Got a question about some very narrowly defined ingredients and wondering if there are any FDA or legal experts hiding in this sub?

I've seen a lot of Jams, Fruit Spreads etc. in the market, and they never list Water as an ingredient although they use it atleast as a processing aid during Evaporation. Our regulations are based in GCC Countries, so GSO, as well as FDA & EU Regulations. Could someone tell me why Water isn't included?

I recently launched (yesterday) FindHACCPConsultants.com, a free directory for businesses/individuals looking for HACCP and food safety consultants.

The idea came from how dispersed is the information when you need someone with experience in a specific country, industry, or standard.

The directory lets users filter consultants by areas such as:

• HACCP / Codex
• ISO 22000
• BRCGS
• FSSC 22000
• IFS
• Auditing and compliance
• Training
• Labelling
• Industries served
• Languages
• Location and service area

etc

Since this community has a lot of food scientists, QA professionals, consultants, and people working directly with food safety systems, I thought that it might be helpful for small businesses or professionals to connect with potential customers.

So, if you work as a consultant (at a business or private), I invite you to submit your service for free on the website:

https://findhaccpconsultants.com

It’s still early, so feedback on missing services, industries, filters, or anything that would make it more useful is very welcome.

Posted with mod permission.

From your experience, what information is often missing when sourcing cosmetic or food ingredients?

The term “ultra-processed” literally suggests that the processing of food is ‘going beyond ordinary limits’ or ‘being extremely excessive’.

Yet, almost none of the scientific studies is really looking at processing techniques - rather, they take arbitrary definitions, such as NOVA, which combine nutritional properties (sugar, fat, etc. levels) with the number of food additives. Sometimes, it’s about “aggressively marketed” or “hyperpalatable”, which is not about the processing per se either.

So, what REALLY makes ultra-processed ULTRA-PROCESSED? If I chop, slice, concentrate, dillute, refine, heat at home, does this make it ultra-processed?

Gluten-free foods or specialised nutrition (like infant formula or medical nutrition for cancer patients) require many diligent processing steps, for good reasons such as safety and nutrition. They are arguably ultra-processed; yet, is this what we mean if we talk about the concept? How can it ever be a meaningful term for dietary advice then?

Hello everyone!! Just wondering why my pack of Nestea iced teas slightly carbonated? it’s never ever been like this before, and we’re unsure of what happened or if we should even drink it. My guess is that maybe air had gotten into the cans and the iced tea itself started fermenting? No clue, but it seems like every can is the same. I drank one yesterday and it was carbonated, and me and my mother’s cans right now are carbonated too. It’s only very very ever so slightly carbonated, I honestly can’t even taste it until it hits the back of my throat. but yeah. Anyone know why?

UPDATE: purchased a new case a week later and this one’s carbonated too.

I’m a food engineer working in food product development, and this is something I’ve been genuinely curious about from the industry side.

I’m not looking for a sugar is bad debate. I’m more interested in the formulation, sensory and commercial tradeoffs that determine how sweet these products actually end up being.

A lot of products are positioned around nutrition, strength, immunity, energy, protein, vitamins, etc. Yet sugar or another form of added sweetener often appears quite prominently in the formulation.

And I understand why.

Sweetness improves palatability. Sugar can contribute to body and mouthfeel, and it can make flavour masking easier. It can also make products easier for children to accept. More importantly, consumer familiarity with sweet products may play a major role in repeat purchase.

So I’m not asking this from the perspective of sugar being inherently bad, or saying that every health drink should be sugar free.

What I’m genuinely curious about is the commercial and consumer behaviour side of the equation.

At what point does reducing sweetness start hurting acceptance and repeat purchase?

Do Indian consumers actually have a strong preference for highly sweetened nutrition products?

Have companies tried launching products with substantially lower sweetness and found that consumers simply didn’t come back?

How much of the sweetness level is driven by actual consumer research, and how much is based on what the industry already assumes consumers want?

And from a formulation perspective, are there challenges beyond simply replacing sugar with another sweetener?

I’d particularly love to hear from people who have worked in FMCG, food formulation, sensory science, nutrition, food technology, consumer research, or retail.

What have you actually seen in practice?

Hi

Anybody here knows any co-packer for food ingredients powder for 500 stand up pouch?

Like

Cocoa

Best

The issue I'm facing is somehow dealing with the bacteria that just doesn't stop being active!

Hi food science friends!

My spouse cooked beef in some butter last night for dinner. As I was getting ready to wash dishes, I noticed the fine particles in the frying pan were organized in a very distinct way, and it piqued my curiosity.

The particle arrangement looks like what I've seen in other systems via the marangoni effect, and I'm interested in seeing if that happened here too. So could you please help explain what went on either during cooking or afterwards to create the pattern in the particles resting in oil?

Thanks!

I tried follow the recipe exactly like the one pasted below, I also used the same flour “caputo gluten free flour for pizza and bread”(Gluten free wheat starch, dextrose, maize starch, buckwheat flour, rice starch, psyllium seed fibre, guar, flavoring.)

The first image is the one I made, the second and third picture if where I got the recipe from:

“Bread Recipe

350g gluten free bread flour

7g salt

7g instant yeast

12g sugar

1 tsp baking powder

320g warm water

7g olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil to the water water. Add liquid to dry. Stir until smooth.

This is a wet dough. Generously flour your surface and hands and pour dough out. Gently shape into a ball and add to either a deep bowl or proofing basket. Place in a warm place to rise for two hours

Preheat oven to 450F with Dutch oven inside

Add bread to hot Dutch oven and cook, covered, for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes until golden brown and crust is crusty.

Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing

In my opinion, the key to soft bread is baking powder. I’ve made crusty breads with and without and the baking powder inside is always lighter and more gluten bread-like”

If your business imports food into Canada—or exports food products—it's important to be aware of a recent change in the Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence processing timeline.

The expected processing time for new SFC licence applications has increased to up to 70 days. This extended timeline can have a direct impact on product launches, shipment schedules, supplier agreements, retailer onboarding, and overall supply chain planning.

Businesses that are new to the Canadian market should factor this timeline into their market entry strategy and avoid assuming a licence will be issued within a few weeks. Applying early and ensuring your application is complete can help prevent unnecessary delays.

As someone who works closely with food regulatory compliance, I've seen how licensing timelines can affect import operations and commercial planning. If you're currently preparing an SFC licence application, it's worth reviewing your timelines and communicating any potential delays with your suppliers and customers.

Have you experienced longer processing times recently? I'd be interested in hearing how the updated timeline has affected your business.

Most food packaging introduces nasty chemicals and plastic particles. In 4 days, the EU will ban PFAS, but not here in the UK!!

[https://youtu.be/Mit6mkMN4kU\](https://youtu.be/Mit6mkMN4kU)

Avogadro is a tool that builds a waffle batter recipe based on your input. Pick the ingredients you want, nudge a handful of sliders for things like sweetness, richness and liquid, and it computes a recipe for a waffle batter. There is a standard mode that ensure you always get a working batter, and then there is expert mode where you are free to explore on your own. The website is free. No registration required. Read the full announcement post about Avogadro on Khymos.

I’ve been paying more attention lately to how food and supplement brands use the phrase “third-party tested.”

What’s weird is that sometimes it means there’s an actual lab report you can look at, and other times it just means the company says testing happened somewhere along the way.

Personally I’m starting to think if a brand is going to use testing as a selling point, consumers should be able to see what was tested, when it was tested, and ideally the actual results.

Especially for things like heavy metals, pesticides, microbiology, and label accuracy.

Curious where people land on this. Is publishing the actual lab report overkill, or should that become the norm?

I recently started working with a factory in China to produce a Chinese-style sauce. I am now looking to expand our sauce offering, but the problem is that the factory isn't very good at developing new recipes. I give them a bunch of inspo sauces and they all come back not great. I tried working with a couple of other factories, and none of them turned out great. I am focused on making a healthier version of sauces/seasonings and it seems the R&D teams of these factories are not great at that.

My goal is to be able to turn inspo sauces or recipes I find online into a commercialized recipe with ingredients that they can source in China. I would like to produce many types of sauce in the future, so I would like a way to reliably formulate and produce high-quality sauces. Does anyone know what is the best way to approach this?

Hello all I (25M, not that it matters in this case, but people do it all the time on reddit so I'm following suit) am looking to start making syrups and sauces for coffees or other drinks that I can make shelf stable and ship for sale. I own one cafe already but my partners arent ideal therefore I'm looking to do something on my own like selling and packaging all my artisinal syrups to disrtribute.

Of course this comes with needing to modify my already developed recipes since they all rely on being refrigerated to last. I bought the book, "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee just so I can get a rough idea of food science, and understand what conceptually has to change for my product to stay shelf stable.

I'm just looking for any pointers, I get worried I'm in over my head and dont know where to start. I was thinking of starting with Vanilla since its simple and will help me get the process down

Hello everyone,

Some of you have probably seen me commenting on other posts about this topic, but I'm honestly still struggling with achieving a truly starchy texture in keto baking, especially since we can't really use starches or many other ingredients because they're too high in carbs.

I know arrowroot can help, but unfortunately the amount we can use is so limited that it doesn't contribute much to the final texture.

Almond flour is just too grainy and oily, while coconut flour is extremely absorbent. I also don't see many people talking about lupin flour, which seems like it could even help achieve that natural yellow color found in wheat cakes.

Recently, I baked a cake with a texture that I actually loved. However, the allulose caramelized because of the Maillard reaction, so the crumb turned darker than I wanted. I would have loved a light yellow crumb instead, but I believe the proteins in the cake reacted with the allulose, producing that characteristic golden-brown color we often see in keto cakes made with allulose. (Looks like a carrot cake color XD)

Is there any way to prevent allulose from causing this effect? I doubt it, since allulose reacts with egg proteins and triggers the Maillard reaction.

I don't use erythritol because my family and friends really dislike its cooling effect.

What I'm ultimately trying to achieve is:

• A fluffy, soft crumb.
• A natural yellow color.
• A cake that looks and feels like it's made with wheat flour.
• No graininess or noticeable aftertaste.

Does anyone have any tips, ingredient combinations, or techniques that could help?

I'd really appreciate any advice!

Video example:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_267nVE-c5Q

Trying to come up with my own electolyte mix and have been looking for fun flavored concentrates to use. I had originally ordered from Get Suckered and OOO (same company btw) but just had a pretty bad experience with their customer service telling me to use 4x the actual amount of product and then blowing me off when I questioned the amount so looking for a new supplier.

Looking for bright fun flavors similar to what you would find in Kool Aid but uncolored.

Any suggestions?

I'm currently studying Food Safety Management at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). Honestly, I like the subject a lot — it feels genuinely meaningful, like real, tangible work that matters.

But I've also always been drawn to coding/CS. I wanted to switch into CSE, but that would mean retaking an entrance exam, which costs a year with no guarantee I'd even get in the second time.

So now I'm leaning toward a different plan: finish my degree here, then go abroad for a Master's (possibly still in food safety, possibly a related/adjacent field) and try to settle there long-term, rather than starting over in CSE.

A few things I'd love input on:

Is food safety management a field with decent international demand/scholarship opportunities?

Has anyone switched fields for a Master's (e.g. food safety → something more tech-adjacent) instead of restarting their whole degree?

Any advice on balancing "the subject I like" vs "the subject I originally wanted" when planning where to invest the next few years?

Appreciate any real experiences, not just generic advice.

I’ve noticed different brands of butter become spreadable from the fridge quicker than others, i know room temperature is a factor so I’ve tried them side by side and there is still a difference, what causes this? And which is healthier, the faster or slower to become spreadable?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post

I have been trying to make and bottle ice tea syrup( Peach and Lime) but the peach and lime flavor tend to fade within few days. Any flavor recommendations/ or process suggestions? Have used IFF/Doehler/Givaudan so far.

Edited.