Stratas Foods is presenting two industry-changing products—Apex and Superb Select 1020—at the 2019 International Baking Industry Exposition and the company’s Booth #436. IBIE will be held Sept. 7-11, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Released in 2018, Superb Select 1020 is a soy based, palm free shortening made without hydrogenated oils which substantially reduces saturated fats compared to most shortenings. Released by Stratas in 2016 ahead of the FDA mandate to remove partially hydrogenated oils (“PHO’s”), Apex continues to be a key innovation, offering a high stability non-PHO soybean based shortening which dramatically improves the functional range of soy shortenings. Both products use oil from soybeans grown in the USA rather than imported palm oil.
Each product spent years in creation at the Stratas Food’s Research, Development and Innovation lab, benefitting from Stratas’ new crystallization technology. Both products also received commercial validation feedback from Stratas Food’s clients before release to the market.
Superb Select 1020 Shortening offers a palm oil free solution with no hydrogenated fats for baking applications. The product lowers saturated fats by more than 40% versus conventional palm oil, while maintaining the structure needed for baking. It also protects both flavor and stability as it ages, which eliminates three common issues bakers have with palm. Customers also can rest assured that Superb Select 1020 Shortening addresses sustainability issues—since the fats used are sourced from soybeans.
“In the post-PHO world, the new focus is on reducing saturated fats. Stratas Foods got ahead of customer demand in creating Superb Select 1020 Shortening,” says Roger Daniels, Stratas Foods’ vice president of Research, Development and Innovation. “After we solved the non-PHO baking issue, market demands for a shortening without hydrogenated fat on the label increased. Products with lower saturated fats are the next big thing.”
Meanwhile, Apex provides an unprecedented standard of shortening functionality without PHO, expanding the reach of non-PHO soy based shortenings into more challenging bakery, icing, and donut applications. Unlike other products produced in the post-PHO era—which suffer reduced functionality and flexibility compared to PHO—Apex is a true PHO-free drop-in solution, even in icing and donut applications.
“Apex offers PHO utility without the PHO,” says Daniels. “This innovation moves the needle in terms of consistency, stability, firmness, and performance by leveraging, for the first time, the marriage of Stratas’ functional crystallization with an expanded and more resilient fatty acid platform. Moreover, Apex achieves this major step with soybean oil, rather than a palm oil based system.
Stratas Foods also brought this product innovation for the foodservice area under the brand names Sweetex Golden Flex for icing and Primex Golden Flex for all-purpose needs.
Stop by Booth #436 at IBIE for more information on Superb Select 1020 Shortening, Apex, Sweetex Golden Flex and Primex Golden Flex.
About Stratas Foods:
Stratas Foods LLC is the leading supplier of fats and oils, mayonnaise, dressings and sauces to the Foodservice, Food Ingredients and Retail Private Label markets in North America. Stratas benefits from more than 200 years of combined experience in the fats and oils industry, and almost 75 years of experience in mayonnaise, dressings and sauces, which is evident in the company’s industry-leading Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Center. The RDI Center enables Stratas' team of scientists to develop, test, and prototype a wide range of innovative products in well-equipped labs and pilot plant facilities.
With production facilities in Illinois, California, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Georgia, and distribution centers across the U.S. and Canada, Stratas Foods is well positioned to meet its customers’ needs. Stratas Foods is committed to producing the highest quality food products at a competitive price, while providing industry-leading transportation, distribution, and customer service resources.
For more information about Stratas Foods, visit www.stratasfoods.com.
