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| Foto: Puur-aroma.com |
As the stands were dismantled in December on the largest Fi Europe exhibition ever to have taken place in the event’s 25-year history, companies were already actively hatching their launch plans for early2012 for the first products naturally sweetened with stevia to be introduced in Europe.
Steviol glycosides (or stevia) received final approval for use in Europe following the formal adoption of the European Commission’s Regulation in November. This opens the floodgates to ‘natural’ product launches and relaunches during 2012 as stevia extracts, already used in the US, Latin America and France among other markets, can now be formulated in a wide range of products such as yogurts, cereals, beverages, soft drinks, confectionery, chocolate and tabletop sweeteners in Europe.
Legislation is also the driver of another area of activity for 2012, that of labelling. Following agreement on the long-awaited European Food Information Regulation, food companies will have three years to conform to most of the rules, and five years in particular to comply with new rules on nutrition values, which include a ‘mandatory nutrition declaration’ comprising energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrates, protein, sugars and salt to be indicated in the same field of vision on a label, per 100g or per100ml of product.
Other important changes that companies will have to address in the coming months involve the use of compulsory country of origin labelling for fresh meat of pork, lamb and poultry and the mandatory allergen labelling of foods sold loose.
All brand owners will have to take into consideration the new minimum font size for all mandatory information, and the requirement not to mislead consumers ‘by the appearance, description, or pictorial presentation of food packaging’.
To support food & beverage manufacturers with these changes, Food & Beverage International will be covering some of the hottest new stevia offerings for formulators in its February issue, and a report detailing the developments in legislation in the May issue.
In addition, FoodBev Media has teamed up with Koelnmesse, the organiser of Anuga FoodTec, to bring you up-to-the-minute news of developments planned for the foremost event of the food & beverage manufacturing year.
Reflecting the new buoyant mood in the industry, Anuga FoodTec has already registered record numbers of exhibitors and an additional hall has been taken up in Cologne to accommodate the increase in demand.
Manufacturers of equipment, packaging & packaging machinery, safety solutions and services have been working on their innovations for almost three years, since the last show in 2009, and their painstaking efforts will be demonstrated to great effect during the four days of the show (27–30 March).
In cooperation with Koelnmesse, Food & Beverage International will be running dedicated pre-show supplements of planned activity in the February and March issues.
As with trends underlying developments at Anuga FoodTec and already seen during2011, sustainability, energy saving, ethical sourcing, safety, innovation and natural &healthy will be key drivers during 2012.
These issues and more will be under the spotlight in the August issue of Food &Beverage International, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year in August.
A detailed retrospective of activities and developments that have shaped the food &beverage manufacturing industry during the past 10 years will be published in the anniversary issue.
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