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It's important to be able to trace the movements of a product or ingredient that requires refrigerated or frozen transport or storage throughout its life cycle, and this is where cold chain technology comes into play.

Fruits are high in essential nutrients, and the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends adults eat at least 1½ to 2 cups per day. According to the CDC, though, only 12 percent of adults meet those guidelines. But snack and bakery product developers have a wide range of options to bolster their wares with more wholesome fruit ingredients.

In 2015, we launched the "Best New Snack & Bakery Products" of the year contest to honor outstanding new snack and bakery products entering the industry, with the online Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery audience voting for their favorites. Since then, we've noticed that the winners often reflect that year's current prevailing consumer sensibilities.

Controlling allergens is vital in snack and bakery facilities that seek to remain 100 percent allergen-free. The first step is to establish best practices, as well as regularly testing the production environment and finished products for presence of allergens.

When "The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book" was first published in 1954, it included a recipe for "Haschich Fudge," made with black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, dates, figs, almonds, peanuts, sugar, butter and "a bunch of canibus sativa (sic)."

Snack food and bakery companies looking to purchase belts and conveyors are asking for larger capacity, quieter machinery, improved safety, greater energy efficiency the ability to reduce manpower, and, thus, costs.

Shipping contamination-free food products to the public has always been business-critical, but today's social media landscape leaves virtually no room for error. A wider variety of products, along with a wide variety of packaging options, have increased the need for more flexible inspection and detection equipment.

Bread is the most-important category in the baking industry, but also one of the most-challenging for building appreciable growth. For the 52 weeks ending November 4, 2018, the fresh bread and rolls category grew 0.13 percent in dollar sales to $13.4 billion, per IRI, Chicago.

ERP (enterprise resource planning) software can help snack and bakery businesses see the "big picture" while constantly improving. While many ERP software choices are available, they're constantly being improved and changing, too.

In an ongoing shift, consumers are increasingly more cognizant of the amount and type of sugar and other sweeteners in their products.