Q. What are some of the trends happening in the industry that are driving demand for your products? A.What we have been seeing lately is the convergence of two trends; clean label and transparency. Health conscious consumers are checking labels and paying more attention to individual ingredients when making purchase decisions. Add to that their consideration of that company’s value system in how they treat their employees and limit their impact on the environment. The majority of our business is organic, so our practices have always met this heightened standard of sustainability--from farm to fork. We aren’t responding to this trend, it’s just always how we’ve always operated. Q. Any new product innovations on the horizon that you would like to share? A.The talk of the industry right now is to cut sugar on product labels. Does reducing the amount of sugar by up to 30% without changing the functionality in your product sound appealing? We only manufacture natural sweeteners made from plants and grains that are not genetically modified. Lower sugar and a clean label—we’re inviting product formulators to contact us to learn more. Q. What industry events can we expect to see your company attend? A.Wheels up! We can’t wait to get back to Las Vegas in September for Supply Side West. We enjoy connecting with our partners in the beverage and nutraceutical arenas and sharing what we are doing to help the industry stay ahead of the curve. We’ve done numerous projects with manufacturers making the switch from corn to tapioca specifically in gummy applications, as well as the reduced sugar ingredients we now have available. It’s a great time for our company to be in the spotlight so be sure to stop by our booth E126 and say hello!