Well, my ride is finally over after 2 months on the road. Every day my riding buddy and I remarked on how lucky we were to be able to do a bicycle tour like this one.

Much of my ride was in rural and agricultural areas of the south. The breadth and depth of agricultural activity in our country is stunning. I’ve been around farms and the food industry my whole career and the magnitude of our agricultural capabilities today as a nation is outstanding. We truly are an agricultural superpower.

Many years ago on a business trip to California, I drove the length of the Central Valley. It was an impressive experience because the vast Central Valley produces so much of our country’s agricultural output. On this trip I rode through the Imperial Valley, east and south of Brawley and west of El Centro. The farmers of the imperial valley make the desert bloom with all kinds of crops: carrots, onions, sugar beets, hay. It was a great experience for a food guy.

I did not know that in 1919 the pecan tree was declared the official state tree of Texas. I rode by nearly 100 miles of pecan orchards south and north of El Paso. Pecans are the only major tree nut that is native to North America and is such a naturally nutritious way to get a crispy texture in recipes.

Riding a bicycle across the country requires a plan, one that you constantly adjust as you progress, especially when there are hurdles along the way. Product development is no different.

Howdy, Y'all! Yep, I've been riding in Texas this week and as they say, Go Big or Go Home, making my way through Houston to Austin and now into the Texas hill country. What a great state this is with a lot of beautiful land and loads of cattle!

Now I love beef and all kinds of meat, so this is the place for me! But what about my vegetarian friends who want protein but don't want to sacrifice texture and taste?

During my ride across western Louisiana, I passed a large number of rice paddies, some flooded and some not. I learned that rice farmers rotate their rice fields with a crop that crawls: crawfish. The crawfish grow well in these fields and prep the soil for the next rice crop. And in my opinion, produce great meat.

After riding my bike alongside the “Mighty Mississippi” river for two days, today I finally crossed it and what an eye-opening sight. There are chemical plants, grain storage silos and refineries spread along her shore. Ships and barges are being loaded and unloaded continuously.

Week one down! Starting with my rear bicycle wheel dipped in the Atlantic ocean, I departed St. Augustine, destined for Tallahassee, the State Capital - 200 miles west. Some of the distance was hard and the rainy weather didn’t make things easier. It’s ironic that I'd stop for a night at a Tallahassee bike hostel, a place that has Social Responsibility and Healthy Living in their Mission Statement,

Most of us know what it is like to have something on our Bucket List, and Don Coffey Ph.D, our Chief Technology Officer, is in the process of checking off one item that has been on his list for many years.

Consumers are demanding high protein foods and the industry is racing to formulate them. In turn, the development of high protein processed foods, like bars and drinks, has caused an increased demand for novel dietary fibers. Why? Read on.

Processed foods are under pressure to clean up labels while maintaining quality texture and taste. Promanently used texture ingredient Methylcellulose (MC) is now under high scrutiny as non-clean label nor minimally processed. Thus this requires food technologists to use the best ingredient “tools” at their disposal. Arguably, vegetarian foods target more discriminating consumers who have more stringent expectations. Therefore, technologists who formulate vegetarian foods require the same suite of performance ingredients as other foods. Perhaps even more.

The U.S. pet food market was valued at over $24 billion in 2016 and is expected to exceed $30 billion in 2022. This market is growing faster than the human food market with a CAGR exceeding 3.3%. This growth is driven by differentiated products, pet treats and novel product formulations. Many of these new products under development require high-performance binding agents, like EDGE’s Gelling Citrus Fiber.

EDGE’s gelling activated fibers (GAF) can form instantaneous and/or durable gels by cross linking with calcium ions. To form a durable gel, all a formulator needs is EDGE’s GAF dispersed in water and a source of available calcium. Here is a simplified experimental outline that demonstrates the instantaneous gel formation of EDGE’s Gelling Activated Fiber.