Come hear Schwan Food Company executives Giselle Restrepo Senior Manager, Strategic Insights & Trends; and Michael Gunn, Culinary Director, Product Innovation & Development.

Hear from three leading Minnesota food entrepreneurs in a conversation led by Grow North, Minnesota's connection hub for the food and agriculture entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem. 

The centerpiece of this expansion is the unparalleled Innovation Center, which provides Puratos’ customers with access to the very latest industry equipment, expertise and training, as well as in-depth research into international trends.

Results show industry leaders in each segment share three common traits: they differentiate offerings, target consumers with greater precision and complement organic growth with inorganic growth.

FirsTaste 2018 is all about providing the insights, know-how, inspiration and depth of information that will allow participants to walk away with actionable concepts and strategies for their business.

Last year saw ADM expand its building to add a 4,000-sq.-ft. culinary innovation center, which opened this summer. Prepared Foods Editor Bob Garrison attended an open house that included executive presentations and plant-based food presentations and samples involving ADM flavors and ingredients.

Prepared Foods reaches and serves all those food and beverage manufacturing professionals involved in the new product development cycle. These functional leaders are those in marketing, sales and consumer insights, R&D, innovation, culinary, purchasing and packaging.

The new protein chips garnered 72% of reader votes, creating a echoing expanse between first and second place. Reddi-wip Non-Dairy Almond, Coconut varieties grabbed the runner-up spot, while YQ by Yoplait finished third.

Our past industry overviews featured menu and operator segment trend reviews to give you more customer insights. This year, we’re actually covering more of your new product activities as highlighted at the annual National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show and the annual International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association show.

Seven-times the size of its existing facility, the Innovation Center supports the company’s Rapid & Relentless Innovation initiative, the goal of which is to continuously iterate the company’s products until they are indistinguishable from their animal protein equivalent.