Bakery ingredient manufacturer Pak Group, through its North American brand, Bellarise, announces its new, certified organic, clean label and Non-GMO dough conditioner: Bellarise BellaSPONGE Organic.

Consumers are reading labels more, looking for products that are nutritious, with ingredients that are easy to understand and that work with their family's budget. While there's no official definition of "clean label," consumers and the snack and bakery industry have their own definition in mind.

Fresh bread, bagels and English muffins comprise the largest segment in bakery, valued at over $10 billion per IRI, Chicago. But sales overall remain relatively flat. Nevertheless, several strategic options exist for bakers to infuse new life into bread sales.

The idea of "better for you" encompasses much of what consumers desire today in many of their snacks and baked goods: clean label, non-GMO, natural and—at its core—solid nutrition to make those foods a healthy part of their daily diet.

Formulating products with the ever-increasing demands of today’s marketplace is no easy task.

If there’s one trend that touches nearly every area of the food industry—from formulation to marketing, from ingredients to finished products—it’s clean label.