Category: I.T.S. news

It’s finally here, the answer to your biggest headache. I.T.S. present the definite all-natural sweetness and mouthfeel booster for beverages.

The bane of most beverage technologists lives is trying to reduce sugar content, but still maintain the same great taste and desired mouthfeel. Well, the team at I.T.S. has gone and done it.

100% NATURAL SWEETNESS AND MOUTHFEEL BOOSTER

The new 100% natural ingredient has been proven to reduce sugar content by up to 50% in a variety of beverage applications. The new product joins our already impressive range of sugar reduction solutions as part of our SweetLITE™ range. We’ve labelled it SweetLITE™ Body as it provides the taste and texture combined to give the consumer the perception that the product is full of sugar.

There is simply no easier way to remove calories from product development – the natural powder is completely water soluble and carries no colour changes when used at recommended levels. It’s incredibly versatile and suitable for most applications and all pH ranges. SweetLITE™ Body is as tough as ingredients come and not affected by temperature or forms of processing.

SUGAR REDUCTION MADE EASY

We aren’t ones for trying to dazzle you with science or over complicate things – no processing instructions needed, just drop in the recommended amount, give it a quick stir and you are good to go. What’s better is it’s simply labelled as a natural flavouring and dietary fibre on your packaging.

Briony Rideout, I.T.S. Beverage Specialist explains “It’s brilliant to offer such a remarkable solution. When I first tried it I couldn’t quite believe how simple and effective it is. SweetLITE™ Body has really hit the ground running, and we are already underway using the product in many new trials with brands.”

I.T.S. LEADING THE WAY IN BEVERAGE INGREDIENTS

SweeLITE™ Body once again proves the success of I.T.S. within the beverage ingredient sector. We’ve been running for just over 10 years and already have some of the most talked about solutions in the market, not to mention always staying one step ahead.

Mike Bagshaw, Owner and Founder of I.T.S. says “I’m incredibly proud of I.T.S. on the release of our new SweetLITE™ Body application. We are a small team but consistently produce big results. In a sector with so much noise and incredibly overcomplicated ingredients, we produce straightforward and effective solutions for our customers that always come out on top.”

FREE NEXT DAY SUGAR REDUCTION SAMPLES

If you’d like us to put our money where our mouth is, get in touch and we’ll send you over some free samples to try out.

To celebrate World Earth Day we are proudly announcing our plans to become a carbon negative flavouring supplier.

Put simply, we are looking to remove more CO2 emissions than we put into the atmosphere.

We recognise the responsibility we have to help preserve the planet. We also recognise the great efforts many of our customers put into helping with the sustainability of our planet.

The food and beverage industry plays a huge role globally in the high levels of pollution – it’s time that companies started to make a bigger impact in preserving the planet for generations to come.

Mike Bagshaw, Owner and Founder of I.T.S. explains “It’s something we are very passionate about and we’ve been looking at doing for a while. But the truth is we don’t have time to wait, action needs to be taken. We are looking forward to offering our customers flavourings that help save the planet when we become carbon negative.”

We will initially put plans in place to operate as carbon neutral and then move to a carbon-negative operation.

More information and exciting sustainable projects are in the pipeline – keep an eye out.

The team at I.T.S. have been doing everything they can to help out people in need this Christmas.

We’ve been busy supplying and delivering Christmas dinner hampers to 23 local Newbury families who needed help this Christmas. We are passionate about helping out where we can, like how we’ve been manufacturing hand sanitiser and donating to the most vulnerable throughout this year.

There’s no doubt about it, this year has been tough for everyone. Through the help of our dedicated customers and suppliers we are ending 2020 in good shape and ready for what 2021 brings.

There has been shining lights of hope and determination that have truly inspired us through 2020. From all our friends in the food industry working around the clock to meet increased demands, to the exciting new brands we’ve worked with that developed and launched products during the nationwide lockdown.

We’d also like to thank all the lorry drivers, shop assistants and everyone that goes unnoticed for playing a pivotal role in ensuring the nation remained fed this year.

So, it’s not like any Christmas we’ve experienced before, but it’s a time to be thankful and give a little back to people who need it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – from everyone at team I.T.S.

We crunch the data and give you the run down of our best selling and performing flavourings of 2020.

This year hasn’t been easy, but we’ve decided to focus on the positives and all the delicious tasting products our natural flavourings have helped make this year. That’s why we’ve decided to crunch the data and celebrate our most popular flavours of 2020.

Bestselling Flavouring of 2020

The award goes to, surprise, surprise – Vanilla. This flavouring has probably been our most popular flavour since we started in 2009. Quite simply, it’s the top dog of flavours. Absolutely essential in bakery and dairy especially. We don’t like to brag, but this Vanilla spreads so far and wide, we are confident you’ve probably already tried it.

Our flagship Vanilla takes the award, but is followed by our wide range of Vanilla profiles such as Creamy, Rich, Madagascan and Ice Cream, to name a few.

Honourable mentions: Coming in just behind were Maple and Strawberry that were also both very strong this year.

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New Flavourings on the Block

The next award celebrates our best preforming new flavour that we released this year. We are all happy to see Raspberry come out on top here. A truly standout flavour that works perfectly for all of our sectors and across many different applications. This one is also turning a lot of heads in the beverage sector, especially things like hard seltzers.

Honourable mentions: No 2020 flavour awards would be complete without the arrival of savoury flavours. This time a worthy runner up is our delicious Vegan Cheese Seasoning. A seasoning that is taking the plant based world by storm. Seriously, you need to check this out.

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The Biggest Improvers

This award highlights the most improved sales of any flavouring for 2020. This is another one that really shows the sign of the times and brands reacting to consumer trends. Our most improved flavour is our infamous SweetLITE Super product.

If you’re not familiar with our sugar reduction range, SweetLITE is a natural flavouring that can reduce sugar content in products by up to 50% by boosting sweetness profiles.

Honourable mentions: Our Rosy Apple flavouring is also another big improver this year – a big hit again with the beverage sector.

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The Stars of Tomorrow

We also wanted to give a special mention to some flavourings that have really started to rocket on in the latter half of 2020 and that we think should be rallying up the charts for next year.

Blood Orange and Pink Grapefruit are two we are very proud of and just keep producing time after time. Both are bursting with flavour and ideal for anyone looking for something special.

With just about everyone focusing on plant based projects, our savoury range is coming on leaps and bounds. Particularly flavourings like Umami and Smoked.

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We don’t want to give too much away though – a more detailed look into the biggest flavours of next year will be included in our Flavour Trends 2021 – 2022 report that will be released early next year.

If you’d like to give any of the flavourings mentioned above a try, please get in touch to request some free samples

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Everyone’s favourite flavour combo has made it’s comeback. Chocolate Orange looks to be taking over this winter.

This Christmas is set to offer much more than just the faithful Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Already this classic flavour combo has been filling up confectionary aisles with Cadbury releasing its Chocolate Orange Twirl and Button ranges. The timing is perfect for this sleeping giant of a flavour to make its comeback with Christmas and Halloween just around the corner.

The classic flavour isn’t just settling for the confectionery market, with recent headline launches in bakery with McVities biscuits and Mr Kipling’s Fancies. Never ones to miss out on the action, Hotel Chocolat have also developed a new liqueur with the flavour. Domino’s Pizza has even got in on the action and added Chocolate Orange Cookies to their range.

Market leaders Terry’s Chocolate Orange also brought back their white chocolate version of their famous Chocolate Orange to help to keep things interesting.

Luckily we already have a large range of different chocolate and orange natural flavourings in many different styles. Get in touch to request a sample and make sure your products are on trend this winter.

Along with our delicious Chocolate and Orange natural flavouring we also supply a wide range of other chocolate and orange profiles that can be adapted and paired to make a truly unique flavour.

• Chocolate Brownie
• Chocolate
• Chocolate Bitter
• Chocolate Cookies & Cream
• Chocolate Creamy
• Chocolate Dark
• Chocolate Honeycomb
• Chocolate Milky
• Chocolate Mint
• Chocolate Rich
• Cocoa
• Orange
• Blood Orange

Click here to request a sample .

Are smoke flavours causing you a headache? Smoke-free natural flavours can make your life easier. 

With the recent boom of plant-based products, the demand for savoury flavourings has really taken off. One of the most important and most challenging flavour profiles in the savoury range is smoked flavours. They play a huge part in not just meat flavoured products, but a whole range of savoury applications.

Traditionally “true” smoke flavours would have been used, but now people’s heads have been turned by the benefits of smoke-free natural flavours. By using natural flavours you can dramatically improve smoked flavours of not just plant-based products, but a whole range of savoury and even sometimes sweet products – all whilst being completely smoke-free.

What is a “true” smoke flavouring?

“True” smoke flavourings are produced by the burning of the wood to create the smoke, then condensation of the smoke that is produced (oak, beech, applewood, hickory etc). The condensed smoke is then usually separated by physical means into a number of fractions – a water-based primary smoke condensate, a water-insoluble tar phase and a water-insoluble oily phase.

Clearly, smoke in its pure form contains components that are harmful to human health, so the primary condensate and fractions of the tar phase are purified to remove these. The oily phase is a by-product and unsuitable for use in the production of smoke flavourings.

The purified fractions are then suitable for use in foods or for the preparation of smoke flavourings through further processing and the addition of other flavourings,. additives and solvents.

Legislation cracking down on smoke flavourings

The legislation surrounding the use, labelling and declaration of “smoke flavourings” is quite distinct and sits outside of the EU legislation for flavourings and as such, many food manufacturers are becoming more reluctant to use true smokes and are looking to create the flavour and aroma of smoke by using Natural Flavourings.

Why choose natural smoke-free flavours?

I.T.S has developed a range of “Smoke-free” Natural smoke-style flavourings for use in a wide range of product applications designed to deliver characteristic smokey notes whilst being declarable as Natural Flavourings.

In addition to flavourings delivering different smokey characters, we have also combined the smoke element with a number of other flavourings such as Vanilla, Caramel, Apple, Plum, Strawberry, Maple, Cheese.
These are carefully balanced in such a way that neither the smoke nor the complementary profile dominates the overall delivery.

Get in touch to request a sample of any of our smoke range or talk to one of our specialists for further information.

The smoke-free range includes:

• Smoke-style (Hickory-style)
• Smoke-style (smoke-free)
• Smoke style (soft, applewood)
• Smoked Cheese
• Smoked Vanilla
• Smoked Maple
• Smoked Caramel
• Smoked Apple
• Smoked Plum
• Smoked Strawberry
• Smoked Garlic
• Smoked Paprika
• Smoked Chili
• Smoked BBQ

Potential Applications:

• Specialist breads
• Scones
• Savoury pastry fillings
• Cheese
• Ready meals
• Savoury snacks
• Plant-based foods/meat analogues

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I.T.S. have announced a market leading range of plant-based flavour solutions to help with the growing trend of brands looking to make the switch.

I.T.S. have created a fundamental building block for masking proteins in plant-based foods and beverages.

By utilising ground-breaking technology, I.T.S. plant-based flavourings and maskers have the lowest impact on macronutrients in industry.

I.T.S. maximise the tasty flavours and protein content, whilst removing any off-taste. All of I.T.S.  flavours come from completely natural sources and are suitable for plant-based and vegan products.

For the past decade, I.T.S. have been working closely with new and exciting plant-based food and beverage start-ups, helping them become household brands and dominate supermarket shelves.

Mike Bagshaw, Owner and Founder of I.T.S. explains “From the beginning we have always been about making food taste great. That’s what we do. We started to see so many plant-based products on market that just did not taste very good. Just because something is plant-based, doesn’t mean you should have to sacrifice on taste.

That’s where we have been able to work with our customers and consistently demonstrate that plant-based food can taste great.

With a growing reputation of great tasting natural flavours and news that the plant-based market was set to soar by 327% in 2019, the business decided it needed a dedicated approach. Setting up an innovation team to focus on making great tasting natural plant-based flavours ensures the business is able to work with a wide range of sectors.

I.T.S. have expertise in working with bakery, dairy, sports nutrition and just about any business that needs help making great tasting plant-based products. The I.T.S. team are able to rapidly develop new flavours with its on-site test bakery, innovation kitchen and newly built pilot plant. This helps the team work closely with its customers on-site to achieve the best tasting results.

Discover our range of tasty natural flavours for the low and no beverage sector.

Our Marketing and Development Teams are always making sure we have all the hottest flavour trends available to our customers. With low and no beverage ranges exploding over the last year we have been busy working up some tasty natural flavourings for this sector.

Waitrose reported their low & no alcohol beer sales were up 50% on last year, with alcohol-free spirits up 49%. Searches for ‘virgin cocktails’ on its site were up 100%, it said, while ‘non-alcoholic’ was up 211%. These stats show that all beverage manufactures should be dipping their toes into this growing market. The deciding factor for this sectors success will ultimately come down to taste. Can low and no beverage still deliver the intense and strong flavour profiles of alcoholic drinks?

There are many factors to consider with low and no beverage flavour profiles to ensure there is no sacrifice on flavour. Our flavour range ensures low and no beverage can still offer exciting flavour and provide that extra depth and experience consumers crave from alcoholic drinks.

One of the major profiles we have been innovating with is floral and botanical themes. These work perfectly in gin style beverages and other refreshing long drinks. We have also developed a range of classic cocktail flavours such as Mojito, Woo Woo, Pina Colada, Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri.

The real magic comes when you try one of our Tequila, Whisky or Rum flavourings that perfectly deliver that intense flavour profile without any alcohol needed.

Get in touch to discuss our alcohol flavours in more detail and how they could work for you.