News & Analysis for the Beverage Industry
Hydration-boosting, functional and non-alcoholic (non-alc) beverages will continue their growth in 2025, but generations are seeking out different drinks to meet their health and nutrition needs, according to a recent Circana webinar.
Lower-income people tend to consume more sugar-sweetened beverages than average. Are soda taxes effective at reducing consumption?
Caffeine’s effect on vascular health has been a hot topic for years, with researchers putting forward positive and negative arguments. Now, a new study is adding to the conversation. But what's the truth?
Creating effective batteries is a critical part of renewable energy plans – and wine and coffee could hold the answer to cheaper, more efficient and more eco-friendly battery tech.
The images that winemakers choose to put on bottles can impact how brands and the quality of the wine inside are perceived by women, according to a new study.
Analyzing DNA remnants of Bronze-Age kefir cheese, Chinese researchers discovered how kefir strains have evolved and the likely route of kefir into Europe.
Thanks to an experiment that's tracked barley over the last century, researchers have pinpointed the genes that offer ‘remarkable adaptability’ in the grain – a key ingredient in breads, breakfast cereals, beer and whiskey.
New Zealand Winegrowers has set out the crucial milestones and key emission-reduction opportunities for vineyards and wineries in order for the industry to reach net zero by 2050. Where will efforts have the biggest impact?
Sugar taxes set out to reduce sugary beverage consumption. But how can that be built on to steer people towards choosing healthier options instead?
Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) is using AI technology to improve biodiversity across five of its blackcurrant farms in the UK this harvest season.
A project unveiled by Lipton aims to improve tea production standards and create data and resources that can benefit the whole industry.
Brewers’ spent grain, particularly those fermented with tempeh mould, is a promising ingredient that not only can be used for snacks, but also reduces food waste.
Sommeliers, winemakers and brewers pride themselves on their craft: built up over decades of experience and training. Could AI take their place?
3D printing is all the rage in plant-based, but what about 2D printing? In Germany, Veganz is scaling 2D-printed oat milk and reports orders are increasing month on month.
Tea has been recognised for its health benefits for centuries. It boasts links to everything from aiding cardiovascular health to boosting the immune system, but could tea also help to prevent COVID-19?
A new scientific review offers recommendations on how to measure the environmental impact of coffee – with the hope of also standardizing how this is done in the future.
Brewers have long championed the craft and passion behind brewing beer - but scientists believe AI and machine learning has the potential to revolutionize how the industry develops new brews. What will beer development look like in the future?
While some 70% of the world’s coffee production is Arabica, the species has a low tolerance to rising temperatures and disease. Nestlé has developed a high quality Arabica reference genome – which is now a publicly available database – as part of the...
A longevity coffee product is set to be relaunched with a tweaked formulation in an effort to crack the lucrative China market after its first iteration achieved sales success in more than 40 countries.
Human activity has significantly altered the freshwater cycle. But is this change reversible, and if not, what does it mean for the future of food and water supplies?
Coffee is one of the world’s most popular drinks. While sensory questionnaires are a tried and tested way of assessing its quality, using technology to measure physical and mental responses can reduce biases and cut out the middleman. Now, researchers...
Drinking two liters or more of sugar or artificially sweetened drinks per week is linked to a higher risk of an irregular heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) compared to adults who drink fewer of these beverages, according to a study published this week.
Variations in the properties of arabica coffee, such as in taste, caffeine content and disease resistance, are determined by chromosome mutations, according to a recent study. But are these findings purely academic, or relevant to industry? And how could...
When we exercise, we often hope to offset some of the negative effects of the unhealthy foods that we’ve eaten while we do so. However, when it comes to sugar-sweetened drinks, exercise might not be enough to offset the significant increase in...
A new technique that takes a chemical fingerprint of gin in seconds could hold 'huge potential' for the industry: allowing producers to create better and more consistent gins; enable regulators to detect fraudulent products; and even help create a...
Plant-based beverages may be considered suitable alternatives to their dairy counterparts but must overcome challenges related to flavour, consumer health, stability and nutrient dissolution, say researchers in Singapore, the UK and China.
Danish researchers and industry professionals design an algorithm to help personalise consumer purchases and optimise the retail environment.
Scientists have discovered a plant pigment in red wine that may be responsible for headaches: with the hope this knowledge could ultimately help winemakers create gentler drinks.
Only a fraction of the coffee bean actually goes into coffee: with the vast majority of the bean ending up as waste in the form of coffee grounds. With the opening of its coffee biorefinery, Kaffe Bueno wants to take its upcycing tech to the next level:...
A substance derived from spent coffee grounds has the potential to protect brain cells from the damage caused by several neurodegenerative diseases: including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, according to a new study.
Consuming beverages with sodium and carbohydrates reduces necessary fluid ingestion quantities for recovery and improves rehydration in male athletes, a new study has concluded.
Many would agree that a good glass of wine can take a meal to the next level, but could it take gut health up a notch too?
Finnish start-up Aircohol is working to decarbonise the alcohol industry by producing drinks from carbon dioxide released during alcohol fermentation. The result? A crop-free liquor with up to 50% reduced carbon footprint.
The Mylkcubator programme has largely focused on next-gen dairy innovation to date. But for the incubator’s third edition, dairy-major Pascual wants to expand its focus to alt coffee, cocoa, salt, sugar and more.
Drinking beer could be good for your gut and immunity, stimulating healthy microbiota diversity thanks to the beneficial brew of compounds found in the fermented beverage.
Webinar
In the upcoming webinar (airs 13 September), ConfectioneryNews will profile some of the key innovations in the sector that are being driven primarily by consumer trends. As R&D budgets are increased, we have seen ground-breaking innovations in the gummy...
In Hungary, a beverage manufacturer claims to have produced the 'world’s first’ energy drink completely designed by AI.
Israeli start-up MAMAY Technologies has developed an AI-powered algorithm capable of determining the ‘objective’ sweetness of a food or beverage product.
Thai research team is embarking on a long-term journey to commercialise a herbal tea that has been shown to boost breast milk production in a clinical trial.
Tech startup ansā is in the business of creating a good cup of coffee in all senses of the word with its unique roasting method and consumer appliance that circumvents the need for traditional roasters; all in the pursuit of a greener cup of Joe, company...
It took just two days for Swiss beverage company Vivi Kola to develop the artificial intelligence-designed beverage using ChatGPT, Midjourney and Unreal Engine.
Switching from sugary drinks to ‘diet’ drinks or water showed little short-term effects on metabolic or cognitive health outcomes across 12 weeks, a new study has shown.
A new study from researchers in Thailand supports the safety of coffee cherry pulp juice consumption and suggests that it may lower cholesterol in healthy adults.
Production of steviol glycosides extracted from stevia grown in Europe produces just 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with sugar production, according a life cycle assessment.
When kombucha is consumed with a high-GI meal there is a clinically significant reduction in postprandial glycemic and insulin index (GI and II) response, when compared with water, according to new research.
Recent studies reveal drinking coffee can help maintain low blood pressure and when combined with milk, may have anti-inflammatory effects. It’s even plausible a regular cup of filter coffee could offer protection from catching COVID-19, suggest researchers.
CCEP Ventures (CCEPV) has announced two new partnerships with European research groups at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Tarragona, Spain and the University of Twente (UT) in the Netherlands, to accelerate research into carbon capture technology.
Botanical extracts in tea format provide unique market opportunities for medicinal herbal infusions, but there are challenges that must be overcome to ensure proper delivery of therapeutic value, say the herbal experts at Traditional Medicinals.
Plant-based beverages must be able to still provide a creamy mouthfeel in order to successfully convert consumers over to healthier, low-sugar options for the long-term in Indonesia, especially when these are priced at a higher tier than traditional...
Nutrient quality in plant-based beverages should be considered on a par with sustainability credentials, researchers say as they assessed the quality as well as quantity of micronutrients in common plant-based drinks.