Profiting From Food Waste

International scientists meeting at the 2009 Total Food Conference are discussing ways the food industry could make money from food waste.

“Consumers produce a considerable amount of food waste at home but more is produced rthrough the food production chain each year,” said Professor Keith Waldron from the Institute of Food Research.

As reported by AlphaGalileo, scientists proposed a way where high value products can be created from food-grade material. Examples included making high-fiber cookies from guava waste; antioxidants from apple pulp following juice extraction; stabilizers from spent grain; and colorants and biodegradable packaging.

“Extracting high-value components from this free resource makes economic and environmental sense, particularly if it is part of a strategy to use all waste from the food supply chain, for example in the production of biofuels” said Professor Bart Gremmen from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Sources:

• AlphaGalileo: Make money from food waste, say scientists

Cupcakes remain in vogue, and are possibly "even more popular"

No flash in the pan, this pint-size dessert is a sweet fad that won't go away.

Like a Hollywood ingenue, cupcakes have been exposed every which way -- high-end and low, fancy and down-home. But unlike those pretty young things, the cupcake's time in the sun goes on and on.

Cupcakes may seem so 2004, but these little paper-clad stars just keep soaking in the love.

"They're even more popular. I think it's just going to continue," says Nichelle Stephens, who with two friends runs a blog called Cupcakes Take the Cake.

In fact, their popularity may even outlast the star who helped set off this craze: Sarah Jessica Parker, whose "Sex and the City" character -- Carrie Bradshaw -- is seen wearing knee socks and devouring a pink-frosted cupcake outside Manhattan's Magnolia Bakery.

"I don't think you can be angry eating a cupcake," says Tara Settembre, who once lived near the Magnolia Bakery. Since she moved to L.A., she has organized 25 meet-ups at "cupcakeries" around Los Angeles. Her online cupcake group has nearly 500 members.

There are obvious reasons for why people love cupcakes. There's sugar and butter. They remind people of childhood bake sales and birthday parties. And, as my own little cupcake told me, with his teenager's knowing tone: "Mom, they have a perfect cake-to-frosting ratio. And you can hold them."

To each his own

No forks, no plates, maybe just a napkin. You don't have to share. No leftovers. At a bakery, everyone can pick their own flavor. Cupcakes are easy to make and can be decorated for any occasion you care to consider.

And don't discount the thoroughly modern influence of the Internet, where people talk about cupcakes, share pictures of cupcakes, offer recipes for cupcakes and organize competitions and gatherings.

"They're an icon of the American bakery. People want to find something real and natural and true," says Elfie Weis, a Frenchwoman who has been so entranced that she's considering opening a Paris branch of her Mar Vista shop, Hotcakes Bakes.

"They're totally cute. Cookies are boring. Cupcakes are kind of flashy," says the "Milwaukee Cupcake Queen," Sandy Ploy, a Los Angeles native who started an Iron Cupcake challenge that has spread to places around the globe on the ground and online. "There's nothing endearing about a brownie." (Hold your fire, brownie lovers.)

Even if your appetite shrinks at paying $3 or more for one cupcake (I could make a dozen for that), they're still a pretty cheap luxury. Can't afford my mortgage, maybe, but a cupcake? That I can swing.

Cupcakes, says Candace Nelson, who owns the five Sprinkles Cupcakes shops with her husband, are "the lipstick of the food world -- a little pick-me-up that people still can afford."

At Nelson's shop in Beverly Hills, where about 1,000 cupcakes a day are sold -- not to mention those who-needs-cake "frosting shots" in little paper cups -- Estela Castillo of Westchester gushes over her favorite, a vanilla-frosted vanilla cupcake, which she loves for "the denseness, a nice, dense, yummy cake. . . . I could go on and on."

And then there's the rather less obvious attribute, says blogger Stephens: "You can have a cupcake the same color as your nail polish!"

Pretty in pink

Yes, cupcakes can be a pretty girlie treat. Often sold in shops decorated with pink and green or in boxes topped with flowery decorations, cupcakes make a fashion statement akin to grown women carrying Hello Kitty handbags, says food blogger Cathy Danh.

Unlike a purse, however, a cupcake habit comes with calories, though fans tend not to focus on them.

"A cupcake in its cute little box doesn't seem as detrimental to your waistline," Danh says.

Even the Retail Bakers of America, on its official list of a baker's dozen reasons behind the cult, notes that cupcakes are "somewhat indulgent, yet sensible because they are portion-controlled."

Just ask Nicole Winhoffer, a personal trainer who says she has a daily Sprinkles habit. When I suggest that's a lot of cupcakes for someone who is as fit as she is and ask if she knows how many . . . she interrupts before I can get the words out, with, "Yes, 497 calories." (For the record, Nelson says she does not have an official calorie count.)

Cupcakes have become one of those generic gifts -- high status but not too personal, says Genevieve Ostrander, who owns Delilah Bakery in Echo Park. During the December holidays, Ostrander says friends told her, Hollywood mailrooms were piled floor to ceiling with gift boxes of cupcakes. At least it's not fruitcake.

At Johnny Cupcakes on Melrose Avenue, they're not even cupcakes. Not real ones, anyway. The decor is fake ovens, bakery cases, aprons, pastry boxes. The store stocks T-shirts with images that use cupcakes to replace pop icons -- the skull and crossbones, the Statue of Liberty's torch.

You can eat your cupcake and wear it too.

Granted, some people might be tired of cupcakes. A colleague who brought some to a recent dinner party in Manhattan was greeted with this: "Oh, thanks. How third grade."

Was that supposed to be an insult? Come on, childhood is part of the point. And besides, nutrition-conscious schools have outlawed cupcakes.

"I actually am in love with what my friends call the chemical cupcakes" -- supermarket ones sweet enough to make your teeth seize, Ostrander says.

Grown-up pleasure

But despite the popularity of basic chocolate or vanilla, don't mistake cupcakes for kid-only food. Try blueberry-Port cupcakes or "cuptails" flavored like margaritas. Or tiers of elegantly iced wedding cupcakes.

And Martha Stewart is chiming in with some -- surprise, surprise -- labor-intensive decoration and presentation ideas in her book "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes," published Tuesday. These include graduation cupcakes topped with cookies made to look like diplomas (tied with blue sour candy ribbons), cupcakes covered in piped grass icing with little marzipan ladybugs, and cupcakes frosted to look like little chicks.

And then there's the Obama "cupcake cake" from Polkatots Cupcakes in Pasadena.

The winner of the 2009 L.A. Cupcake Challenge, an event that drew 450 people, the shop makes goodies that look like decorated sheet cakes but actually are dozens of nestled cupcakes.

One of their creations is a knockoff of Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama portrait in red and blue, which took about 100 cupcakes, says one of the shop's owners, Alma Tarriba.

There also is a scarlet mystery in cupcakes: Why do customers fall for red velvet?

"We've tried to figure that out and we can't," says Brogan Faye, an owner of Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank and Santa Monica.

Mainstreaming Authentic Hispanic Flavors

Products from Goya Foods, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, such as black beans, pink beans or chickpeas, demonstrate the migration of foods across aisles and into mainstream grocery baskets. “You probably wouldn’t have seen a Goya product in any abundance several years ago,” says Anton Angelich, group vice president marketing, Virginia Dare, Brooklyn, NY. “You may have seen it in an ethnic aisle. You may have seen it in a specialty store. If you walk into any supermarket just about anywhere in the United States today you’re going to find Goya products in a pretty prominent position with a lot of facings on the shelf space. You see observationally, or if you do any market research, people who are shopping in the Goya aisle are not necessarily Hispanic. A lot of people have accepted those products. It’s a very high-quality product that appeals to everybody.”

Beans have widespread appeal because they are economical and nutritious. “Beans are a typical daily part of Hispanic/Latino cuisine,” says Víctor Lobo DiPalma, technical manager, Latin America, ADM, Decatur, IL. “While the United States has come to know restaurant refried beans as a salty, fat-added side dish hidden under lettuce shreds, Hispanic/Latino cuisine in America is getting back to its more-traditional fresh-food roots, making the dishes leaner and less-sodium-laden, with beans coming back to the center of the plate. North Americans have, in many instances, been accustomed to potatoes and meat at most meals. While chicken and beef will not leave this position, smaller portions of animal proteins over a bean and rice mixture will be more economical without lowering the amount of protein or the customer’s expectations in the full dish, with a benefit of added fiber and nutrients and lower cholesterol.

“True Latin American bean dishes are commonly prepared with very simple, fresh ingredients—lots of onion, some garlic and finely chopped celery sprinkled with oregano,” continues DiPalma. “While beans themselves are fairly bland, they are great flavor carriers. They can be cooked and added whole to a sauce or mashed into a paste combined with diced, sautéed vegetables, then whipped for a ‘mashed potato’ everyone will love.”

Mainstreaming flavor

The heightened spiciness of Hispanic dishes is a common misconception. “Many people think of chiles when they think of Latin cuisine,” says Amy Marr, vice president of marketing, Gilroy Foods and Flavors, Omaha, NE. “The American palate loves heat, but with the wide variety of chiles used in Latin cooking, it’s becoming more about the flavors found in those chiles. For instance, habanero chiles pack a fierce punch, but also have a fruity undertone. According to USDA figures, Americans are eating 38% more chile peppers than they were in 1996, and they’re branching out beyond the jalapeño in their exploration of chile varietals.”

Marr also notes that “citrus flavors, such as lime, play an important role. Herbs like cilantro and oregano, and spices like cumin and annatto, are combined into pastes and rubs for meat and fish.”

However, heat is still a draw for some consumers. At McClancy Seasoning Co., Fort Mill, SC, Reid Wilkerson, president, is seeing an increase in imports of red hot peppers. “I’m grinding hotter red pepper than we ever have, 60,000, 80,000 SHU,” he says. “Americans are eating hotter and spicier foods.”

Wilkerson finds that many manufacturers are not reducing the heat to accommodate American consumers. “People are looking to create products that are more authentic and more true to the actual recipes and things that they’re seeing. That’s even spilling over into the prepared-food segment,” he says.

At times, less-fiery chiles do the trick. Poblano, Santa Fe, Coronado and some ancho chile peppers can be used to deliver minimal, if any, heat to the palate, suggests Zack Sanders, technical services and business development manager, Kraft Food Ingredients, Memphis, TN.

Roasting chiles for meat sautés, soups and stews is a technique offered by Chris Keegan, R&D chef, Cargill Flavor Systems, Cincinnati. To widen appeal, he believes “it’s not a question of modifying the flavors so much as expanding the use to jazz-up American dishes.” He suggests creating a green chile sauce to top omelets, or adding chipotle to soups, stews and creamy dips.

No doubt, the most-popular flavors are chipotle, cilantro, chiles, masa, cumin and lime,” says Keegan. He predicts increased use of “spices like cinnamon and clove, as well as increased use of an herb called epazote. During the next few years, I expect the next big push in a couple of years will be the Oaxaca moles. The flavors are so complex and unique, they are bound to create consumer interest.”

Guaijillo chile is a typical Hispanic flavor, as are coffee, chocolate, lard or fried flavors, notes Justin Young, executive chef, Kraft Food Ingredients; and “lard flavor or fried corn chip flavor” can help manufacturers develop “authentic tastes in moles, sauces and marinades while minimizing ingredients and processing steps.” Other robust flavors “can serve as a foundation for developing the regional applications which are very much on-trend, such as Oaxacan-style or Monterrey-style dishes,” he says.

Grilled flavors can replicate notes obtained by grilling or slow roasting over a wood fire. “High-heat searing and grilling is also common for dishes such as arrachera (flank steak),” says Sanders, and can be achieved with seared beef flavors and/or charbroiled flavor.

Soy sauce may seem an unlikely flavor in Hispanic dishes, but Debbie Carpenter, senior marketing manager, foodservice & industrial, Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc., San Francisco, explains: “In Peru, the Japanese influence is historically strong, thanks to immigration patterns, and you’ll find soy sauce in dishes like ceviche and lomo saltado, a stir-fry of beef, peppers and potatoes. In addition, many Latin dishes fit right into the growing demand for healthy or vegetarian foods. That means that product developers are looking for ways to create the rich, deep umami flavors typically associated with meat—without using meat products.” She recommends soy sauce for marinades and rubs, meat jerky, powdered soup mixes and snack coatings and to “give a meaty flavor to vegetarian refried beans, to add umami to meat or meatless chili, and to deepen and round out the flavors of chile sauces like moles.”

Consider queso

Cheese can add mainstream appeal to most any dish. “Traditional Hispanic cheeses have a mild, easy flavor, unlike French-style cheeses with big, bold flavors,” says Young. “These mild, fresh cheeses are able to blend well with spicy and/or hot flavor profiles, as well as to incorporate other subtle flavor nuances that are traditionally Hispanic in origin and are found in simple, homey peasant foods.”

Conventional Hispanic cheeses, such as queso fresco, queso blanco, queso asadero and queso Oaxaca, are becoming increasingly available in the United States. However, many Americans equate Monterey Jack cheese with the cuisine.

Monterey Jack’s mild profile “blends very well with other distinctive flavors,” says Pamela Schoenster, associate principal scientist, Kraft Food Ingredients. “The ability to make the Monterey Jack cheese flavor profile available in several different melt modifications allows for its use in a broad range of applications.”

Schoenster recommends using high-melt Monterey Jack with jalapeño for fillings or appetizers that need melt restriction. “This cheese can be shredded or diced, which makes it very easy to blend with other ingredients,” she says. “Also available is a restricted-melt Monterey Jack cheese sauce with jalapeño peppers. This cheese sauce can be pumped or dispensed at refrigerated temperatures, which is great for incorporating into taquitos and other wrap-type applications.”

The Monterey Jack profile is also available in a restricted-melt cheese-sauce powder. That “allows the end user to determine how it is rehydrated and used. It can be used in fillings containing IQF vegetables. These types of vegetables often give up excess water which, if allowed for in the rehydration ratio, will be picked up by this sauce,” says Schoenster.

Young also suggests other “restricted-melt cheeses with mild flavor profiles that exhibit similar qualities to fresh queso in meltability, form and function in particular dishes and applications.”

Fruits galore

Wilkerson observes many convenience stores are now stocking Hispanic foods. “You’re seeing a lot of bottled juices and soft drinks imported from Mexico,” he says.” You’re also seeing cross-shopping on that. The juice blends are interesting.”

Lime is key to many Hispanic beverages. While the mojito flavor is associated with an alcoholic drink, Angelich notes that flavor is finding its way into all kinds of beverages, such as energy drinks, teas and vitamin waters. “Some of it is labeled as such. Some is influenced. You’ll see the growth of lime that may or may not be attributed to mojito on a label or in marketing,” he says.

Angelich suggests care when formulating for an ethnic audience, because there’s great variation among flavors. For instance, “there’s something like 2,600 cultivars of mango,” he says. “The mangos that are in South Asia and India are very different than the ones in Mexico vs. the Dominican Republic. They all have different tastes and flavor notes.”

Angelich also believes that “we’ll probably see more things coming out of Mexico, things like pineapple soda, coconut soda. As more Hispanics become more dispersed all over the country, you’ll find those kinds of products showing up in a lot of places where they and other people shop.”

Because of this influence, Angelich sees tropical fruit flavors such as pineapple, lemon, lime and some mandarin oranges continuing to expand. However, he cautions, “something that you find in a Mexican market taste-wise is very different from something that originated here. It may be flavors that are of the same kind, but with a different kind of taste and skewed to them.”

It’s important to consider perception when formulating with flavors Americans are familiar with. “To non-Hispanic Americans, cinnamon is associated with a much more narrow taste base,” says Angelich. “It goes with apple pie. It goes with certain pastries. People in the mainstream are not used to putting cinnamon in red tea or in pineapple or into something else. If you’re trying to capitalize on something like a cinnamon taste that appeals to Hispanics, you’d have to put it at levels where it doesn’t seem incongruous. If you put cinnamon at high levels, it may taste like apple pie. But as a subtle background note, it’s pleasant.” The quality and character of the cinnamon is equally important. The cinnamon flavor associated with a farm-fresh apple pie is very different from a Red Hots® candy.

Fruits in the Hispanic market are also influenced by the health-and-wellness trend. “A lot of Hispanic people are starting to get very interested in nutrition and health from diet,” finds Angelich. “In the research we’ve done, we’ve found pretty high levels of interest in superfruits and interest in trying things they haven’t tried before in that area, like pomegranate and açaí. The media is reaching these people. These products are advertised and show up in a lot of places. You may end up with some fusion, maybe a pineapple-açaí or a pineapple-pomegranate.”

To successfully launch new products, Angelich cautions that “you link that to a chord of familiarity. Some of them may not like an açaí or a pomegranate. It may not be as pleasant-tasting as strawberry, vanilla or chocolate, but if you blend it, you get the perception of health benefits and couple it with something that’s familiar. We’ve done some interesting research with drink flavors for tea. We found high levels of interest in Hispanic consumers wanting to try pomegranate, blueberry, lime, lychee, which, except for lime, are things that are not traditionally associated with Hispanic heritage flavors. Other ones they wanted to try in tea and hadn’t are more classic things like cinnamon, tangerine, mango, papaya and pineapple.”

Crossing over

As the burgeoning Hispanic demographic becomes more enmeshed in America, the influences become more pronounced. Wilkerson sees keen interest in Spanish rice products and Cuban-beef-style seasonings. “You’re starting to see some of the staples of Latin cuisine starting to be fused with other things,” he says.

Authentic Latin American foods are as healthful as the black bean and corn salsa that is commonly showing up on restaurant menus. These dishes are flavored with fresh ingredients like lime and cilantro, rather than fat.

According to Marr, the culture’s street food fits in with America’s on-the-go lifestyle. “In Latin America, hand-held, portable food of every description, from grilled corn slathered with mayonnaise to spears of pineapple, mango and cucumber sprinkled with lime juice and chili powder, are available on every corner,” she says. “Latin cuisine offers a wealth of ideas in food, format and flavor.”

The key to developing products with true crossover appeal largely comes down to credibility of the product if it has a Hispanic name or bilingual information on the package. “One of the things that’s very important in positioning anything that has a Hispanic connection to it,” says Angelich, is to ask: “Is it just a taste that you deliver? Is it a Hispanic message you deliver? Does it go with the package, or does it work against the marketing effort? Somebody may say it’s foreign. It’s too distant. It’s not meant for me. Or does it have some magical appeal? This has to be tested against your target audience. In looking at products that you want to market for the mainstream population that has Hispanic elements to it, you have to see how wide you can be and still have some credibility.”

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A Powerful Market

Hispanic purchasing power totaled more than $980 billion in 2008, according to “The Hispanic (Latino) Market in the U.S.: A Generational View,” a report from Packaged Facts, New York. Packaged Facts predicts the buying power of Hispanics will continue to grow at a relatively rapid pace, growing to reach $1.3 billion by 2013.

The total Hispanic food market is considerably larger, because purchasing within this ethnic group is only one of the market drivers. As Americans become more exposed to Hispanic food through restaurants, travel, cooking shows and trips down their own grocery aisles, consumption of these foods will only continue to grow.

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The Refreshing Flavors of Pan-Latino

A new wave of authentic Latin American foods emphasizes pure ingredients, vivid flavors and lighter recipes, according to “Latino Foods: The Next Wave,” a recent Culinary Trend Mapping Report from the Center for Culinary Development, San Francisco, and Packaged Facts, New York.

“Just as Pan-Asian foods have brought new flavor and ingredient excitement to the American plate and palate, now it’s time to make way for Pan-Latin,” says Kimberly Egan, CEO, Center for Culinary Development.

Regionally authentic ingredients like the Mexican herb epazote, Yucatecan sour Seville oranges and mild Peruvian aji amarillo chiles are driving growth in foodservice and retail. Authentic, healthier foods, like ultra-fresh tableside guacamole, lime-accented rotisserie chicken and olive-oil-based Puerto Rican sofrito, also exemplify this growth.

The Latino population in the United States has increased to 15% and is projected to rise to 25% by 2050.

Emerging ice cream blends are profiled

This is the hottest frozen thing around. Spicy, salty, savory ice creams - concoctions such as bitter basil, salty caramel, spicy chocolate, and curried coconut - are lined up in freezers and scoop shops. They're hot in more ways than one. Even though they're icy, some are so spicy the heat is startling.

Wine Gallery in Brookline receives pints of "Naga," a curry and coconut "haute glace" (you can call it ice cream) from Chicago's Vosges Haut-Chocolate, and they sell out within a day. Naga is a heavy scoop with thick spicy layers of cumin, ginger, and chili, smoothed out by the coconut cream. It makes a heavenly banana sundae, striped in chocolate and caramel sauce. When Wine Gallery customers find it in stock, a once- or twice-a-month occurrence, they react in "an over-the-top manner," says buyer Wes Narron. The reactions aren't the only thing over-the-top - the stuff sells for a cool $7.99 a pint.

If a scoop of curried coconut ice cream doesn't appeal to you, you may be more satisfied with something chocolate and icy and laced with cayenne pepper. Or a creamy mixture churned with aromatic basil. The scoops are on restaurant menus too.

Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain serves a chocolate terrine with a scoop of house-made Thai basil ice cream and sea salt. The Thai variety adds a "minty, herbaceous flavor" that has become the restaurant's "signature dessert," says chef David Punch. The salty, herby trio - a collaboration between Punch and pastry chef Alison Hearn - also headlines the dessert menu at Ten Tables' new Cambridge location.

On the tasting table at the Wine Gallery, you can try Vosges's Naga truffle, which inspired the chocolate company to venture into ice cream in the first place. The truffle flavor "launched the company," says Sonja Drummond, who presides over the counter at one of the three Chicago Vosges boutiques.

Sampling some unusual flavors may take planning. If you can stall a few days for your fix, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which mail orders pints, is worth the wait. It doesn't sell retail in the Boston area (gotta go to Brooklyn) but for $10 the company will ship boxes of six or nine pints to your door. The Queen City Cayenne is a deceptively simple chocolate ice cream that ignites on the way down and keeps you dipping in for another cool spoonful to drench the fire. Then it happens all over again with the next bite.

While the Cayenne is a tricky devil, Jeni's Salty Caramel is pure heaven. The salt and sweet vie for prominence, but it's a dead heat, a well tuned balance. Like a French caramel, the two flavors chase each other around your mouth. A pint of Queen City Cayenne is a whole lot of ice cream; a pint of Salty Caramel is just not enough. Order two.

"A really really sweet ice cream is an American thing," says Sam Mehr, lead ice cream maker at Toscanini's in Cambridge. "Many of our flavors are not American things." The ice cream shop has experimented with salty flavors, and with spicy additions such as cayenne, marinated Spanish chilies, peppercorns, and dried jalapeno, as well as savory herb flavors.

The herbs are "a lot of work and expensive, but they can be wonderful," says Toscanini owner Gus Rancatore, especially a "basil that was perfect with berries."

Toscanini's Spicy Banana is gently flavored with black pepper, and the mellow spice yields quickly to the sweetness of the banana. This is a good place for the curious but tentative to start. Aztec Chocolate is another story. Like Jeni's spicy chocolate, Toscanini's version burns a path down the throat and catches you in a vicious scoop cycle. "It boosts business," Mehr says.

Aztec is among the most popular of Toscanini's unusual flavors, along with salty caramel, a tart lemon sorbet, lavender, and khulfi, a cardamom and pistachio confection inspired by the traditional Indian dessert, which has been popular for some years now.

Not every flavor does so well. Some experiments end up to be what Mehr calls "sampling flavors: everyone tries it, nobody buys it." Others never even get their 15 minutes in the freezer, like Tomato-Tabasco Sorbet, a customer suggestion that ranks high.

"When you get right down to it, ice cream is sugar and fat and there's only so many combinations you can come up with before you start getting redundant," Mehr says. But this trend in flavors begs the question: ice cream for dinner? "I doubt it," he says. "We've made bacon ice cream, but ice cream has a pretty firm foundation as dessert."

With dessert like this, who needs dinner?