News & Analysis on Chocolate, Candy and Cocoa
The 2025 confectionery scene bursts with color, creativity, and bold innovation. This expert-led report explores 5 key trends—from nostalgic Angel-Hair chocolates to functional sweets and extreme flavors—each explained with product examples.
Cocoa Prices Are at Record Highs—Is Your Business Feeling the Pressure? In 2024 and 2025, cocoa bean prices have soared to historic levels.
Join Blommer, Mintel, and Incredo as we explore the trends, drivers for growth in sugar reduction, and the innovative tools available to help your brand stand out in today’s competitive market.
Elevate your products with Green Plains’ premium, low carbon-intensity corn syrups. Drop-in replacements with an up to 40% lower carbon footprint than alternatives, the lowest CI on the market.
Our strategy combines meticulously crafted ingredient formulas and wellness solutions to set you apart from competitors.
The confectionery industry is responding to the trend toward indulgent yet healthier sweets. Explore our Valio Bettersweet™ white paper to learn more about the possibilities in better-for-you confectionery, natural sugar reduction, AI in product...
Elevate your products with Green Plains’ premium, low carbon-intensity corn syrups. Drop-in replacements with an up to 40% lower carbon footprint than alternatives, the lowest CI on the market.
Leading Peruvian manufacturer Machu Picchu Foods debuts cutting-edge production lines for filled chocolate bars, truffles, and crispy wafer snacks.
Consumers have consistently expressed a desire to reduce sugar. But attitudes toward specific sweetening strategies, and which claims are most impactful, remain a moving target.
While buffers are well-known as pH regulators, in gummies they also have an untapped potential: modulating taste and flavor in dimensions such as intensity, juiciness, sourness, true-to-fruit, and complexity. Bartek conducted sensory analysis on...
Sethness Roquette is proud to have a complete range of Specialty Caramels to support the growth of our customers in the Food industry. Our location already allows us to get the highest quality raw materials, and our position as part of the Roquette...
See the key insights from consumer research that shows why almonds are an ideal ingredient in chocolate products.
The confectionery category has had a wild ride the past couple of years. Amid the pandemic, consumers sought comfort in indulgence; now, they're looking for treats they can enjoy without guilt.
Increasing consumer and regulatory scrutiny has exacerbated this search. Meet PearlEdge™, our portfolio that offers remarkable results in panned confectionery.
EXBERRY® Shade Bright Green – Powder is designed to deliver bright, bluish green shades in dry and powdered applications such as bakery mixes, seasonings, and chocolate for decoration.
The challenge confronting chocolate and confectionery manufacturers is how to balance taste with consumers’ demand for confectionery that allows for indulgence with less sugar, clean label and natural ingredients. To help manufacturers create...
In EMEA, the color of cocoa and chocolate products is a crucial factor that influences consumers’ preference.
The confectionery category has had a wild ride the past couple of years. Amid the pandemic, consumers sought comfort in indulgence; now, they're looking for treats they can enjoy without guilt.
Almost 1 in 4 consumers in the US say the best way to control sugar intake is eating less sugar-full candy. But nobody likes to give up on a good tasting treat. Isomalt makes it possible to create sugar-free chocolate that does not compromise on taste or...
New Gerkens® Sweety cocoa powders enable 30% sugar reduction in a natural way, without compromising on great chocolaty taste.
Pectin is a highly appealing clean label alternative to gelatin. It’s tender, transparent, and plant-based. However, it can be difficult and temperamental to work with—it's unstable, inconsistent, and often frustrating. Thankfully Bartek has a solution:...
The use of bright or unexpected colors to attract consumer’s attention online has created a market for colorful food and drinks that can “go viral”. EdiSparklz are lightweight toppings and inclusions that are sugar-free and label friendly.
Located in Western Colorado, this 278,400 square foot chocolate confectionary plant features high-volume production infrastructure including purpose-built ingredient storage, mixing, and batching; production kitchens; and a linear configuration with...
CremoFLEX® A will let you create light indulgent experiences, with fluffier textures.
Sugar reduction in soft, chewy candies can create challenges for formulators, but opportunities abound for confectionery brands that can reduce sugar while delivering on the tastes and textures consumers expect in their favorite confections. BioNeutra’s...
Help to share naturally sweet, healthful memories and make more. Consumers want to rediscover forgotten candy and chocolate that is better for them. Let them enjoy the simple pleasures in life with a more healthful halo.
Consumers look for sensory experiences, this means in taste but also in visual appeal. So get creative with shade and shape. Create candy and chewing gum with colours that pop. BENEO’s Isomalt makes this easy! How? Develop candy with a colourful...
Label-friendly stevia has become one of today's most popular sweeteners. But have you ever wondered how this sweet little leaf makes its way to your bakery or beverage line?
Common perceptions of categories perceived as indulgent or unhealthy are a powerful impetus for innovation that focuses on reformulation with functional ingredients to increase the healthful benefits of everyday foods in these categories.
The production of confectionery is a demanding process. But do you know how weighing and inspection technologies can increase the efficiency of your confectionery production? Whether chocolate, gum, hard candy or soft candy, these technologies can add...
Research continues to show that sugar reduction is a top consumer priority. But for formulators, the task is not always an easy one.
The global organic food & drink market is now worth €92bn with rising consumption in Europe and North America. Growing appeal comes amid heightened public and political interest in domestic environmental agriculture.
Today, dozens of fair trade certifications with global reach have emerged, spanning multiple commodities from wine and bananas to sugar, cocoa and tea. According to Lumina Intelligence research, around a quarter of the bestselling chocolate, coffee and...
Lumina Intelligence Sustainability provides insights on the sustainable sourcing of cocoa, tea and coffee – three commodities facing similar social and environmental concerns. Our subscription service helps companies, suppliers, NGOs, governments and...
The food, beverage and nutrition industry is a cornerstone of the UK economy. Leveraging the UK’s world-leading assets, the industry has built a supply chain that adds £121bn of value to the economy. Brexit has raised fears about the future of this...
The premium chocolate market is forecasted to grow three times faster than the standard chocolate segment. In addition, consumers are increasingly focused on the ingredients in products they buy and read labels carefully. 69 percent says that reading...
Demand for gluten-free products has grown over the past 10 years from a niche offering to a mainstream market. To help you maximize your creativity when formulating gluten-free recipes, Dow and DuPont have combined their in-depth baking knowledge and...
In this study TasteTech investigate the effectiveness of encapsulation technology on the optimisation of taste perception within chewing gum. It can easily be assumed that to improve gum palatability the logical option is to increase the level of...
Food, Drink and Non-Food manufacturers are under pressure. Range reviews, massive retail mergers, the backlash against plastic packaging and the ongoing unpredictability of Brexit are some of the huge challenges facing them in 2018.
The demand for natural anti-oxidants is increasing globally. However, it affects the organoleptic profile of the end application when used in pre-packaged foods and beverages. Kancor addresses this concern with its innovative award winning product...
Demand for natural colours is on the rise in comparison with synthetic colours, derived from petrochemicals/other sources. Green colour in food industry is a combination of Brilliant Blue with Tartrazine or Fast Green (FCF), both having negative...
Consuming food involves more than just taste. It is a full sensorial experience. The visual appearance is one of the most powerful ways to capture a consumer’s attention. Colours are widely used in potato fries to impart a yellow-orange shade to the...
Sensus discovered that inulin provides an alternative to sucrose as a sweetener to develop sugar reduced chocolate products. Combined with bulking agents and high-intensity sweeteners, inulin can be used to produce tasty and no-added-sugar chocolate.
Hygienic product recovery ("pigging") is widely used by chocolate and confectionery manufacturers. It gives a high ROI with rapid payback. Pigging recovers up to 99.5% of product that would otherwise go to waste. It’s an extremely effective way to...
The new outstanding Fast Forward Process technology reduces the time required to make gelatine gummies to one hour. It allows for almost immediate demolding and marks the beginning of a new era in gelatine gummy production. Using silicon molds instead of...
In October 2017, ConfectioneryNews.com conducted its second annual ‘state of the industry’ survey on its user base of confectionery industry professionals. The key objective of the poll was to gauge views about the current state of the global...
Consumers are increasingly shopping for heart healthy products. Identify nutrients that can help differentiate your products and learn how custom nutrient premixes can get you to market faster in...
Lactobacillus reuteri NCIMB 30242, or LRC™, is the 1st clinically proven heart health probiotic. It has been shown to naturally support healthy cholesterol levels in multiple gold standard,...
Heart healthy products are in demand. Learn which nutrients could help your products rise to the top – and how custom nutrient premixes can help you get to market faster.Any nutrient. Any...
As the average age around the world increases, demand for products that address eye health concerns is also on the rise. Learn how custom nutrient premixes can help you develop innovative foods,...