The FoodBev Awards team is excited to announce the latest addition to its awards portfolio, the World Catering Technology Awards for 2024. With over 20 years of excellence in presenting the 'World Innovation' awards for the food and beverage industry, now is the perfect time to celebrate those embracing the future of the catering industry with our first 'World Technology' awards. As we embark on our inaugural year, we are thrilled to celebrate the cutting-edge technologies and revolutionary concepts that are transforming the way we indulge in culinary delights. Our World Catering Technology Awards acknowledge the pioneers behind the scenes, shaping the future of foodservice and catering. To best showcase the innovations of the industry, we designed the new award to represent everyone involved in bringing food to consumers, from ingredient to plate. From advanced kitchen gadgets to state-of-the-art appliances, we recognise the efforts made in enhancing the overall dining experience. In this era of innovation, we are embracing the future of the industry and its advanced technologies such as delivery drones, revolutionising the way we bring meals directly to the consumer's doorstep. This year's selection includes POS & payment systems, service robotics, food delivery and packaging technology advancements. The full list of categories can be found on the FoodBev Awards website. FoodBev has the privilege of partnering with over 88 years of catering and hospitality knowledge from the Montgomery Group event, HRC, which is dedicated to the restaurant, catering and hospitality industry. Join us in this celebration of innovation in 2024 as FoodBev Awards announces this year's winners during the HRC event in late March. The World Catering Technology Awards will open for entries on 11 September 2023. About FoodBev Awards FoodBev Media awards schemes have been running for more than 20 years and are now recognised as the most credible and respected awards schemes to influence the international food and beverage industry. For more information about our selection of awards programmes, please visit foodbevawards.com or email awards@foodbev.com.

Keurig Dr Pepper-owned brand The Original Donut Shop has teamed up with General Mills to launch new Cinnamon Toast Crunch-flavoured K-Cup pods. The ready-to-brew K-Cup contain the flavours of cinnamon sugar, the traditional coffee from the Original Donut Shop and the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. The cinnamon latte beverage is made with coffee, sweetener and real dairy. Becky Opdyke, senior vice president, coffee marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper, said: "At the heart of our brand lies the passion for inspiring consumers to discover uniquely delicious coffees, and The Original Donut Shop Coffee Cinnamon Toast Crunch One Step Latte perfectly exemplifies our commitment to innovation with mood-boosting treats. We are thrilled to collaborate with a brand as iconic as Cinnamon Toast Crunch and further offer coffee enthusiasts a new way to experience the cereal's beloved flavours like never before." Mindy Murray, brand experience director at General Mills Cereal, commented: "We're always looking for new ways to bring the epic flavour of Cinnamon Toast Crunch to fans, and given the love we see for the Cinnamilk at the end of a bowl of cereal, a latte pairing with the ease of a K-Cup pod was a natural fit". The Original Donut Shop Cinnamon Toast Crunch One Step Latte K-Cup pod is available for purchase exclusively at Walmart through March 2024, and will be released to additional major retailers nationwide in Spring 2024.

Ingredients manufacturer Döhler has announced the acquisition of Boon Flavors, a food and beverage flavours producer based in Thailand. As part of the acquisition, Boon Flavors will be known as Döhler Thailand going forward and will be managed by its founder, Piya Boonnamkitsawad. Boon built its flavour plant in Bangkok in 2018, leveraging its proprietary technologies. In a statement announcing the purchase, Döhler said Boon’s “great variety of local flavour tonalities” perfectly expands Döhler’s own global taste portfolio. Boon will have access to all of Döhler’s taste technologies and, together with Döhler’s application labs in Indonesia and Thailand, global and local customers can expect to benefit from enhanced services and a more extensive product portfolio in the region. Döhler said that consumers are looking for “exceptional” sensory experiences in nutrition, superior taste, perfect appearance and a well-balanced mouthfeel when choosing their products, and that Boon’s variety of local flavours contributes perfectly to this. The strategic acquisition aims to further strengthen Döhler’s commitment to meeting evolving consumer and customer needs for tasty, healthy and sustainable solutions. Boon Flavors’ founder, Piya Boonnamkitsawad, said: “Teaming up with Döhler, we are looking forward to enhance our customer-oriented culture, foster long-term customer relationships, expand and strengthen our presence in the Southeast Asia market and continue delivering top-quality products while effectively supporting customers’ demand for more sustainability”.

US energy drink brand Phocus has expanded its partnership with The Vitamin Shoppe to launch a limited-edition pineapple flavour. Co-owned by American rapper Jack Harlow, Phocus is said to stand out from other functional beverages “with its clean, modern and innovative formula”. It uses only five ingredients and combines 75mg of caffeine with 75mg of L-Theanine to enhance clarity and increase alertness. Harlow said: "Phocus was conceived in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, with one goal in mind: fueling creativity”. He continued: “Only five ingredients were needed to create our clean and straightforward beverage. One of those ingredients is L-Theanine, an amino acid that can support calm and alertness in the mind of any artist looking to hone in on the story they want to tell.” Muriel Gonzalez, president of The Vitamin Shoppe, commented: "We are delighted to partner with Phocus and the incredibly talented Jack Harlow to offer this exclusive pineapple Phocus flavour at The Vitamin Shoppe. “Energy and functional drinks are exceptionally popular with our customers, and this launch brings an exciting new vision to the category, from the flavours and formulation to the design and branding.” Phocus’ pineapple flavour is exclusively available in The Vitamin Shoppe stores and online through September 2023.

Natural Balance Foods is expanding its Nākd brand into the cereal aisle for the first time with a range of HFSS-compliant granola products. The snack bar brand will take its best-selling flavours into a new form with the launch of the new 100% plant-based granola, available in Blueberry Muffin, Cocoa Orange and Peanut Delight variants. Nākd’s products are made with a whole-food, natural approach, all containing ingredients from natural origin, with no added sugar. Jo Agnew, marketing director at Natural Balance Foods, said: “As our first brand extension outside of bars, we wanted to make sure we were tapping into an area where our expertise could really shine. The cereals category has faced challenges, but we can see that granola is going from strength to strength – to keep this momentum going, retailers need to offer choice.” The launch follows the rollout of Nākd Protein Bars and Big Bars earlier this year. The granola range has now begun to rollout at selected UK retailers and is available in 365g packs carrying an MRSP of £3.75.

Nestlé UK and Ireland has announced that its Quality Street chocolate brand is launching a new sharing bar, combining two of its classic offerings. The Collisions Hazelnut and Caramel chocolate sharing bar brings together two of the brand’s chocolate tin favourites: The Green Triangle and The Purple One. It contains three textured layers, combining golden caramel and a smooth hazelnut filling with crunchy hazelnut pieces. The 245g bar is the brand’s first flavour collision and the third addition to its sharing bar range, which was introduced in 2022 with The Purple One and Orange Crunch flavours. The sharing bar is now exclusively available in Asda and will roll out to other supermarkets and convenience stores later this month. Samantha Hirst, brand manager for Quality Street at Nestlé UK and Ireland said: “We’re sure that Quality Street fans will love the fact that two favourites have been brought together to make a triple-layered treat that’s perfect for gifting or sharing with family and friends”.

Terphane, part of Tredegar Corporation, a producer of BOPET films (polyester) in Latin America, has announced a strategic partnership with Origin Materials to produce sustainable, high-performance bio-polymer films. As part of the partnership, Terphane has signed a multi-year capacity reservation agreement to purchase an advanced bio-polymer, Polyethylene Furanoate (PEF), for use in film applications, including food and beverage packaging and high-value industrial applications. The stretched polymer films are said to be valued for their strength, transparency, barrier properties and electrical insulation. “We are pleased to partner with Terphane, a trusted global leader in films with expansive customer and partner relationships,” said Rich Riley, co-CEO of Origin Materials. “We are thrilled to work together to develop advanced, performance-enhanced products that help to enable a net zero material economy. This partnership represents further progress in Origin’s mission to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials.” Marcos Vieira, global director of R&D for Terphane, said the development of the film will be significant for its efforts to “meet global demand for sustainable flexible packaging solutions”. The film is partially made from PEF and features all the traditional properties of a regular PET film, including post-consumption recycling. Vieira commented: “PEF provides an excellent thermal resistance and superior barrier performance, extending the shelf life of the packaged products”. Made from furandicarboxylic acid, Origin's PEF is a polymer with a combination of sustainability and performance characteristics for packaging, including enhanced barrier properties. According to Terphane, Origin’s PEF is expected to be 100% plant-based, fully recyclable and offer a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

Monster Beverage has said it will cut some products from its recently acquired energy drink brand, Bang Energy. Monster Beverage's subsidiary, Blast Asset Acquisition, bought Bang Energy owner Vital Pharmaceuticals for approximately $362 million. In a Q2 analyst call on Thursday, 3 August, Monster CEO Rodney said the company’s intention is to “rationalise Bang’s product offerings and product lines,” and to fully integrate the brand into the Monster infrastructure. He said the company does not intend to sell Bang’s other lines, such as Red Line or Shots, “beyond liquidating existing inventories”. However, it may consider reintroducing certain product lines in the future. Monster announced that Bang Energy will be distributed through the Coca-Cola bottlers network, starting with the US in the 2023 third quarter, which will result in a “temporary disruption of the product supply” of Bang Energy drinks. He commented: “We are excited about our acquisition of the state-of-the-art Bang Energy production facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which we intend to utilise for Bang as well as other products in the Monster portfolio”. The company said that it is “still early days” with regard to Bang Energy, and it will provide further updates on Bang Energy in its next investor call in November. Additionally, following its launch of The Beast Unleashed in the first half of 2023, Monster plans to launch a hot iced tea extension, named Nasty Beast Hardcore Tea later this year or early next year.

Paper-based packaging company, Ranpak Holdings, has introduced a sustainable thermal liner for packaging. Designed to meet cold chain shipping demands across a wide range of end markets, the RecyCold climaliner is a paper-based packaging solution that maintains products within their optimal temperature range for up to 48 hours. According to the company, climaliner's thermal liner paper is "thinner and far more flexible" in comparison to current technologies that offer similar performance, resulting in a solution that allows for various configurations and box size flexibility while maintaining cold temperatures, reducing food waste and improving cost and sustainability. The technology can support three distinct temperature ranges: One for ambient products kept near room temperature, another for chilled products commonly stored in refrigerators and a third for frozen products below 0°C. This represents critical shipping requirements across the meal kit, ready-to-use meals, online grocery and speciality foods segments. Omar Asali, chairman & CEO of Ranpak, said: “The global launch of RecyCold climaliner represents our latest innovation in the sustainable shipping space, highlighting the efforts Ranpak has made to deliver cost savings, efficiency gains, and an aesthetically attractive total Cold Chain solution". He continued: “The increase in shipping of temperature-controlled items increases the need for scalable and sustainable technologies. We are pleased to include climaliner among our growing portfolio of sustainable solutions to help our customers improve their supply chain performance, lower their labour costs, reduce food waste and meet their sustainability goals.”

Western Australia-based functional beverage company Kommunity Brew has acquired Melbourne’s Cool Cool Beverage Company (CCBC). The acquisition sees Kommunity Brew add the Sips Sparkling and Liberty Kombucha brands to its portfolio and opens up immediate export opportunities for the company via Sips Sparkling’s shelf-stable product range. Mason Bagios, CEO of Kommunity Brew, said that factors driving the purchase included CCBC’s Melbourne headquarters, its distribution network including existing relationships with Coles, Woolworths and Amazon, and access to the sparkling water sector. Bagios said: “The integration of CCBC into our business is a major milestone in the evolution of Kommunity Brew, putting us in a strong position to increase our profile in the Eastern States, while improving operating margins from a Melbourne manufacturing base”. He explained that the Sips Sparkling and Liberty Kombucha brands and values are “very much aligned” with those of Kommunity Brew, represented in their quality, local manufacturing, “unique” recipes and “smooth processes”. In a statement announcing the acquisition, Kommunity Brew said it resonated with CCBC’s story of “humble beginnings”. Bagois added that beverage brands are difficult to build, highlighting that their creators often demonstrate “outstanding innovation”. “CCBC has developed innovative products that have all had a bedrock of creativity. We love the bold positioning of the Sips Sparkling and Liberty Kombucha brands and because we relate to the difficulty of brand-building we see value where an institutional investor might see risk,” he explained. The recent acquisition is Kommunity Brew’s second. The company purchased the Cold Matter Cold Brew brand in 2022 from the founders of Black Matter Coffee Roasters.

UK sandwich brand Urban Eat has expanded its portfolio with a new heat-to-eat "Micro-snacking" range. The line-up include: Mexican Beef Burrito, Curried Chickpea Wrap, Three Cheese Panini, Cheese and Ham Panini, Spicy Chicken Panini and Tex Mex Chicken Panini. In addition, there are breakfast options available, including a Sausage Bap and Bacon Roll. The offerings are designed to be heated in pack in the microwave, or cooked in an oven or air fryer. Wayne Greensmith, head of marketing at Urban Eat, said: "As a trusted brand known for our commitment to taste and quality, we are thrilled to take our portfolio to the next level, offering hassle-free hot options that perfectly align with the growing demand for delicious and satisfying, yet convenient, food". “We’ve designed the range to provide our customer channels with options that will not only tempt consumers' tastebuds but also provide a hot food option for sites that operate 24 hours. We hope the range will foster loyalty and drive repeat sales by ensuring customers keep coming back for more.” The line-up will be available in a range of channels from 14 August.

Monster Beverage Corporation has announced that its subsidiary, Blast Asset Acquisition LLC, has completed its acquisition of Bang Energy owner Vital Pharmaceuticals. The acquired assets include Bang Energy beverages and a beverage production facility in Phoenix, Arizona, for a purchase price of approximately $362 million subject to adjustments. Monster and Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX Sports) entered an asset purchase agreement in July under which a Monster subsidiary would acquire all of Bang Energy’s assets. As previously reported by FoodBev, Monster then won US bankruptcy court approval to acquire VPX Sports out of Chapter 11. Rodney C Sacks, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Monster Beverage Corporation, said: “We are enthusiastic about the opportunities this acquisition presents to us and believe that the Bang brand will fit well within our broader portfolio of energy drink brands”. Hilton H Scholsberg, vice chairman and co-chief executive officer, added that Bang Energy has a “distinct marketing position and loyal consumer base”, and that production will be increasing at the Phoenix facility to accommodate certain of the company’s other brands. “We are excited for the opportunities for all of our brands,” Schlosberg concluded.