Data Collection in Food Processing: Creating Better Processes for a Better Product

/in /by

Data collection is often an overlooked part of food processing.

Removing or changing ingredients to create a cleaner label can exasperate or expose flaws in the processing of your product.

Creating adequate process controls helps eliminate those flaws but requires you to have sufficient data collection.

Numbers don’t lie — they help track your product’s performance over time. They can help fine-tune your process by identifying production flaws that lead to product quality issues or production failures.

In this article, we’ll look at how and where to collect data so you can create better process controls and, ultimately, a better product.

Read more

How to Tighten Process Controls for a Cleaner Food Label

/in /by

Replacing functional ingredients with natural alternatives can cause serious product quality issues without the right process controls.

Many processors are replacing, reducing, or removing functional ingredients to create a cleaner label, but don’t fully understand the impact those replacements can have on product quality.

Last month, we shared 9 natural alternatives that were the best to use if you wanted to avoid product quality issues.

But ingredients are only part of the equation.

Having a tight process control can have a significant impact on improving yields, consistency, quality, and food safety.

Read more

Natural Ingredients

9 Natural Ingredients to Use in Cleaner Label Products

/in /by

Over the last 10-15 years, the food industry has made a shift to create products with “cleaner labels” or natural ingredients.

This trend stemmed from consumers demanding healthier options.

Think back to Panera Bread’s “No-No” List that pushed the demand to remove chemical-sounding ingredients from their products.

Ingredients containing “-ites” and “-ates” in their name, such as sodium lactate, sodium phosphate, and sodium nitrite were considered bad, but found in the normal consumer’s pantry.

Replacing these ingredients for more natural ingredients created a myriad of product quality and yield issues, as “-ite” and “-ate” ingredients are considered functional ingredients.

Before you start making the switch, it’s important to understand these functional ingredients and the proper alternatives to use.

Read more