The events of the past few years have sealed cultured dairy in the minds of consumers as the primary method of attaining a healthy gut microbiome for enhanced immune function. Prepared Foods' David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical, interviews Dr. Miguel Freitas, Vice President of Health and Scientific Affairs for Danone North America, and learns what’s next in how cultured dairy and cultured dairy analogs positively impact immune health.

Prepared Foods Chief Editor Bob Garrison talks protein with Dr. Baljit Ghotra, co-CEO and co-founder of EQUII Foods, a San Francisco Bay-area start-up whose Equii retail and foodservice breads and bread mixes boast two times more protein, 30% fewer carbs, and 50% less sugar compared to other leading brands.

If anything good came out of the three-year Covid pandemic, it would have to be the re-invigoration of healthy eating among consumers. And part of that is evident in the surge in consumers including more produce in their diets. David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods network, sits down with research chef and consultant John Csukor to discuss what developers need to know when it comes to incorporating fruit and fruit ingredients into foods and beverages. Mr. Csukor is the...

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, interviews Tucker Garrison, co-founder of Imlak’esh Organics, Inc. and its Chi Foods company, makers of plant-based ground pork and pork chorizo analogs from the most unusual South American sacha inchi nut, a star-shaped rainforest nut that boasts more than a quarter of its content as protein and around half of its fat component as omega-3 fatty acids. In the rapidly growing universe of plant-based meats, where alternate proteins are...

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, sits down with long-time regular contributor Kerry Hughes, principal for EthnoPharm. As an ethnobotanist, herbalist, and author with a 20-year record of success in natural product development, Ms. Hughes specializes in global natural product development and education, innovative product formulation, and nexus-of-market opportunity identification.

Prepared Foods talks upcycled ingredients and sustainable food innovation with Angie Crone, CEO of the Upcycled Food Association.

How do corporate chefs influence new product innovation? Prepared Foods profiles refrigerated foods giant Reser’s Fine Foods, Beaverton, Ore., and interviews Chef Sean Dwigans, Culinary Business Development Manager; and Chef Todd Ketterman, Culinary Manager. In this installment, Dwigans and Ketterman share how they research food trends and incorporate new flavors, tastes, textures and ingredients.

How do corporate chefs influence new product innovation? Prepared Foods profiles refrigerated foods giant Reser’s Fine Foods, Beaverton, Ore., and interviews Chef Sean Dwigans, Culinary Business Development Manager; and Chef Todd Ketterman, Culinary Manager. In this installment, Dwigans and Ketterman discuss the new product development process, timelines, and interactions with customers and their own food scientist colleagues in R&D.

The crowded field of plant-based animal proteins tends to skirt the humble egg. As substitute ingredients in baking formulations are common, but very few players are tackling the breakfast table side of the equation. David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods sits down with Harold Bollaci, founder and CEO of The Vegg New York, LLC, and Rocky Shepherd, co-founder, inventor, and artist, makers of The Vegg vegan scrambled eggs and whole egg yolk substitutes.

Prepared Foods' Executive Editor-Technical David Feder shares some new hot and spicy sauces and snacks he spotted at Natural Products Expo West 2023. The new product launches demonstrate that the category of pepper-infused foods and beverages not only is continuing to grow but is expanding in variety.

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods media, takes a look at the trends in pasta and all things noodles, with Ann Contos, Senior Product Development Manager and Yury Krasilovsky, Executive Chef, Foodservice R&D for Barilla America, Inc., makers of pastas, pestos, and sauces since 1877.

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods media, interviews Paul Kollesoff, co-founder of The Urgent Co., makers of industry-upsetters Brave Robot animal-free ice cream and Modern Kitchen animal-free cream cheese. Real dairy products made through the process of precision fermentation-derived real dairy proteins.

The media, and especially social media, have gone viral over a recently released study implicating the polyol sweetener erythritol in cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. If you’ve been following this controversy surrounding erythritol, don’t panic yet. Check in first with David Feder, Executive Editor—Technical for Prepared Foods as he provides some reasoned opinion on the matter.

Executive Editor Technical David Feder interviews Zilian Cheuk, Vice-president of Product Development, and Hugo Perez, an executive for ZenB US, Inc., makers of pastas, sauces, and snacks from yellow peas on how the company’s single-ingredient yellow pea pasta is not only an excellent mimic for wheat pasta but helps promote digestive health, a key aspect of immunity.

Ethnobotanist, herbalist, and author Kerry Hughes, MSc, principal for EthnoPharm shares five botanical ingredients food and beverage developers should be paying close attention to. Some will be familiar, some will be new, and Kerry will tell us what put them on her radar and how product makers can make the best use of them.

Prepared Foods talks all things sugar reduction—from ingredients to formulation strategies—with Lindsay Wisener. Wisener is the owner and principal at WiseBev, a beverage development consultancy specializing in better-for-you beverages. In this podcast, Wisener identifies some of the most active beverage categories for sugar reduction, interesting new finished products, new ingredient options and strategies for overall formulation.

In this podcast, David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, welcomes Professor Hinnerk Von Bargen of the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio. Professor Von Bargen, a regular contributor to Prepared Foods, shares his expertise on the trends and techniques that marry together seemingly disparate culinary styles and flavors in order to create new products with a flavor synchronicity that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gwendolyn Wyard of the Organic Trade Association helps to define regenerative agriculture and how it differs from organic farming.

Nick Fallucca, Chief Product and Innovation Officer of Palermo Villa, Inc., brainstorms pizza with Prepared Foods’ Executive Editor-Technical David Feder.

Prepared Foods talks with executives at OWYN (Only What You Need), a New York City-based processor of plant-based protein and nutrition shakes and powders.

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, interviews Jackie Kim, product manager for Nasoya, a part of Pulmuone Foods, USA, makers of the Nasoya and Plantspired brands of tofu and plant-based foods.

Prepared Foods talks sustainable packaging design and material trends with R. Andrew Hurley, Associate Professor & Director of Entrepreneurship with Clemson University’s Department of Food, Nutrition & Packaging Sciences.

David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, interviews Allison Rittman, research chef and expert on the art and craft of creating organic foods and beverages. Ms. Rittman gives her in-depth analysis of the challenges facing developers and processors formulating or reformulating for organic certification and the tools they need to overcome those challenges.

What do consumers want in indulgent snacking? Prepared Foods talks with Mike Senackerib, CEO for Dewey’s Bakery Inc., a Winston-Salem, N.C., company that’s growing quickly with new products, nationwide distribution and marketing. Senackerib talks strategy and brand-building solutions from his own 33-year career that’s spanned CPG giants to his own recent start-up.

In this special presentation on trends in kosher and halal certification in product development, David Feder, Executive Editor-Technical for Prepared Foods, interviews Joe Regenstein, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Food Science and head of the Kosher and Halal Food Initiative in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Regenstein is perhaps the leading authority on these two religion-based certifications in the academic world today.