2016 Technical Meeting Highlights

“A Formula for Success”

The Association for Dressings and Sauces (ADS) 2016 Technical Meeting broke another attendance record with the highest turnout ever! The 2016 Technical Meeting hosted 333 attendees with sessions focused on winning formulas and strategies.

ADS’ Technical Meeting, held at the Hyatt Regency Savannah, Savannah, Georgia, May 1-3, included a wealth of timely industry information and numerous networking opportunities. The session agenda offered insights into sensory techniques, formulations, flavor trends, regulatory insights as well as an in-depth look at gums and their applications. Clean labeling was another hot topic at this year’s session. In addition, the Emerging Products Workshop showcased hummus, Asian sauces and Latin American sauces.

Also featured at the Technical Meeting was the much-anticipated Information Open House (IOH), ADS’ annual informal tabletop exhibit designed for manufacturers and suppliers to meet and review a multitude of products, services and needs.

Meeting attendees also had the opportunity to vote for the 2016 Dressing, Sauce and Package of the Year. Look for the winner to be revealed in October during the ADS 2016 Annual Meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

As always, we couldn’t have done it without ADS members who devoted their time and expertise to the program. A special “thanks” goes out to them!

Monday, May 2 — Sessions

Monday’s session opened with the Executive Technical Board (ETB) Chair, Tom Wajda of Unilever, who welcomed attendees to Savannah, a city built on an architectural formula for success. Mr. Wajda congratulated ADS, celebrating its 90th anniversary, and provided an overview of ADS initiatives, committee work and a look at the Technical Meeting program to come. Following Mr. Wajda’s presentation, ADS Chair of the Board, Steve Dabrow of Chelten House Products focused his remarks on ADS’ strategic plan, noting that more than 90% of ADS’ measurable objectives were met or exceeded. Mr. Dabrow also reviewed the upcoming Annual Meeting in Marco Island, Florida, October 8 – 10. Session presentations noted can be found on the Members-Only section of the ADS website. Please note that not all presentations were made available to ADS.

Filling in for originally-scheduled Charles Marshall of M Power Resources, LLC (who had to cancel his appearance), the first speaker on Monday was Stan Samples, ADS’ Communications Manager, who highlighted 4th Quarter 2015 and Year-to-Date 2016 promotional activity, including new text and video content on the Association’s websites and social media properties (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest), May’s National Salad Month, media coverage and Internet advertising programs helping to spread the word about dressings, sauces, dips and marinades.

Dr. Jeannie Perron of Covington & Burling and ADS legal counsel presented the “Food Regulatory Update,” including updates on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), other FDA priorities such as proposed nutrition labeling, 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and guidance on acidified foods, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) food labeling, definition of “natural” and sodium reduction guidelines.

Paul Pratt of T. Marzetti Company presented “Orchestrating a Mock Recall” and helped to answer questions such as “Should we conduct one? Who should be involved? What is the scope? What are the objectives? Who should we inform? Who can help us? Where do we conduct it?

Monday afternoon’s Gum Technical Session, moderated by Tom McGirty of T. Marzetti Company, offered attendees insight and included the following presentations:

“Thickening & Gelling Agents” by Wanda Jurlina, CP Kelco “Xanthan Gum: A Unique Stabilizer for Water-Based Food Systems” by Ken Sajeske, Jungbunzlauer, Inc.
“Acacia Gum” by Brook Ellis, TIC Gums, Inc.
“Guar Gum Functionality and Its Application to Dressings and Sauces” by Michael Eliasen, DuPont Nutrition & Health

Finally, Monday was topped off by the Information Open House (IOH), flanked by 97 supplier companies, providing an informative and exciting look at member products, processes and services for the dressing and sauce industry.

Tuesday, May 3 — Sessions

The first presentation on Tuesday morning was “Egg Replacement in Dressings & Sauces” given by Edgar Anders, Florida Food Products, Inc. Mr. Anders reviewed how some of egg’s functions — including emulsification, texture and moisture control — could be replaced by fibers, starches, proteins and other ingredients.

Next, Dr. Gillian Dagan of Mérieux NutriSciences provided a presentation on “Sensory Techniques and Best Practices for Successful Products.” After defining sensory evaluation, Dr. Dagan focused on sensory’s role in food, the types of testing, recruiting a trained panel and types of testing equipment as well as preparing samples and collecting data.

Chef Christopher Warsow of Bell Flavors & Fragrances shared his insight on “Dressing and Sauce Trends,” including tastes from around the world, such as South Africa and the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia in addition to regional tastes from around the U.S. Chef Warsow provided some samples of some of these sauces for attendees to try, and he also created a sauce that topped pork sliders that attendees enjoyed during the break.

“Culinary Demonstration: Clean Labeling for Dressings & Sauces” was presented by Chef Charlie Baggs, Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations. The presentation highlighted the demand for clean labels, and the impact that complicated labels have on consumer perception. He noted how important this trend is for millennials and reviewed which ingredients can be used in formulations instead, to provide balance, acidity, sweetness, intended flavor and texture, color and saltiness. He provided samples of a “clean label” ranch dressing for attendees to taste.

The final presentation of the morning was “Mustard 101” with Allen Sass of Wisconsin Spice, Inc. Mr. Sass walked attendees through mustard sources, flavor development, properties for dry milled mustard and prepared mustard.

Moderated by Marion Dalacker of Michael Foods, Inc., Tuesday afternoon offered attendees the Emerging Products Workshop and included the following presentations: “Hummus: An Introduction and History” by Steven M. Walchle of The Kroger Co., “Asian Sauces” by Peggy Iler of Kalsec, Inc. and “Latin American Sauces” by Chef Christopher Warsow of Bell Flavors & Fragrances.

ADS’ Closing Reception and Dinner

Attendees concluded their time in Savannah at the nearby Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum for the closing reception and dinner. After a walk through wartime and aviation history via self-guided tours of the museum and surrounding grounds, attendees enjoyed a scrumptious dinner, followed by music inside the museum, with additional networking opportunities with attendees.

ADS Technical Service Award Winner – Dave Horowitz of DuPont Nutrition and Health

Congratulations to Dave Horowitz of DuPont Nutrition and Health, who received the 2016 Technical Service Award in recognition of his active involvement in several ADS Committees and projects. Serving on both ADS’ Executive Technical Board and Technical Committee, Dave has been leading Technical Committee clean label ingredient projects for the past several years. Congratulations to Dave!

ADS Committees at Work

The ADS Board of Directors, the Executive Technical Board and a number of working committees also met in Savannah to review priorities, determine new projects and evaluate issues of importance to the industry. Meetings held were: Membership Council, Packaging Committee, Technical Committee, Supplier Advisory Committee, and Quality Assurance Committee. An ADS Communications Update also was provided on Sunday. More details follow in order of their appearance on the program:

April 30

Membership Council
The Membership Council met and reviewed ongoing prospecting efforts to bring new members into ADS as well as to retain current members.

Packaging Committee
In addition to a review of the 2015 Package of the Year Award, the Committee evaluated a possible winner for the Package of the Year Award for Students, which debuted in 2016. The Committee also considered two projects currently underway – the development of Rigid and Flexible Packaging Troubleshooting Guides.

May 1

Technical Committee
Among other business, four presentations were made during the meeting:

“Natural PGA Replacements in French Dressings” presented by Colm Swan of Socius Ingredients LLC. Other members of this group included Jerahmeel Blair of Pinnacle Foods, Brook Ellis of TIC Gums, Wanda Jurlina of CP Kelco, Pete Leitner of Admix, Chris Puno of Pinnacle Foods and Teresa Tomala of The Ingredient House. The study evaluated the ability of clean label ingredients to replace Propylene Glycol Alginate in French dressing without compromising quality.

“Reduction of Tomato Solids in a BBQ Sauce Formulation” presented by Ryan Brooks of Brooks’ Bottling Co., Robert King of The Kroger Co. and Charlie Wind of Mullins Food Products Other members of this group included Erik Amen of Wisconsin Spice, Inc., Michael Boyd of Scott Turbon® Mixer, Inc., Leslie Drew of Ingredion Incorporated, Marjeta Fusha of J. Rettenmaier USA, Greg Gilleland of J. Rettenmaier USA, Kornelija Matkovic of J. Rettenmaier USA and Frank Truong of Tate & Lyle. The mission of the study was to positively replace a percentage of tomato solids and achieve the same or similar sensory factors.

“It’s Not Easy Being Green, But We Have Options!” presented by Peggy Iler of Kalsec, Inc. Minjung Kim of Cargill Dressings, Sauces & Oils and Dr. Will Schroeder of Kemin Food Technologies. Liz McColl of Ken’s Foods, Inc., Tayo Bisiolu of Vegetable Juices, Inc. and Lacey Eckert of Kalsec, Inc. were also members of the group. The objective of the study was to test the color stability of avocado ranch dressing prepared with natural coloring and understand the stability challenges when formulating without synthetic colors.

“ADS Ranch for Sensory Testing” by Eric Esterline of Bay Valley Foods. Assistance with the sensory analysis was provided by Admix, Inc., ADS staff, Bay Valley Foods, Brooks’ Bottling Co., Chesapeake Spice Company, The Kroger Co., T. Marzetti Company and Socius Ingredients LLC. The goal of the study was to improve the sensory appeal of the “ADS Standard Ranch” for Technical Committee projects.

The Technical Committee will undertake four projects during the coming year: egg replacement systems and their functionality that generate clean label; effects on formula, quality and stability by moving from hot process to ambient process using ADS BBQ sauce formulas; prediction of emulsion stability using various technologies; and development of generic, clean label dressing formula to include challenge testing.

Supplier Advisory Committee
The Supplier Advisory Committee (SAC) met and items on the agenda included details of the 2018 Annual Meeting and the Dressing and Sauce of the Year Awards.

Quality Assurance Committee
The Committee approved the following sections in ADS’ Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG) Manual and Methods and Procedures Manual (MAPMAN): Section V, “Product Specification Guidelines” of the QAG Manual; Section V, “Helpful Tests” of the MAPMAN.

The Committee also heard a presentation: “Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)/Safe Quality Food (SQF) and the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): What are the Differences?” by LeAnn Chuboff of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Institute.

Executive Technical Board (ETB)

The ETB reviewed a possible microbiological study, plans for the 2017 Technical Meeting in Portland, Oregon and other issues of importance to the dressing and sauce industry.

Communications Update
The 4th Quarter of the 2015 program was reviewed including the additional pourables survey promotion and the condiment sauce press efforts, as well as progress to date in 2016, including new website content (text and how-to videos based on recipes), National Salad Month promotional activity, ADS website statistics, and upcoming news features for July and November. The USDA Dietary Guidelines was one of the content “hooks”, enabling ADS to show how dressings, mayonnaise and condiment sauces can be used to help consumers reach recommended servings of vegetables, protein, fruits, grains, dairy and oils. To date in 2016, website visitorship is double the traffic from the same period last year.

Look for additional committee updates in upcoming issues of ADS’ Heads Up! newsletter.

For more information, please log onto the Members-Only section of the ADS website at www.adsmembers.org. Please contact Headquarters if you need the username and password.