The Almond Board of California found a timely solution to what to do with all those almond hulls. After working on the problem for 10 years, ABC demonstrated almond hull powder as a source of protein. There’s still a fair amount of protein in those hulls, plus loads of fiber, and after finely grinding them they can become an upcycled food product. One ounce of a prototype “Hullnola,” a demonstration granola fortified with the powder, delivered 11g of fiber and 4g of protein. Almond Board is looking for processors willing to use the powder.

While the protein craze has created a shortage of whey protein, Leprino Foods, the biggest mozzarella maker in the world, is pushing its ingredients division to the fore. Dairy ingredients always has been a side business, but Leprino Nutrition has raised its profile and was promoting its whey protein concentrates and caseinates in protein-fortified cookies, puddings, broccoli-cheddar soup, even a ready-to-drink coffee beverage.

In the Startup Pavilion, Standing Ovation, a French company, showed its Advanced Casein produced via precision fermentation. The company recently got funding from French dairies Bel Group and Danone Ventures, and hopes to have commercial products available in the U.S. by the end of this year.

A novel alternative to dairy proteins is rubisco, the protein found in leaves, and as a result called “most abundant protein on the planet.” Leaft Foods, among a small handful of companies extracting it at commercial scale, explained how rubisco compares to other proteins in egg-replacement, dairy fortification, bakery and beverage applications.

Natural color replacement was a recurring theme at IFT. California Natural Color is owned by Gallo Winery, so not surprisingly most of its colors derive from grape juice concentrates and grape seed extract, although it also uses carrot, radish, beet and other fruits and vegetables.

GRA Nutra AG introduced AuraBC, a natural, clean-label, beta-carotene food color derived via non-GMO fermentation technology.

GNT prototypes in blue, pink and violet showed the range of colors available from its Exberry portfolio.

Phytolon is developing colors through precision fermentation. Its Beetroot Red is an elevated non-artificial color that delivers consistent performance, including heat and pH stability, as well as supply chain continuity.

Givaudan showed its new natural blue color Everzure Galdieria Green Blend, a natural color additive fermented and extracted from microalgae. Givaudan also previewed its upcoming Synthetic Replacement Hub, an interactive new online space where visitors can learn, explore and co-create strategies for replacing synthetic colors and ingredients.

It seems there’s a little less urgency to replace sugar these days, although substituting natural non-nutritive sweeteners for the traditional synthetic ones is still a goal for many. In addition to its Astraea allulose and PureCircle stevia, Ingredion offered prototypes featuring monellin and brazzein, two sweet proteins from its year-old partnership with biotech firm Oobli.

Icon Foods sampled ice cream with TagaLite, its new tagatose ingredient, while Thaumatiq, its new thaumatin ingredient, sweetened a lemon-lime beverage.

Nambawan Spain in the Startup Pavilion offered tastes of Thaûma, its newly launched plant-derived protein sweetener and flavor modifier that works as a universal co-sweetener, helping food and beverage manufacturers get more from their natural sweetener formulations.

The American Egg Board’s Eggcelerator Lab announced the winners of its 2026 Product Development Competition, challenging undergraduate and graduate food science students to develop innovative egg-based beverages that showcase the versatility, functionality and nutritional benefits of eggs in emerging beverage formats.

Texas A&M University students Ikenna Okehie, Muhammad Bilal Haider and Rebeka Saldivar took first place with Ovivive. The egg-based functional beverage is clean-label and provides a rich, creamy, dairy-free experience powered by the natural functionality of eggs. Second place went to Cornell University’s Yolked AM and third place to Ohio State University’s Eggi-Drop.