Tagged ‘the future of sweets’, the 40th anniversary of ISM was marked with a party where Koelnmesse CEO Gerald Böse and Tobias Bachmüller, chairman of the AISM, handed out certificates and trophies to the 41 companies that have exhibited at every ISM since 1971, thereby acknowledging their loyalty to the trade fair.

Around 32,000 visitors from over 140 countries registered for this year’s ISM, a four-day sweet and snack fest held from the 31 January to the 3 February at the Cologne Exhibition Centre in Germany.

“ISM is and will remain the world’s most important trading hub for the confectionery and snack item industry,” said Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse. ProSweets Cologne, which took place in parallel to ISM for the fourth time, provided the sector with an additional boost. “ISM and ProSweets together present the complete value chain in confectionery production, scheduled in parallel and at one location – an internationally unique constellation that creates synergy effects and generates business. The two trade fairs attract a combined total of more than 1800 exhibitors from all over the world to Cologne and make the city a global centre for sweet products,” says Böse.

In a first for the show, managing directors of confectionery producers and trading companies gathered for a CEO lunch on the Sunday of ISM. At the lunch, they discussed the ‘future of the confectionery industry’. Both participants judged the sector’s situation as positive. The current situation is no cause for concern, they said, even though cocoa prices and the price war in the retail food sector are posing challenges for the confectionery industry.

In addition to the German brands, prominent international exhibitors included Barry Callebaut, Guylian and Neuhaus from Belgium, Garoto from Brazil, Panda Oy from Finland, Walkers from the UK, Loacker from Italy, Manner from Austria, Ricola from Switzerland, Zeta from Spain, and Adams & Brooks, Hershey and Jelly Belly from the USA.
Three top innovations were chosen from a selection of 93 new products: Rovacos S. A with its ‘sushi in the city’ (pictured); Villars Maître Chocolatier SA with reduced-sugar dark chocolate with stevia and Mederer Süßwarenvertriebs GmbH with its Trolli Cheesecake.

Rovacos is a Belgian company based in Wemmel. The sweet sushi treats combine the fine and elegant look of this Japanese speciality with the expertise of a Belgian chocolatier. The unusual presentation is what swayed the judges.

The Swiss company Villars Maître Chocolatier SA also impressed journalists (who were judging this year’s entries) with its reduced-sugar dark chocolate bar. Villars uses a natural sweetener that is obtained from the leaves of the stevia plant. The Swiss chocolate experts had experimented for over a year and a half with rebaudioside A, the sweetener derived from the stevia plant. Thanks to this new dark chocolate bar, chocolate lovers can now discover the subtle and complex aromas of reduced-sugar chocolate.

Under the brand name Trolli, the German company Mederer Süßwarenvertriebs GmbH specialises in the production of gum sweets. The new cheesecake gums emulate the flavour and look of the very popular cheesecake – a convincing innovation, according to the journalists participating in the vote.

The 41st ISM will take place from 30 January - 2 February 2011.