Are microbial stability challenges affecting the formulation or shelf life of your nutritional bar or natural product? Food safety is essential in product development, ensuring consumers enjoy innovative flavors with confidence. 

Join Dr. Malcond Valladares and Ed Collins as they explore food safety concerns specific to nutritional bars natural products and share formulation strategies to enhance microbial stability.

This presentation will cover key food safety considerations, ingredient selection, and the impact of processing methods on product performance. Through real-world case studies, we’ll highlight how multiple food safety hurdles can be effectively implemented to optimize shelf life and maintain product integrity. 

Highlights

• Microbial Stability Challenges – Addressing potential food safety concerns in nutritional bar and natural product formulation and shelf life. 
  
  
• Ingredient Selection & Processing – How formulation choices impact stability and consumer acceptance. 
  
  
• Real-World Case Studies – Examining successful food safety interventions and their effects on product integrity. 
  
  
• Optimizing Shelf Life – Implementing multiple food safety hurdles to enhance long-term quality. 

Meet the Presenters

Malcond Valladares, Ph.D., is a Food Scientist at The National Food Lab, Eurofins Product and Process Development Center of Excellence, specializing in food safety and quality. With expertise in microbial risk assessments and emerging natural antimicrobials, he helps optimize ingredient selection, processing, and product stability. A member of IFT and IAFP, Malcond holds a Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Tennessee, where he researched thermal inactivation kinetics of foodborne bacteria.

Ed Collins has a BS in Agricultural Engineering and an MS in Food Science and has worked in the Food Industry for almost 35 years. Ed worked in product and process development roles at Kraft General Foods and Ingredion before coming to The National Food Lab in 2005. 

Before joining the National Food Lab, his background included drink mixes, thermally processed products, bakery start-ups, spray drying and agglomeration.  He worked directly with clients at Ingredion and at the NFL to develop new products, create new processes, and launch new ingredients and products to market. During his 20 years with the NFL, he has worked on just about every form of beverage, nutritional product, meal, or snack as his team creates new products for clients at all stages of the development cycle.  

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