Kerry, the world-leading taste & nutrition company, has announced the opening of its new taste facility in Latin America, which will serve mainly Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andean region. Located in Irapuato, Mexico, the new state-of-the-art facility will significantly increase Kerry’s capacity in the region and further support customers in delivering local and sustainable taste solutions.
This new site expands Kerry’s offerings across a number of food and beverage categories, including refreshing and alcoholic beverages, snacks, meat, dairy and bakery. It will also play an important role in enabling Kerry’s ambition to bring sustainable nutrition solutions to more than two billion people by 2030 around the globe, say the company. Aligned with the company’s commitments under their Beyond the Horizon strategy, the facility incorporates world leading processes and technologies that will support the company’s environmental goals. These capabilities, combined with expertise across sustainable innovation, marketing insights, research, development and applications, and sensory science, will enable Kerry to co-create with customers, exciting products that will be consumed across the region.

“COVID-19 has impacted consumer behaviour and taste preferences across Latin America, and companies need to be in a position to understand and respond to these evolving dynamics. This new taste facility allows us to deliver on consumer demands across the region and we look forward to working with customers to bring innovative taste solutions to satisfy consumer needs and create a world of sustainable nutrition,” said Marcelo Marques, President and CEO of Kerry Latin America.
Commenting on the announcement, Edson Cortes, Taste Lead for Kerry Latin America, added: “Mexico boasts 35% of the taste market in the Latin America region and presents solid opportunities for growth and innovation. With sustainability at the core of our Taste portfolio, this site will also enable us to deliver tailored solutions for customers in the regions. This important investment positions Kerry as the leader in the flavours market in Latin America as we seek to consolidate our position in the market and deliver great taste solutions with our customers.” Kerry

The Union of European Soft Drinks Associations (UNESDA) has revealed its enhanced health and nutrition targets to help Europeans manage their intake of added sugars from soft drinks with a pledge to reduce sugar by a further 10% by 2025. The new targets will represent a 33% overall reduction in average added sugars over the last two decades, building on past sugar reduction milestones that the industry achieved from 2015 to 2019 (14.6% reduction on average) and from 2000 to 2015 (13.3% reduction on average).

Nicholas Hodac, Director-General of UNESDA, says these new goals are “very ambitious,” and the soft drinks industry will accelerate the speed and scale of its sugar reductions.  “However, we are very confident that we will deliver on our new pledge. We will do so through increasing our efforts on the reformulation of existing products and innovation of new products, including using low-calorie sweeteners.”

Further, UNESDA will introduce products in smaller pack sizes to support portion control and continue to invest in the promotion of no- and low-sugar products to drive consumer choice toward healthier products. The European Association of Sugar Manufacturers, CEFS, stands behind the objective of the Farm to Fork Strategy.

Currently, no soft drinks are advertised anywhere in Europe to children younger than 12 years old, where the audience consists of more than 35% of this age group. However, taste is a key driver of consumer preference, and it is important to raise the acceptance of beverages with lower sweetness. Kerry’s solutions, such as TasteSense Sweet, address side effects from sweeteners and enhance mouthfeel attributes while delivering balanced taste and sweetness from interactions with taste receptors. Manufacturers adopt various strategies in response: reformulate their main brand along healthier lines or keep the original but develop an alternative offering a healthier option, for instance, 30% fewer sugars.  FoodIngredientsFirst

Refresco, the world’s largest independent bottler for retailers and A-brands in Europe and North America, announce it has entered into an agreement to acquire HANSA-HEEMANN. This transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

HANSA-HEEMANN, headquartered in Rellingen, Germany, is a family-owned, independent beverage manufacturer with five production sites spread across Germany. The vast majority of HANSA-HEEMANN’s volume (60%) is in mineral water, with the remaining 40% of its volume in carbonated soft drinks (CSD). HANSA-HEEMANN serves three different market segments: private label, own brands, and contract manufacturing for A-brands. HANSA-HEEMANN employs over 800 people with an annual revenue of approximately EUR300 million.

Water is the largest category within the non-alcoholic beverage market. The landscape is highly competitive and rapidly changing with many smaller local and regional players who maintain a strong foothold. Branded players with a wide range of water products are looking for opportunities to grow with retail discounters. In addition, the focus on sustainability continues resulting in for example, increased demand for recycled PET and reduction in operational carbon footprint. Refresco

For most months during the 2020-21 Florida citrus season, oranges did not meet the federal minimum standard of 10.5 degrees Brix for NFC OJ according to a slide shown during Florida Citrus Mutual’s recent annual meeting, the average Brix level for oranges during the season was 10.45. Brix is a measure of the sugar content of juice. Consequently, Mutual, the state-wide grower association, will lead an effort to have the federal Food and Drug Administration temporarily suspend enforcement of the minimum Brix level. The low Brix levels were not the only concern during the past citrus season. Mutual CEO Mike Sparks reported there were increased imports of Mexican OJ in 2020-21. He said Mutual will continue to monitor those imports and other trade issues “for any improprieties.”

Sparks also had good things to report about the season. He said US Department of Agriculture purchases of OJ totalled USD132 million, and that US OJ sales skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said there have been improvements to the federal H-2A program which allows the use of seasonal temporary workers. The vast majority of Florida citrus is harvested by H-2A workers.

Florida Legislature appropriated more than USD32 million for a variety of citrus programs in Florida. One of the programs funded by the Legislature is the Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) program. CRAFT Executive Director Kristen Carlson reported that the program has funded 106 projects in 15 Florida counties. CRAFT offers growers financial incentives to plant new trees that will be produced using specific HLB mitigation strategies. “The most important measure of success (in the CRAFT program) will be the fruit production reported by the grower,” Carlson said.  CitrusIndustry