Safflower is an oil that has gained a quite a bit of popularity in recent years.  It's now found in baked goods, cookies, bars, chips and other natural snacks.  That said, it's not quite as prevalent as it's cousin, sunflower oil, or the main-stay food industry, canola oil. But, many brands are starting to use this oil more and more. 

For those of you without much experience with safflower you may wonder if it's an oil that should be used in food production if it's ideal for cooking in your own kitchens. Is it good or bad?

Are you looking for an easy way to fill small bottles or pour oil from a 35 Lb. Container?  Most small businesses and at-home users find that ordering 35 Lb. Containers are the cheapest and easiest way to "go bulk" and it's a size that works well for them.  But, many people are still looking for a simpler system to dispense the oil into smaller, easier-to-handle packaging for kitchen use.

Olive oil blends are a common oil option in both the food manufacturing and food service industries.

Blends can have a lot of advantages.  In the manufacturing world, they are a great option for a mild-tasting oil: they still allow you to use olive oil and have it on your label, but without the strong flavor.  They also help you meet lower raw-ingredient costs.  On the foodservice side, olive oil blends typically have higher smoke points (from the added canola oil) and help keep your kitchen costs down.

Are you a food manufacturer serving the natural food industry and you are not already doing organics you have probably wondered the following:

What would it take to get organic certified? Is it worth it?

Our sales manager, Hannah, sat down with our quality control department and our warehouse manager to ask just a few questions. She wanted to find out precisely what it takes to get USDA Organic Certified. 

There are a few grades of olive oil that are commonly used in manufacturing, which you may not recognize from a retail shelf. While you will most often see Extra Virgin Olive Oil on a retail shelf, there are other (lower) grades of olive oil that are sometimes used in manufacturing.

If you are currently researching bulk olive oil for food/body care production or you are a manufacturer, it will help to know the differences between these different grades.  Today, we will walk through how these olive oil grades are each made, along with how they compare to each other.

Centra Foods receives questions from countless food manufacturers each year, asking for the best ways to save money on olive oil. Many components can affect the total price of your olive oil, including the type (or grade), packaging, freight costs, the distance from the FOB point, and experience of the supplier.

In this week's article, we will try to give you the best questions to internally review, to see how you can save money -- all while still working smoothly on the production floor and not discounting the final quality of your product.

The organic industry is continuing to grow, and organic foods are holding more and more appeal to consumers that are already buying natural or non-GMO.

There are many different reasons that consumers choose to buy organic, and they have a wide range from personal health matters to much more massive scale reasons such as ecosystem or water preservation.

A commodity is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold. Commodity items often will display little-changing market demand, which does not fluctuate with variations in price. In other words, it is a raw material or a product that people “need", not just want.

Let's look at a quick example: gasoline is an everyday commodity item that everyone has experienced. The price fluctuates daily, entirely outside of your control. Whether the price goes up or down, you'll continue to need gas for your car. Since most people don't have a great way to "stock up," you will end up buying it when your tank runs low no matter the cost that day.

The key to storing bulk oil is relatively simple. If you can think of a traditional wine cellar, then you’ve got it!

Take a moment, if you will, and close your eyes. Picture a cold, dark, dreary wine cellar with all those barrels stacked from floor to ceiling. Somewhat of a warm, happy feeling right? Well, we know that most wine cellars don't typically look like that anymore. But it paints a good picture!

Painting that picture for you was to help give you the telltale clues of how your olive oil would also like to be stored. Making a note of these (and then changing your storage conditions to abide by them) will help your oil maintain a pleasant freshness for as long as possible.

Have you ever sourced just plain olive oil? Understanding what you are getting can, at times, be confusing to most buyers outside of the oil industry. We want to explain the grade "Olive Oil" which is better known as "Pure Olive Oil" because many consumers don't fully understand.