Ingredient Hotline » Welcome

Maria — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:00:28 +0000

From everyone at Ingredient Hotline,

we would like to wish you and your families

a safe Merry Christmas

and a Prosperous New Year!

Les Aliments Morehouse Canada, Inc. Appoints Ingredient Hotline, Inc.

Maria — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:04:33 +0000

Toronto, Ontario, October 31, 2011 — Ingredient Hotline, Inc. has been appointed by Les Aliments Morehouse Canada, Inc. as the industrial representative and distributor of their full line of premium quality mustards to food manufacturers in Canada.

“Morehouse Foods has been awarded the gold medal winner in the classic American Yellow mustard category, as well as earning medals for the the Deli/Brown mustard and flavored categories. The honour is a tribute to the ongoing excellence of our products. We can also customize our mustard products depending on the needs of our customers” adds Ken Crawford, Sales Manager, Les Aliments Morehouse Canada, Inc. “It is with great pleasure that we partner with Ingredient Hotline to increase the distribution of our great line of mustards to food manufacturers across Canada.”

Maria Januszczak, Director of Sales and Business Development, Ingredient Hotline, Inc. states, “We align ourselves with ingredient manufacturers that produce high quality, clean label products and those that aim for excellent customer service”. Maria adds that we can now offer Canadian food processors a shorter lead time , a fresher product and the option of working with sulfite-free mustards.

About Ingredient Hotline, Inc.

Ingredient Hotline, Inc. is a leader in providing unique and natural food ingredients to the nutritional and food processing industries. Applications include bars, bakery products, nutritional beverages, confections, and more. For more information, visit us at www.ingredienthotline.com

About Les Aliments Morehouse Canada, Inc.

Morehouse first began making mustard in 1898. Since then, they have remained focused and committed to making a number of new varieties to satisfy the creative desires of the 21st Century consumer. The Morehouse Canada facility produces a full line of mustard with a dominant position in the manufacture of Dijon. This plant is equipped to duplicate the Dijon mustards long considered unique to the Dijon region of France. For more information, visit www.morehousefoods.com

Back to the Food Fight

Maria — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:13:10 +0000

In my younger, single years while working as a product developer for a flavour company, one of the projects I developed was a “juice” drink composed of: 75% sugar, 5% juice powder (of which 50% was maltodextrin), tri-calcium phosphate (to prevent clumping), gums as thickeners, citric acid, and colour etc. etc. It addressed all the needs from a beverage perspective: it tasted good, quenched the thirst, it was affordable and very profitable for our client. Not too proud of it’s nutritional aspect, but this “drink” eventually became a best-seller across a third world country.

More than a decade following that job, with young family in the picture – I try to make all our meals from scratch and I started a business venture that aim to provide more natural and value-added food ingredients. Even in my own household, it has not been an easy voyage. As soon as my kids learned their colours, they have put up quite the resistance to their consumption of vegetables. The food fight continues! I resorted to stealth health cooking i.e. adding cauliflour puree to the baked macaroni, spinach in the pesto, chia seeds in their pancakes, quinoa flour in the banana bread etc. etc. to add enough fibre and nutrients into their meals. The good news is that they are quite fond of fruits and though they would hate to admit it, they have picked up a few favourite veggies that they are happy to munch on.

It seems not a lot of people know what healthy food really means. Is pizza a healthy lunch? Can french fries count as a vegetable? A typical lunch program often includes pizza lunches every week of the entire school year. Adding “fruit juice” gummies as their idea of a nutritious desert, does not cut it. The banning of nuts from schools and other children’s programs in Canada has also created an unhealthy reception for most kids – the idea that eating nuts are bad for you, whether you have allergies or not. Ontario schools have started to change their ways, somewhat. The government of Ontario has issued their guidelines for the coming schoolyear. More details can be found here: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/extra/eng/ppm/Appendix150.pdf However, It does not come close to what the French public schools have, but it is a start.

The schools in France have been remarkable in their provision of a school lunch. The children in the French public school system are provided a 5 course meal everyday. Not only are the kids taught the value of enjoying their lunch, they are also accorded ample time to savour it (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969729,00.html ). Our Canadian schools allot about 20 minutes for our kids to lap up their meals before they are hurried out the door. An article that came out last year in the Harvard Mental Health Letter suggests that eating slowly may help you achieve a feeling of fullness (http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-eating-slowly-may-help-you-feel-full-faster-20101019605). It also helps explain why most resources for losing weight would recommend you to slowly chew your food. The theory is that, if you eat your food too fast, you do not give enough time for your brain to realize that you are full. Do you still wonder why there is a growing incidence of obesity in children?

While kids may eat a not-so-healthy meal at school, it is up to us parents and guardians to make sure that our children are introduced to healthier choices at home. To have a decent breakfast before they go off to school and a balanced dinner before they retire to bed. While I may not pack a 5 course school meal for my kids, it is certainly close to gourmet.

Coconut Sugar

John — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:28:15 +0000

We’re pretty excited about natural sweeteners, and feature yacon syrup with an ultra low glycemic index. Another product we like is coconut sugar. Coconut sugar is made from fresh coconut sap collected from the cuttings of the flower buds on dwarf coconut trees. The sap is caramelized, then crystallized into a fine grained brown sugar. It’s 100% natural, and the perfect alternative to refined sugars in applications such as confectionery and desserts. The creamy, almost caramel-like sweetness also works well in the flavouring of curries and rich sauces for savory dishes. On a personal note, we’ve been using coconut sugar in our coffee for a while now and it’s great!

Besides its amazing texture and flavour, it also has a low glycemic index, much lower than refined sugar. Glycemic index (GI) is a tool that was developed at the University of Toronto back in the 1980’s. An ingredient’s glycemic index measures how it affects blood glucose levels in an individual. Carbohydrate foods are assigned a number between 0 and 100 based on that effect. Glycemic Index is often categorized into three levels:

High: a GI of more than 70
Moderate: a GI between 55 and 70
Low: a GI below 55

Due to its low glycemic index, research suggests that using coconut sugar can help stabalize insulin levels in people with type 1 & type 2 diabetes. It is also suggested that a the use of low glycemic index foods can lower the LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol, otherwise known as the “bad” cholesterol. Low glycemic index foods should also help with weight maintenance, preventing obesity and being overweight.

We encourage you to look into the research on lower glycemic index foods for yourselves. In the mean time, you might want to consider trying coconut sugar. If you’re a food manufacturer, contact us and we’d be happy to arrange for a sample. Consumers can purchase coconut sugar directly from sources such as Amazon. If you use coconut sugar, we’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Here’s another idea: subscribe to the Ingredient Hotline blog today and follow us on twitter so you can stay up to date on the latest in innovative, all natural food ingredients.

photo credit: HeyDanielle

Easier Access To Our Blog

John — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:19:18 +0000

We’ve made a little change with our blog. Instead of having the blog hosted at a completely separate site, blog.ingredienthotline.com, we’ve integrated access to the blog right into our main “corporate” site, www.ingredienthotline.com. To access our blog, you can click on the Blog link in our main site’s main menu:

We’re hoping this makes it a lot easier for everyone to get around our site and enjoy some of the less formal content in our blog. By the way, any existing links to the original blog url, as well as links to blog posts and anything else on the blog for that matter will still work! We’re also hoping you’ll weigh in on the topics we cover in the blog with your comments. So please enjoy the posts and let us know what you think!

Let’s Focus on the Food

Maria — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:47:02 +0000

In 2009, we have seen a number of product launches as well as press releases on ingredient introductions and innovations. These initatives on product rework and or product development influenced by the economy, food recalls and changing health patterns resulted in these market trend reports on what consumers were looking for or want in their food product. While there were many variations and versions of these terms (depending on which research firm has published the report), they all have recurring themes.

In retrospect, Ingredient Hotline has summarized these food trend findings into the 5 F’s:

Flavour
Frugality
Fitness & Function
Fun
Fair

These 5 F’s were the top 5 attributes that consumers searched for or were willing to pay for in the food products that they purchase and consume for 2009.

When it comes to food, flavour has always be a top priority of most consumers. It may well be the healthiest ingredient on the planet, but it will be a challenge to market it if the product is not palatable. People will not eat it, let alone pay for it. This leads us to the next F word, frugality. Last year, we have seen many great food products launched in the market from the branded to their private label counterparts. It was not surprising however, that private label sales performed very well since customers were looking for bargains and more value for money. Imagine a product that tasted great, fit your budget and offered benefits to one’s health and well being – what a bonus! Fitness meant reduced sugars, sodium, trans-fats etc. & function referred to specific benefits to the body in terms of improving digestive health, immunity and others. Improvements or creativity in packaging that sparked some interest or even convenience would fall under fun. Novel flavours, colours and formats were also classified as a way to forget the harsh realties and savour some simple pleasures. Finally, more consumers have expressed concerns and genuine interest in how their foods were grown or processed. Is it locavore, raw food, fair trade, sustainable, is it fair?

Stay tuned for what’s in store in 2010!

In the meantime, we at Ingredient Hotline, Inc. would like to thank you – our readers, suppliers and customers for giving us your time, attention and lots of encouraging words and well wishes. The responses to the products have been very positive and we certainly look forward to a promising new year. As a company who strives to provide unique, natural ingredients – we do not have any gimmicks. Our focus has always been and will always be on food!

We wish you a new year of good health, good food, peace and prosperity!

Building Community & The Social Web

John — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:42:57 +0000

We’ve been working on updating (upgrading?) our web presence at Ingredient Hotline for some time. This blog is one part of that effort. We’ve been busy doing some other things as well and you can find the whole story here. The other items worth mentioning quickly besides this blog include better support for smartphones when viewing our company site and this blog, as well as how to follow us on twitter.

Hotline

Maria — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:00:45 +0000

hot line or hot·line n.
A telephone line that gives quick and direct access to a source of information or help.

Taken from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.