We recently talked with Doug Cale, CEO, Birmingham Chocolate, owner of Macalat, about sugar-free chocolate trends and tastes. Macalat's chocolates focus on using sugar alternatives such as allulose and monk fruit, as its confections use clean ingredients and single inclusions.

Todd Summers, VP of sales for Esther Price, discusses the brand's Candy Passport Trail, a campaign that allows consumers to collect stickers and earn discounts on Esther Price products. Summers explains how the Trail works, the most difficult aspect of creating a promotional campaign for candy products, and the responses the campaign has been getting on social media.

We recently talked with Kelly Thompson, CEO, Incredo Sugar, about sweetener trends and innovations. Clean label and natural sweeteners dominate consumer trends, especially among Gen Z, Thompson says.

We recently talked to Sneha Karthikeyan, senior confectionery scientist, AAK, about solutions for rising cocoa butter prices, and how CPGs can innovate using AAK’s specialty fat and oil solutions for Chocobakery products. Chocobakery is a product development strategy which combines chocolate/compound coatings with baked goods for cost-effectiveness and premium differentiation.

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We recently were able to chat with Joe Foguth, VP of sales, Gerrit J. Verburg Co., about trends and behaviors in the non-chocolate novelty candy category, as well as the brand's new Satellite Wafers with Tongue Tattoos.

Timothy Moley, Chocolove, talks about the brand's latest chocolate bar flavors. In this interview, Moley explains the nutritional benefits of nuts and sea salt, the biggest challenges of creating salty-sweet chocolate bars, and key principles of healthy ingredient sourcing. 

Candy Industry Senior Editor Liz Parker Kuhn and Prepared Foods Editor-in-Chief Bob Garrison were able to take a minute away from the hecticness of the Food Marketing Conference in Kalamazoo, MI, recently, and chat about industry trends. The FMC, hosted by Western Michigan University, included speakers from Nielsen IQ, Meijer, Kellanova, and more, and the two editors discuss takeaways from the conference sessions, especially applied to the snack, confectionery, and prepared foods sectors.