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At this year’s Food Ingredients Europe event, FoodBev caught up with Giulia Bulai, project manager R&D food, hydrocolloids and technical sales for Faravelli, about the team’s latest innovations, including confectionery formulated with monkfruit.

With an increased demand for sugar reduction across F&B, monkfruit is an ingredient that is rapidly gaining traction for its clean taste profile and promising performance in reduced-sugar development. Until October last year, monkfruit was seen as a novel food, meaning producers and manufacturers had to seek regulatory approval for its use in ingredient development.

Since gaining approval for human consumption, Faravelli has used monkfruit not only in the confectionery prototypes available at FIE, but also in gummy formulations, promoting its higher sweetening potential than other sugar alternatives alongside its natural credentials.

Alongside the monkfruit confectionery, Faravelli continues to promote Fara, the company’s proprietary line of customised functional systems. Developed with the philosophy of every formulation challenge deserving its own dedicated solution, Fara is the result of years of technical refinement and collaboration and has become a strategic tool for improving texture, stability, structure and performance across a range of applications.

In our conversation with Bulai, she emphasises the importance of continuous ingredient evolution and development while remaining focused on creating something that tastes great.

This particular edition of FIE not only showcased what Faravelli can do with ingredient innovation but also laid the groundwork for its centenary celebrations, which kick off in 2026. Over the years, Faravelli has paved the way for innovation across a broad range of sectors, something it hopes to continue for another 100 years.