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GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2018 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 4 Hot Start-Ups Show Their Wares at Winter Fancy Food Show BY ROBIN MATHER Matt Beeson doesn't like vinegar. More specifically, he doesn't like vinegar in the hot sauces he's used since his early days in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "It tastes like gak," he says. "Vinegar tastes like wine that suf- fered a lonely death from sheer neglect be- cause the wine was already so awful nobody would drink it." So the inventive and curious Beeson de- vised a solution. Vinegar's role in hot sauces is as both preservative and flavor extractor — its acidity pulls the capsaicin from the peppers immersed in it. Could alcohol do the same thing? he wondered. Beeson and his wife, Cassie Felder, spent several months toying with the idea in their own kitchen, bolstered with glass after glass of "slightly chilled Chardonnay," he says. They weren't having much success, he says, until it occurred to him to consult with the Food Incubator at Louisiana State University's AgCenter, right in Baton Rouge. There, with the help of food science professors and students, he learned that his idea was sound and figured out the process and recipes to launch Swamp Dragon hot sauces. Beeson showed off the Swamp Dragon line — hot sauces made with bases of bour- bon, tequila, vodka or rum — at the Winter Fancy Food Show January 21-23 in San Francisco, California. Each is made with a signature blend of peppers, and, while they include booze in the ingredients, they're safe for minors and can be shipped across state lines. Suggested retail price is $8 for a five-ounce bottle, or $16 for a "dragon clutch" of two-ounce bottles for all the va- rieties. At the Fancy Food Show, Beeson was sampling Swamp Dragon on chocolate chip cookies to demonstrates his sauces' affinity for sweet as well as savory dishes. Without the tang that vinegar brings to hot sauces, the peppers' flavors are clear and unmud- died. The bourbon-based version is espe- cially good with chocolate. For more information, visit www.swamp dragonhotsauce.com. From Cricket Snacks to Nut Butters Aspire Food Group showed its cricket snacks, from insects raised commercially near Austin, Texas, in the Incubator Alley section of the Winter Fancy Food Show. The company also helps local farmers in Ghana raise palm weevil larvae, where the larvae are considered a delicacy. The Spe- cialty Food Association honored co- Founder and CEO Mohammed Ashour with a leadership award this year. More at www.aspirefg.com. Axel Provisions Co. sampled a line of its chimichurri sauces, including Traditional, Spicy and Verde for marinating or dressing prepared foods. Suggested re- tail price for the line is $8.99 for a nine-ounce jar. The com- pany is also launching its pickled onion line with both sweet and hot variations. Learn more at www.axelprovi- sions.com. Cusa Tea showed off its line of cold-brewed, freeze-dried instant gourmet teas, includ- ing organic English breakfast, organic Oolong, Lemon Or- ganic Black, Organic Green, and Mango Green, all with sug- gested retail prices of $9.99 for a package of 10 sachets. The teas dissolve instantly in hot water, and in seconds in cold water, making Cusa a good choice for trips, an afternoon pick-me-up at work, or camping. For more information, visit www.cusatea.com. Smokin' Mary's line of bloody mary mix had the clear, bright flavors of really fresh ingredients, and just the right amount of punch. Co-Founder Laurie Nadeau makes the mix from smoked whole tomatoes in Amador County, California, and also showed dilly beans, spicy asparagus and candied cocktail nuts. Suggested retail price for the mix is $14 for a 25.4- ounce bottle. More at www.smokin- mary.com. Teriacha sauce combines sriracha with teriyaki sauce, making a flavor- ful sweet-spicy condiment suited for a wide variety of uses. Founder Chad Manciagli of Scottsdale, Ari- zona, has created three flavor pro- files: Original, Smoky Chipotle and Zesty Southwest, with an extra fla- vor boost from lime juice and cumin. Suggested retail price is $9.99 for an 18-ounce bottle. Find out more at www.teriacha.com. The Hungry Elephant showed a line of Indian-spiced chips and snacks, including Light Salted and spicy Nana chips, made with plantain. The company has adopted as its mission to feed the people and animals of the world, so "every bite our consumers take will help eradicate hunger in some way," says Founder Ramakanth Subbagari of Union City, California. Learn more at www.hungryelephantchips.com. Four generations of farmers, two family farms and a lot of walnuts led to Wellnut Farms and its introduction of a line of wal- nut butters, which includes Original, Maple and Salted Caramel flavors. Walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acid alpha linolenic acid, considered a boon for hearth health. They're also high in copper, folic acid, phosphorus and vitamin B-6. The company was to have launched on Amazon in February. Meanwhile, for more informa- tion, visit www.wellnutfarms.com. ZenSweet offered a variety of monkfruit sweetener products, including a table sweetener and a couple of baking mixes for chocolate brownies and chocolate chip cookies. The company was founded in 2015 by Corey Winer and Michelle Francis. Suggested retail price for the table sweet- ener, which measures the same as refined sugar for cooking and baking, is $12.99 for a one-pound bag. Learn more at www.zensweet.com. GN Sugar Substitutes Continued from PAGE 1 they're looking for natural sweeteners, in- cluding stevia, maple syrup, monkfruit, agave syrup and allulose. They're more comfortable with sugar alcohol sweeteners such as sorbitol and xylitol, and they ac- cept erythritol, a natural sweetener made from glucose fermented with yeast that's been around since the mid-1800s. "We've seen non-nutritive sweeteners starting to increase, largely driven by ste- via," said Stephanie Mattucci, an Associate Director of Food Science at Mintel, in a 2017 interview with Beverage Daily. The Mintel report showed that nearly half the consumers surveyed believed that diet soda is as unhealthy as regular soda, the story said. Changes in FDA Nutrition Panel Ahead Manufacturers are rushing to get their for- mulations lined up because of changes to the nutrition facts panel scheduled to take place in 2020. That's when manufacturers will be required to list added sugars on the nutrition label. Manufacturers are working on formula changes now, in part because each of the sugar substitutes, whether they are alterna- tive forms of sugar such as agave or monk- fruit, or non-caloric ingredients such as stevia, brings its own set of headaches to the mix. Common headaches for the formula- tion team include off flavors, failure to brown in baking, and an inability to assume sugar's role in the chemistry of baking. There's a newcomer on the scene that solves all those problems. It's allulose, cre- ated by a natural enzymatic reaction with the fructose in figs, raisins, beets and corn. Though it's only 70 percent as sweet as sugar, it has no aftertaste, has a tenth of sugar's calories but it doesn't raise blood sugar as white sugar — sucrose — does. It can play sugar's role in baked goods, and it browns in baking. Additionally, it costs less that either stevia or monkfruit. It has been rumored that the FDA will add a line for allulose on the nutrition facts labels, just has it has done for sugar alco- hols. Manufacturers could explain allulose's benefits on labels. But many manufacturers are banking on more familiar substitutes. "Stevia has definitely had an uptick," says William Donahoe, Vice President of Consumer Products for Born Sweet Zing sweeteners, a line of spoonable and baking sugar substitutes sweetened with stevia that's a subsidiary of Domino, the sugar giant. "Chemical-based sweeteners are def- initely declining." He says that he's seeing consumers turn- ing to "less white and more brown" in their sweeteners, propelled in large part by their desire for organic ingredients. "Definitely, from what I've seen of the millennial market, they want clean label, natural, sometimes organic ingredients," says Leopoldo Cruz DiPasa, Managing Di- rector and CEO of Dipasa USA, based in Brownsville, Texas. His company produces tapioca, agave and hibiscus syrups in coop- eration with Mexican growers. Beyond their love of clean, transparent labeling, Millennials also want ingredients sourced in fair and sustainable ways. "These are fair trade, sustainably produced ingredients," he says. "All these products support whole communities and support permanent ben- eficial development." Another alternative sweetener, maple syrup, is a growing force in the segment, and it's especially popular with customers in their 50s and above, says Jackson Dowd, Head of Marketing and Sales for Mount Mansfield Maple of Winooski, Vermont, which has been family-owned for five gen- erations. "Maple has antioxidants and min- erals that sugar doesn't have," he says. Consumers on a quest for healthful ingre- dients appreciate that, he says. On the sugar alcohol side, Amy Davis, Education Coordinator and Product Spe- cialist for Swerve, says she thinks the change in consumer behavior is "mostly health driven." While "sugar will always be cheaper than alternative sweeteners for companies to use," she says, Swerve, made from erythritol coming from non-GMO sources in France and the United States, is a great alternative for consumers. "Swerve isn't a chemical sweetener," she says. "It's already being used in Quest bars and Halo Top ice cream." GN

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