Welch’s Unlock Potential for Grape Ingredients

26 May 2017 --- Breakfast, lunch, snack and dessert recipes are the latest applications set to showcase the taste and versatility of Welch’s Global Ingredients Group’s portfolio of fruit juices, purées, pieces and juice powder.

Sweet and savory meals made with Concord and Niagara grape solutions are set to be the main focus for Welch’s Global Ingredients Group at the IFT17 Food Expo (Las Vegas, June 26-28, 2017).

Wayne Lutomski, Vice President International & Welch’s Global Ingredients Group, said: “The mission of the Welch's ingredients business is to take the great taste and goodness of our Concord and Niagara grapes to as many people and places as possible through new markets and new categories. In tune with this approach, our aim at IFT17 will be to demonstrate some of the uniquely creative ways that food companies and their NPD teams can use our grape ingredients to formulate products that will excite consumers.”

Visitors to the Welch’s Global Ingredients Group booth will also be given the chance to take part in a taste test comparing Concord grape juice with a range of other popular superfruit juices. Participants will be asked to rate the juices according to which they prefer. In tandem, there will also be a chance to sample some of the custom juice blends and solutions offered by Welch’s Global Ingredients Group.

In addition, there will be an opportunity to explore the enormous potential offered by the ‘snackification’ of mealtimes. This trend was highlighted in recent consumer research, commissioned by Welch’s, which explored the snacking habits of millennials who snack regularly. When asked how often they eat a snack instead of having breakfast, lunch or dinner, 92% of the respondents said they do so a minimum of once a week. Furthermore, half of the respondents said they replace a meal with a snack at least four times a week, while more than a quarter (26%) said they do so at least seven times a week.

Welch’s Global Ingredients Group’s expert team will also be on hand to discuss the company’s new website. Due to launch this summer, it will act as a news and resource center for food and beverage businesses that are using, or seeking to use, real fruit ingredients in their products.

Wayne Lutomski added: “We now offer Concord and Niagara grape ingredients in a wide range of formats. IFT17 will give us the perfect opportunity to highlight how companies can unlock the potential of these great tasting and nutritious grapes in applications they may never have previously considered. Our ingredients offer a superb opportunity for food and beverage companies to develop and launch great tasting, wholesome new product concepts that consumers will love.”

The Concord grape is a distinctive dark purple variety that’s singularly delicious and naturally sweet. The Niagara grape is a close cousin of the Concord grape. It is crisp and sweet with a beautiful golden hue and a refreshing taste. Both varieties are quite different from standard red and white table grapes. They have thick skins and crunchy seeds where natural plant nutrients – or polyphenols – are to be found that hold the key to the grapes’ goodness.

Welch’s Global Ingredients Group has harnessed these taste and nutrition benefits to create a range of Concord and Niagara grape ingredients that includes 100% fruit juices, 100% fruit purées, FruitWorx real fruit pieces and FruitWorx fruit juice powder.

Dishes such as pancakes with grape-based syrups, tangy-grape meatballs and a fruit bark dessert made with grape juice powder and fruit pieces will be available on the Welch’s Global Ingredients Group booth (#2135) for visitors to IFT17 to try.