Chocolate is more than just an ingredient—it’s an experience. Its versatility allows it to fit into almost any food category, offering opportunities for creativity and differentiation. Whether you’re crafting indulgent snacks, better-for-you desserts, or even savory items, chocolate can be the hero of your product.

When we grab a snack or unwrap some cheese, we hardly think about the plastic films in the packaging. But these thin, often invisible layers are actually critical to keeping our food fresh, safe, and convenient. From cereal bags to frozen meal containers, plastic films are everywhere, and they play a huge role in our food system. I aim to reduce my plastic consumption and learning more about microplastics has pushed me to dive further into this critical component to deliver food to us, the consumers. Here’s the start for some basic plastic food packaging insights.

Microbes need both food and water to grow. If you are working with food, you already are in trouble. However, you can control the amount of water available for microbes to grow through water activity.

Water activity represents both the amount of water present in a food and its capacity to react chemically and microbially. For this discussion, we will divide water into two categories: “bound water” and “free water.” Bound water adsorbs to the surface of another molecule, and free water moves randomly within a food system. You can think of bound water as a drop of water added to a pound of sugar - although slightly wet, the water is tightly bound to the sugar and will likely be unavailable to microbes. However, an ounce of sugar in a gallon of water would do little to bind the water, raising your free-water content. The more free water you have in a system, the higher your water activity will be, and the more at-risk your food is for microbial growth.