Blog

What is Quark?

In March I was honored to speak at the Clean Label Conference in Itasca, Illinois on clean label ingredient trends. There I met Craig Sherwin who is the Technical Service Manager for Novozymes North America, a Dutch ingredient company. Craig was promoting an alternative to the conventional yeast-based lactase used in lactose-free dairy. He mentioned this being applied to a variety of dairy products, including a traditional Germanic product called “Quark”.

Somewhere between the texture of a thick yogurt and ricotta cheese, quark is a creamy, cultured milk product that can be used in sweet and savory dishes, or eaten plain.

Confusion and Concern about Sugar

Ingredients matter today more than ever. According to Label Insight’s Shopper Trends study, 98% of shoppers think it’s important to consider the ingredients in the food products they purchase.

The 4th semi-annual Food Labeling: Evolving Regulatory Compliance Conference took place February 27th and 28th, 2017 in Alexandria, Virginia. According to the conference description, the key theme this year was "recognizing and preparing for the impact of FDA & USDA label changes on special claims, serving size and ingredients, developing effective methods for transition and compliance, including reformulation and successfully managing the effect on consumer behavior and sales."