Record attendance at ProSweets

ProSweets – International supplier fair for the sweets and snacks industry – ran parallel with ISM in Cologne, Germany from January 27 through 30, 2019. With a 5% increase in visitors from 2018 to 2019, this year’s attendance set a record.

Over 21,000 visitors attended the trade fair from more than 100 countries, of which 70% of the visitors were from abroad. Matching the increase in visitors, there was also a 5% increase in exhibitors compared to 2018, with 343 companies from 34 countries, of which 66% were from abroad.

The ProSweets exhibition highlighted various equipment manufactures for sweets and snacks industry, with the added benefit to visit ISM and see what other products are being offered for sweets and baked goods. ProSweets Cologne showcased further developments for recipes, production, and packaging of sweets and snacks. The range of exhibitors was diverse and covered the entire supply chain.

One innovation with applications for the baking industry was from Tanis Food Tec (TFT). Their brand new RotoPilotPlant is based on the benchtop TFT RotoPilot continuous aeration system that was introduced a decade ago. The RotoPilotPlant has additional heating, cooling and crystallizing capabilities, which are the same as large-scale production lines. It is designed to aerate many different types of products including cream fillings for sandwich biscuits, wafers, marshmallow, angel kiss, and a variety of cake batters. This is an R&D solution for aeration systems to provide reliable and a continuous aeration solution. It is able to provide reproducible results that can be scaled up quickly to large-scale production equipment. It has the capability for continuous crystallizing and aerating of all types of cream type fillings, for sandwich biscuits and wafers as well as the capability to cool a cream, sugar syrup or aerated foam in-line for marshmallow production.

Hi-Food was showcasing MALTEC ™ (patent pending technology) as a natural ingredient that looks like syrup or honey, but contains less than 1% of natural residual sugars. It is low in calories and can be used to replace syrups in products where the sugar and caloric content need to be reduced, but where the functional properties of the syrup and sugar is necessary. These properties can include: humectant, texture, stickiness, bulking, freezing point reduction, cryoprotectant, shelf life extension. MALTEC ™ is made from natural vegetable fibers from legumes and cereals with some residual water. This clean label syrup is soluble in water without adding flavor or odor. It has been tested to replace sugar syrups and humectants in products including bakery, bars, and confectionary.

The next ProSweets Cologne is scheduled for February 2nd through 5 th, 2020 in Cologne, Germany with the 50 th edition of ISM, the world’s largest trade fair for sweets and snacks, also being staged in parallel.

Eye-catching at the ISM: Products with Ruby

Barry Callebaut’s new “Ruby” ruby-red chocolate was among the eye-catching exhibits at the ISM trade fair in Cologne. Ruby has a subtle flavor of red berries, and is manufactured from a cacao bean of the same name. The company launched the pink chocolate in 2017 after ten years of development work and, as it says itself, market research companies such as Innova Market Insights rated it as a worldwide FoodTrend 2019. Barry Callebaut presented product ideas at the trade fair, e.g. donuts with Ruby, and a few producers used the opportunity to introduce new products with Ruby. They also included the Swiss company HUG AG, which presented its “Choco Petit Beurre Ruby” biscuit innovation to the public for the first time. It consists of a dark biscuit and a fine chocolate disk made of Ruby chocolate. +++