Food & Beverage Asia June/July 2022

18
BITING ISSUES
Above Food opens ingredient
development and processing centre
Above Food, a plant-based food company,
has announced the opening of its gluten
free ingredient development, processing
and packaging facility: the Above Food
Ingredient Centre.
The centre, located in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan is a new component of
Above Food’s seed to fork delivery model.
It will serve as the centre of the company's
future product innovations and gluten free
ingredient processing. It aims to enhance
Above Food’s specialty ingredients division
within the CPG industry, while further
differentiating the company’s CPG brands.
The centre features advanced technologies
for cleaning, sorting, polishing, blending,
and formulating. These technologies
allow for the development, processing
and packaging of flours, fibres, starches,
flakes and texturised ingredients to be
used by customers across the food value
chain, including Above’s private label
and branded CPG products.
Other notable features of the new centre
include high-capacity bulk handling of
over 100-million pounds annually; and
packaging capabilities for ingredient
and CPG customers.
“Our centre is world-class, representing
what we at Above Food envision as the
future of food," said Mike Marshall,
president of Above Food specialty
ingredients. “It bolsters our specialty
ingredients capabilities and enables us
to help customers accelerate ingredient
innovation. This is a significant growth
opportunity for Above Food to expand our
customer reach and bring more value to all
crops in regenerative agriculture rotations.”
Lionel Kambeitz, CEO of Above Food,
added: “The Above Food Ingredient
Centre allows us to meet the needs of our
growing customer base, while remaining
true to our vertically integrated platform.
Our specialty ingredients division is
immediately bolstered by the opening of
the centre, allowing us to handle products,
ingredients and packaging of all sizes.” ■
Blommer Chocolate Company and
DouxMatok expand partnership with new
chocolate and confectionery coatings
to demonstrate that it is possible to
achieve over 40% sugar reduction in
some of the beloved snack and bakery
applications such as nut butter cups,
bars and chocolate chip cookies.
Blommer Chocolate Company and
DouxMatok have announced the launch
of additional chocolate and confectionery
products. Earlier this year, Blommer
launched the Discovery product line,
supported by DouxMatok’s sugar-based
sugar reduction solution, Incredo Sugar.
The first products were chocolate-flavoured
chips, and they have expanded the product
line to include additional coatings to
support utilisation in a broader range of
food applications, including but not limited
to panning, enrobing, and moulding.
Providing sugar-reduced chocolate
that delivers on taste, sweetness and
nutrition has been a long-standing
industry challenge, particularly while
fulfilling increased consumer interest
in short and understandable ingredient
lists. With this new line of milk, dark and
white coatings, Blommer has delivered
up to 50% sugar reduction without using
any high intensity sweeteners or sugar
alcohols. The team of chocolate scientists
at Blommer have designed various concepts
“Global research continues to indicate
that taste is the first consideration when
consumers make food choices, but
they have historically shied away from
chocolate products with less added
sugar due to negative taste perception,”
said David Meggs, COO at Blommer
Chocolate Company. “We have tremendous
opportunity at our fingertips to bring
consumers back to this category who have
avoided sugar-reduced products because
they simply didn’t taste good enough.”
“We’re thrilled about the new opportunities
that the expanded Discovery product line
will open up for food brands,” said Kelly
Thompson, senior vice-president and
head of North America at DouxMatok.
“Chocolate-covered snacks are beloved
by consumers, and they shouldn’t have
to compromise on taste or nutrition when
they reach for their favourite treats.” ■
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA JUNE / JULY 2022