, a global leader in turnkey and custom dairy flavor powders, concentrates and seasoning blends, is proud to highlight its comprehensive line. These ingredients help brands and flavor houses capture surging demand for real cheese taste while reducing overall formulation costs and maintaining or elevating flavor impact in finished products. The portfolio delivers authentic cheese flavor in a cost-effective, easy-to-use format compared to many traditional dairy options, helping manufacturers preserve the eating experience consumers expect.

Designed for modern operations, Bluegrass Ingredients Cheese Powders offer a more convenient format than traditional cheese forms, making them easier to store, ship and manage in inventory. This ease of handling helps brands benefit from longer ingredient shelf life compared to wet, refrigerated cheese, reduce waste and streamline distribution across complex supply chains. Because the powders are made from real cheese, manufacturers can list specific cheese types on ingredient labels, supporting clean-label positioning and consumer trust. Formulators can also add the powders to a broad array of products, extending cheese flavor into multiple categories and line extensions using a single, scalable ingredient platform. The range includes Cheddar, Parmesan/Romano, Cream Cheese and Specialty Cheeses, so brands can tailor flavor profiles for specific applications and consumer preferences without sourcing from multiple suppliers.

The portfolio also reflects today’s evolving dietary landscape. A dedicated Vegan Cheez and blends offering supports development of dairy-free and plant-forward products for consumers with dietary preferences or restrictions, allowing brands to serve growing flexitarian and plant-based segments without sacrificing flavor. Organic and traditional formulations help customers meet both clean-label or organic positioning and conventional value-driven positioning within a single ingredient family, simplifying portfolio management across tiers and channels. Custom blends, available in both colored and uncolored options, enable precise flavor, color and label targets for each application. These blends support everything from bold orange snack seasonings to subtle white sauces that require a clean, neutral appearance.

Bluegrass Ingredients’ Cheese Powders are engineered for versatility, performing in seasonings and snacks, sauces and salsas, dressings and dips, baked goods and main dishes to expand innovation opportunities from center-store snacks to refrigerated and frozen meals. The cheese powders are heat stable, retaining flavor in high-temperature processes such as baking and extrusion. Additionally, the cheese powders are used extensively in popcorn and snack seasonings, adhering well to snack surfaces and delivering immediate, intense cheese flavor with an even coating, making them an ideal solution for brands developing on-trend, better-for-you popcorn and snack products aligned with consumer demand. This broad application range allows R&D teams to leverage a common cheese flavor platform while tailoring format, intensity and nutritional profile to each product concept.

Bluegrass Ingredients’ Bluegrass Agile Ingredient Innovation® Model provides a fast-moving framework that helps brands achieve rapid food innovation and stay ahead of evolving taste and flavor trends. Consistent flavor delivery in powder form ensures reliable taste performance batch after batch, simplifying quality control and safeguarding brand equity. Economical blends and a range of fat levels and flavor intensities enable formulators to balance flavor impact, nutrition goals and cost-in-use across a wide range of applications.

To support regulatory and market requirements, Bluegrass Ingredients offers Cheese Powders in Kosher and non-Kosher options, including organic Kosher SKUs, helping brands meet a variety of certification and positioning needs across global and niche markets. Bluegrass Ingredients’ Cheese Powders offer a comprehensive, agile flavor platform that empowers brands to deliver the real cheese experiences consumers crave while optimizing cost, flexibility and speed to market.

Wolfertschwenden, 18 February 2026 – With its new L 320 series of labellers, MULTIVAC is expanding its product portfolio with the addition of a high-performance solution, which offers companies maximum flexibility and precision in product labelling. The L 320 series can label cylindrical and conical products as well as shaped bottles, and it is very versatile in its configuration – whether wraparound, front/back or top labelling, and even applying sealing labels. MULTIVAC can therefore offer a flexible solution for challenging packaging tasks and exacting production environments.

The packs are first precisely converged and aligned on the transport conveyor, so that a highly accurate labelling result is achieved. A robust product guiding system ensures that the labels are applied exactly at the intended position. Depending on the particular requirement, several label dispensers can be integrated into the L 320, so that different labels can be applied in one operation. When combined with the "zero downtime" function, it is possible to achieve uninterrupted production. At the same time, the servo technology on the equipment ensures that maximum labelling accuracy is achieved. Various press-on devices, which are available as options, also provide consistently perfect label adhesion, even at high cycle rates. 

Maximum efficiency in the smallest space

Thanks to their compact design, the L 320 labellers only require a small amount of space, and they can therefore be easily integrated into existing lines or accommodated in small business premises. Short conversion times, when changing products or label rolls, simplify production and make it highly flexible, particularly if batches are being changed frequently. The minimal servicing work required on the machine increases the availability of the equipment. The digital solutions provided by MULTIVAC Smart Services also enable the efficiency and performance of the labelling solution to be continually monitored and optimised.

Additional process reliability thanks to integrated printing and inspection technology

So that the maximum process reliability and product security are achieved, the L 320 series can be equipped with visual inspection systems. These carry out the comprehensive inspection of products, labels and print data – including the checking of label presence, barcodes and printed information, as well as pattern recognition and detection of label or product position. This means that both the correct labelling and the product quality are monitored continually, so that reject products can be automatically ejected from the line. Available as an option are integrated thermal transfer, thermal inkjet or continuous inkjet printers, which enable variable data to be printed onto the labels very flexibly during the labelling process. The L 320 series of labellers provides a technically sophisticated solution, which can be precisely adapted to different production requirements and integrated into many operating environments.

BRAMPTON, ON (February 17, 2026) – Family-owned business,  (Coke Canada Bottling), announced today that it is investing more than $141 million to expand its Brampton facility to add a new, technology enabled can line that will lead to at least 20 million incremental cases being produced there every year. The state-of-the-art line will be the company’s most technologically advanced production line in the country, helping to increase local production capacity and new packaging capabilities, ensuring more beverage innovation gets to Coke Canada’s customers faster, throughout Ontario and eastern Canada. This marks the single largest investment made by the independent, family-owned business since its inception in 2018.

”As a proud, Canadian business we are committed to investing to grow in Brampton, Ontario, and across the country for the long-term” says Todd Parsons, Chief Executive Officer of Coke Canada Bottling. “Thanks to the incredible hard work and dedication of our Coke Canada Bottling team, we’re very pleased to bring this leading-edge technology to our Brampton facility that will see us tap into digital enhancements to increase the flexibility of our manufacturing capabilities enabling us to be more agile as we grow and find new ways to serve our customers, ultimately providing Canadians with the beverages they love.”

“I’m thrilled to welcome this historic investment from Coke Canada Bottling, which is another vote of confidence in Ontario’s world-class workers,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Our government will continue to protect our workers and support new investments by cutting taxes and red tape so we create the most competitive, resilient and self-reliant economy in the G7.”

The new line, which the company is aiming to have operational in late 2027, will involve the construction of a 62,000 square foot new wing, adding to the already 670,000 square foot facility, Coke Canada Bottling’s largest in the country and home to a manufacturing facility, warehouse, distribution centre, customer solutions call centre, and local sales centre.

Coke Canada Bottling has invested more than $230 million in its Brampton manufacturing and distribution operations since becoming an independent business over seven years ago. The Brampton facility is home to 1,300 employees who help to service more than 7,000 local customers from Kitchener to Oshawa. In addition, beverages made here are distributed across eastern Canada. A member of the Ontario Made program, over 120 skus of 13 brands are produced in cans and bottles at the facility including the company’s 500 mL 100 per cent recycled PET portfolio. Coke Canada Bottling has proudly served the Brampton community for 25 years and actively engages with community partners like Junior Achievement, to help facilitate career mentorship opportunities for Brampton’s diverse youth, and the Brampton Board of Trade, receiving a Community Builder nomination in 2024.

In Bruchsal, Germany, Refresco is making history with Sidel’s latest breakthrough technology – the EvoBLOW Laser. Now in operation at Refresco for over one year, this industrially proven innovation is redefining PET bottle lightweighting while bringing unprecedented efficiency to packaging line operations.

A new standard at Refresco

When Refresco sought to lightweight their 1.5L PET bottle while maintaining consistent, top-quality performance, the unique new innovation for the task was Sidel’s EvoBLOW Laser. Unlike traditional halogen-powered preform heating, this laser-powered solution enables precise, pinpoint preform heating, with full control and up to 36 heating lines along the preform.

The breakthrough precision of this laser-based technology enables a result that is not possible with today’s halogen solutions. Gabriele Luna, Head of Indirect Procurement, shares “We've been able to lightweight the bottles while keeping them robust and strong. For us, the real value is the level of control and stability this technology brings to everyday production.

“Innovations like this support Refresco’s broader ambition to continuously reduce material use, increase recycled content and improve operational efficiency across our European footprint. What’s important for us is that new technologies are scalable, industrially robust and ready for high‑volume operations – that’s where they start to make a difference.”

Lightweighting, stability, ease

Lightweighting without sacrificing bottle performance is a significant advantage of the EvoBLOW Laser, and Refresco was able to reduce its material use by up to 15% without compromise.

The technology also brings a new level of efficiency and way of working. It offers improved line operations, ease and efficiency, especially when working with recycled PET (rPET) – a significant leap forward for sustainability.

EvoBLOW Laser has been tested at Refresco with up to 100% rPET and produces bottles with 50% and 70% rPET with the same blowing recipe. It also saves energy during production.

Daniel Debruijn, PET Expert at Refresco shares: “Every day, I manage many changes of preform or material. With the traditional halogen oven, we often have to adjust the process multiple times. With the laser, you reload a new recipe, start the blower, and the bottle is right the first time."

The stability and simplicity of process settings make unplanned stops stress-free for the operators. By eliminating warm up and cool down time, this stable technology is always ready, increasing productivity.

Innovation partnership

A strong partnership between Refresco and Sidel made this breakthrough possible. As a leading beverage solutions provider for retailers and Global, National and Emerging (GNE) brands, Refresco offered a highly dynamic, demanding testing environment and worked closely with Sidel to turn this innovation into a reality for the industry.

Coert Michielsen, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Refresco, shares: “We’re very happy with the relationship we have with Sidel. They keep us sharp and challenge us constructively and they are available across more than 45 of our plants worldwide.”

Marina De Barros, EVP Customer Management Europe & Central Asia, shares: “Trust is something Sidel and Refresco have built over time, across several innovations and shared projects. We are working side by side with Refresco, sharing and exchanging on market trends and business challenges. This guides us to continuously adapt and develop the technologies of the future.”

By combining Refresco’s operational expertise and scale with Sidel’s technological development, this partnership demonstrates how innovation can move from concept to reliable industrial performance.

Find out more about EvoBLOW Laser and how you can access this kind of support for your business on the .