I'm trying to develop a compostable play dough. One main ingredient is cream of tartar. It's a compulsory ingredient according to some sources and to some redditors without it they get a sticky mess. However I don't have easy access to it so trying to come up with a substitute.
I was wondering if baking powder can be substituted for cream of tartar. If so how much. The recipe I'll be using is above.
Thanks for any help
Hi all, you may or may not remember me as the guy that developed a recipe for gluten-free/vegan, fried/yeast-raised mochi donuts and in turn started a business.
Business has been going great thankfully! Too great at this point because I never get sleep anymore, but it's a good problem to have 😅
Anyhow, the overwhelming bulk of my revenue comes from cafe wholesaling; i.e. I deliver donuts to numerous cafes on a daily basis. From what I am told from the majority of the cafes I work with, we have no issues selling out of the donuts, or at the very least close to selling out.
For the ones that don't sell out, I try to adjust my quantities to better manage food waste, but I have to keep minimums reasonable so as to justify the delivery along the route.
My biggest hurdle at the moment is that I only get one day out of these donuts! I would like to be able to have the cafes sell day-olds, but I won't allow it as it's simply not viable. These donuts will get incredibly stale by the next day, and while it can be rectified through heating up, the average cafe isn't going to go through that process.
Does anyone have any suggestions to help make these last longer than one day?
I've since tested a tangzhong, which I found no luck with. I tried sunflower lecithin, and I found it had some sort of weird effect on glazing where it would repel the glaze off of the donut. I add ascorbic acid to my donuts as is, but I find it does nothing to fix the shelf life. I most recently tried amylase, and that yielded the most unfortunate effect (it just completely ruined the structure of my donuts while being dispensed).
The last one I have to try is vegetable glycerin, I just haven't had a chance to make an additional test batch just yet.
If the vegetable glycerin doesn't work, do I have any options left? As I understand it, staling is more or less a result of moisture leaving the donut, so the key is to try and retain that moisture as much as possible.
I'm open to using any sort of conditioners or whatever advice can be provided to test with. I'm not a food scientist and I am also just a one-man show, so I try to squeeze in testing when I am afforded the time. I really want to figure this out and not just have to accept that "it's gluten free and won't last as long". I'm sure there's got to be a way to improve the shelf life without adversely affecting the quality.
Thanks in advance! Pics for attention.
So I have been considering launching a RTD drink for quite a while. I own a small online retail store as well as sell on Amazon and know my products and industry well. I know what main ingredients I want to use in the drink. I have also tasted many different varieties, and informally tested flavors at home and have a good idea of the two flavors I want to launch initially.
I was looking at some of the flavor houses, beverage developers and feel a bit overwhelmed. With what I’m looking at I think I would prefer to find a beverage consultant and really dial in two flavors at a smaller scale and then decide whether to move forward. I think realistically I am willing to spend about 6-8k for flavor development of the 2 flavors. After that I would maybe be comfortable with a 30k investment for the first run of inventory.
-Does anyone have any recommendations on great beverage consultants who can work with my price range?
Hi there I’m a food science student getting my bachelors. I was wondering if anyone had guidance on their careers and how they got there. I’m currently in the southeast and there’s not much industry for food science. I’m interested in R&D and sensory. I’ve been told different things by professors and friends of friends. Could any of you share what your job is and what degree path you needed to get there? I’m wanting to go Chicago, Colorado, Wisconsin but I’m also open to opportunities. I graduate Dec 2027. Any guidance or messages would be appreciated!
Hello everyone, I'm thinking about getting a job in that field, so to the ones that worked as quality lab technicians in the food industry, how was it like? What was your responsibilities? Does it require a degree? And is there a chance for growth or is it a dead end?
Hi, I have vanilla oleoresin and I am looking for flavour houses in Europe to mix it with carriers like PG, Alcohol and invert sugar. Any help is appreciated.
Vanilla from Uganda, Oleoresin extracted in India, now next step is to make extract for retail and industry. Or Freelancers to begin with but they might not have certifications
Random thing I’ve been noticing for years. At home whenever we make fresh sambar powder or rasam powder, the smell literally spreads through the whole house. Even when my mom roasts and grinds things like coriander, chilli, pepper, cumin etc., the aroma is crazy and you can smell it from another room.
But with a lot of packaged spice powders, even after opening a new packet, I sometimes don’t get that same strong smell.
I always thought maybe it’s just because homemade stuff is fresher, but then I recently read a bit about different grinding methods like cryogenic grinding and how some processes might retain more aroma and oils.
Now I’m wondering if it’s mostly freshness or if the way spices are processed actually makes a big difference too.
Just curious if anyone else has noticed this.
Hello! Does anyone know what can we expect from the automated pre-recorded interview for the EFSA traineeship? General introduce yourself and motivation questions or also more technical question related to the job? (they don't say for which team you are shortlisted, which makes it harder to answer specifically job-related questions)
Also, do you know how many people generally are shortlisted for one position?
Anyone shortlisted for External Relations and Events and Hospitality?
Thanks!! and good luck to everyone
Hi everyone!
I want to know what you all think of my work and school experience. I graduated college with a chemistry degree in hopes of going into food science. For the last 5 years, I’ve worked in kitchens because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I love all aspects of food, and now it’s time to go back to what I started. Where in Chicago would be excited to have me on board?
Best!
Hello,
I am a Master's 2 student in Brand Marketing & Innovation, and I am developing
a final year project on the launch of a gluten-free food product brand.
MY PROJECT:
I wish to launch a range of gluten-free pasta salads certified by AFDIAG,
in a 250g Doypack® format, ready-to-eat cold (no cooking required).
Two variants are being considered:
• Recipe 1: Gluten-free fusilli + carrots + spinach + olives + vinaigrette
• Recipe 2: Gluten-free fusilli + chicken + zucchini + carrots + vinaigrette
Would you have a few minutes to answer some questions about your manufacturing
process and pricing? I need to understand:
R&D COSTS:
- How much does it cost to develop ONE recipe (testing, adjustments,
gluten-free certification validation)?
- What are the timelines for recipe validation?
- Is it possible to do a pilot batch before full-scale production?
RAW MATERIAL SELECTION:
- How do you select your ingredient suppliers?
- What criteria do you use to guarantee quality and AFDIAG certification?
- Do you prefer local or European suppliers?
- Fresh or frozen vegetables - what is your recommendation?
CO-PACKING COSTS:
- What is your average unit price for a typical product (250g Doypack®)
starting from 10,000 units/year?
- Are there economies of scale if we increase to 20,000 units?
- What additional costs should we expect (labeling, cartons, transport)?
- Do you have an initial setup cost?
Thank you very much for your help!
We are trying to scale up a purple yam sweet bread recipe at my bakery startup, but using a dehydrated ube baking ingredient powder is causing a massive headache. The raw batter is a perfect, vibrant purple color, but after the bake step, the interior crumb completely shifts to a sad grey-green. Our current leavening system relies heavily on sodium bicarbonate, and I know anthocyanins are highly sensitive to pH changes. Did the alkalinity of the baking soda completely degrade the natural purple pigment during the bake cycle? Would switching to a standard baking powder or adding a mild acidulant protect the color stability at 350F without changing the flavor profile?
Looking for help/guidance!
I work for a beverage manufacturer (carbonated beverage canning/bottling) and we do a good amount of co-pack.... a lot of brands are incorporating juice concentrate in their formulas. Clarified juice conc. is no issue, we also special order low pulp orange juice for a few products. Our low pulp OJ has a pulp spec of 'less than 2' and even that will clog up our can fillers from time to time.
FYI UOM for pulp is v/v at single strength brix
We try to avoid using juices with pulp specs much higher than 2-4 to avoid clogging up our fillers, but we have brands/customers come to us with formulas with juice concentrates that have pulp specs up to like 14 v/v.
We also have a customer wanting to mimic spindrift which has a notable amount of pulp in it, so I assume that is probably ran with larger filters on the canning line to allow larger particles of pulp to pass through and make it in the can. The customer wants the appearance to match spindrift, so having some sort of pulp in it is a necessity.
We have a juice manufacturer that can special make certain low pulp juice for us, which usually skyrockets the minimum order quantity to more volume than the customer can sell.
This has been a recurring problem and I'm positive it will continue to be one in the future... we don't really want to make drastic changes to our batching/canning process, but only being able to use clarified juice or having to special order massive quantities of special made low pulp juice is a major limiting factor.
Feel like I can be throwing the purchasing/sourcing team in the weeds when we have a request to develop a beverage... and we're asking them to source a juice that pretty much doesn't exist. Like a pineapple juice concentrate with a pulp spec of less than 2, etc.
My initial thought was during batching manually passing the juice conc. through a fine mesh screen.... however thinking more about it that might be a dopey thought, if "clarifying" a juice concentrate was as easy as passing it through a fine screen then why would juice manufacturers be using a centrifuge to clarify lol.
If anyone has dealt with a similar issue and has any advice or solutions I would greatly appreciate it. Maybe the juice industry will adapt at some point to offering a consistent supply of low pulp options--- sounds unlikely though
I’ve been working on some of my jam and jelly recipes and I wanted to check the sugar content of various fruits in order to most accurately calculate how much sugar should be added.
I got an optical brix refractometer from Amazon. I have calibrated it like the manual said. It's supposed to auto adjust for temperature. It reads correctly for distilled water, but when I put my jelly samples on it the color is all washed out pink. I've tested other things and it seems to be reading far too high.
I returned one thinking it was defective, but the next one is acting the same way. What I am doing wrong? Should I try spending more and getting a digital one?
While I was researching and troubleshooting, I saw that some people were using a brix refractometer to see when the jelly is at the right point to set. Is this something that works reliably if you have a proven recipe?
Hi, everyone!
Wanted to get input from folks regarding the food science scene in Boston? Is Boston a good city to have a career in food science or should I plan on moving to another city? I’m originally from the West Coast, I moved out to here to pursue a food science internship and its now nearing its end. My current company has no plans in hiring any one full time at the moment, so I’m out of luck in that regard. As much as I would like to continue living here, I’m unsure if staying here and waiting for a good opportunity to come up would be worth my time.
Additionally, if any one has potential leads on any opportunities or companies you may know that’s hiring please PM me!! Some background on me, I have under 3 years of experience working in the industry and I’ve worked roles in R&D, quality, and sensory.
I’ve had a few people DM me asking how I scaled my small beverage business, and I honestly think the biggest mistake beginners make is trying to buy finished bottles too early. When you are small, shipping empty bottles is basically paying to ship air, which is a total nightmare for your profits. The secret I learned after a lot of trial and error is to buy preforms and find a local co-packer with a blow molder or eventually invest in a small tabletop unit yourself. This allows you to store thousands of units in a fraction of the space. I remember my first order, I was so confused about neck finishes like PCO 1881 versus 1810, and I ended up with caps that didn't fit. I spent hours researching AliExpress and Alibaba, watching industry videos just to understand that the weight of the preform determines the final wall thickness of your bottle. Start by figuring out your shelf life requirements first; if you're doing carbonation, you need heavier grams to handle the internal pressure. I know it can be quite a learning curve, but understanding the raw components will save you so much frustration and capital in the long run.
Hi all, we are a functional beverage company.
We need:
- tunnel pasteurizer
- 10,000 can start
- RO water
- experience with protein
- we are based in Miami, so south east is preferred but not required.
Thanks a lot!