Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) introduced Onavita, a new, fully refined, non-GMO flaxseed oil that provides a cost-effective solution for customers looking to add an on-trend, heart-healthy ingredient to their latest food innovations.

I’m writing this fresh from the annual Institute of Food Technologists (www.ift.org) conference and expo in Chicago. If you didn’t attend, as a source of food science and ingredient trends in the trillion-dollar world of food product development and manufacturing, it can’t be beat. Kudos to the legions of IFT support staff, lead staff, and admin who made it happen!

Virginia Dare continues to develop and introduce new masking flavors to add to its portfolio of taste improvement solutions.

Today, practically everything—from nuggets to vegetables to wings—is breaded, battered, and glazed. Such treatments can add additional color, flavor, and texture and, sometimes, even add a boost in nutrition or extended shelflife.

The current era of exalting everything “real” is turning processors away from the artificial and highly processed ingredients that once were principal tools in food formulators’ kits.

North American-grown Montmorency tart cherries, with their on-trend sweet-tart taste and eye-catching ruby red color, can be incorporated into a variety of baked goods and snacks to boost value, enhance flavor and add a pop of color.

Siemer Specialty Ingredients offers an all-natural waxy wheat flour that brings advantages in consumer appeal to products such as baked goods, regular and frozen pancakes and gravies.

Wal-Mart opened a 12,000-square-foot culinary and innovation center at its headquarters in June as a place where the nation's largest food retailer can work with major suppliers to come up with new food ideas, and develop ideas on its own to bolster its store-brand selection.

IRI’s Chris DuBois will join industry leaders at the Prepared Foods R&D Applications Seminar and present a session titled “Understanding the Growth Behind Prepared and Specialty Foods.”