Kraft Food Ingredients ups clean label portfolio with dairy-based snacking prototypes

KFI is an independent subsidiary of recently-formed Kraft Heinz Company.

In 2015, Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital​ ​and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway helped the ketchup maker take over Kraft Foods for $40bn, this site previously reported. When Kraft Heinz relocated its head office to the Aon Center in downtown Chicago following the merger, the company’s R&D center moved to Glenview, Illinois.

“About 35% of our ingredients go into snack foods​,”​ VP and general manager at KFI, Andrew Scribner, told BakeryandSnacks during Snaxpo (April 1-4) held in Savannah, Georgia.

The company showcased several snacking concepts featuring dairy ingredients, including cheeseburger-flavored puffs that are hydrogenated oil-free, cheddar flavored PHO-free baked potato chips and parmesan popcorn. According to the head of marketing at KFI, Julie Tiatia, all these snack prototypes follow the clean label​​ consumer trend.

“Cheese products are growing in popularity,”​ said Tiatia, despite the demand for more healthy products. Cheese is often perceived as unhealthy, however, Tiata said it is viewed as a “permissible indulgence”​.

“People are not going to stop eating cheese. What they don’t want is eating cheese full of ingredients they can’t pronounce,”​ she said.

Transforming the product portfolio​

"Consumers are moving into fresh, less processed and clean ingredient lines, so we’re transforming our portfolio to a better one and getting into natural and organic as well,”​ Scribner added.

As such, KFI provides a range of cheese powders with differing levels of sodium for manufacturers wanting to cater to the consumer demand for sodium-reduced foods.

While some of the KFI’s portfolio upgrade may come with a cost increase, Scribner said the company's goal is to provide its snack-making partners with more options.