Whether it’s to enhance flavor profiles, reduce calories or to mask the off-notes of added vitamins and minerals, beverage manufacturers continue to turn to sweeteners to help produce products that appeal to consumers’ taste preferences.
Growing concerns about increasing rates of obesity and related diseases such as diabetes have bolstered the need for new sweetener solutions. From 2009 to 2010, 35.7 percent of U.S. adults were obese, according to data released in January by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta.
Somewhat serendipitously, I opted to read the May 16 edition of The New Yorker featuring an in-depth profile on PepsiCo’s food and beverage innovation plans while traveling to last month’s IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo in New Orleans. The “Snacks for a Fat Planet” article by John Seabrook details PepsiCo’s plans for innovation across its portfolio of products with insight from senior PepsiCo executives, including Jonathan McIntyre, senior vice president of R&D global beverages, who was featured in Beverage Industry’s April cover story.