '.' + 'com';document.getElementById('cloakf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84').innerHTML += ''+addy_textf36a0012385e6019db59071e1948ca84+''; or visit www.londonchocolateforum.com
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