It’s Friday; and what better way to celebrate than reading about the food and beverage industries’ business and personnel moves, especially when one of them has to do with chocolate?

Let’s get started!

This week, Edlong Dairy Technologies was named one of the 2014 National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For by the National Association of Business Resources (NABR).

“We are honored to be recognized for the many ways that we support our employees," said Laurette Rondenet-Smith, Edlong president and CEO. “Just like all the companies on this list, we know that creating a positive work environment ultimately helps us provide exceptional value to our customers."

In other dairy news, as many know, more than 900,000 tons of dairy ingredients are traded each year on the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) online auction platform, the majority in the form of milk powder; however, only limited volumes of lactose are currently sold through the platform. Arla Foods Ingredients announced it’s going to start selling lactose via GDT starting April 15, 2015.

“GDT attracts more than 650 qualified buyers from more than 90 countries, and yet, at present, they have very little access to lactose through the platform," said Luis Cubel, sales director for Arla Foods Ingredients’ Permeate & Lactose Business. “We can fill this gap in the market by offering our lactose through GDT, which will boost our efforts to become market leader in the global lactose ingredients sector."

In other news, Mini’s™ —a range of extremely small real fruit pieces developed by Taura Natural Ingredients to enable food manufacturers to add the benefits of real fruit to applications—are now available to manufacturers across Europe and the United States.

Demand is increasing across the world for very small real fruit pieces that are suitable for use in fine bakery and confectionery applications such as ultra-thin biscuits and premium thin chocolate tablets.

Raf Vanlommel, sales and marketing manager at Taura Natural Ingredients, said: “We’ve seen big demand among our customers for very small real fruit pieces that offer an alternative to ingredients that contain high levels of added sugar and other additives, such as sprinkle-style products. Mini’s provide a solution, with each piece offering a tiny burst of flavor, aroma, color and texture in a wide range of products."

In personnel news, Darifair® Foods Inc., a fourth generation family-owned-and-operated food manufacturer, named Midd McManus as president. An experienced leader in operations, sales and supply chain in the food industry, McManus is the first non-family member named to that position.

And PLT Health Solutions Inc. appointed Barbara A. Davis, Ph.D., R.D., to vice president, medical and scientific affairs. She brings more than 15 years of progressive consumer products company experience as a senior scientist, principal scientist and R&D director at global food and nutrition companies, experience at a consumer health and wellness insights research company and as a grant-funded academic scientist to her position at PLT.

And our final note will be a sweet one: The Barry Callebaut Group, manufacturer of chocolate and cocoa products, opened its new flagship, state-of-the-art Chocolate Academy™ center in Dubai—the first-of-its-kind training center in the Middle East and the 17th in the company’s network of such centers worldwide.

The new Chocolate Academy center will showcase the knowledge accumulated over more than 150 years by Barry Callebaut’s global Gourmet chocolate brands Callebaut® (Belgium), Cacao Barry® (France) and Carma® (Switzerland). It is offering a diverse range of seminars, demonstrations, theoretical courses and practical workshops, designed to inspire artisans and culinary professionals, including chocolatiers, pastry chefs, bakery and other chocolate experts as well as culinary professionals working in hotels, restaurants and the catering business. The center will also serve as a meeting place for chocolate professionals encouraging the exchange of technical expertise among each other.

For Frederic Trombert, vice president of Barry Callebaut’s Gourmet division in the EEMEA region, the new center is an important element in further strengthening the company’s footprint in Dubai, as well as in the Middle East region. “We believe this new Chocolate Academy center will become the beating chocolate heart for chefs and foodies not only in Dubai, but in the whole Middle East," he said. “This will bring us closer to our customers, helping them to reinforce their daily know how to become unique by using our products."