SimplyThick, LLC

Shout out to the IDDSI community. They are true MVPs. They’re not looking to capitalize on a business opportunity by keeping little secret techniques to themselves. They want to share and they want to educate. I'm able to stay on top of things and consider myself an expert because of this community. We all have our networks and we're out collecting knowledge. Then we come together and we talk. Going to shows, talking to my peers, and just telling people what problems I'm facing and asking them how they're dealing with it is the best way to stay on top of this. Because even though there is technically a set of parameters and testing methods, there are usually a lot of different ways to solve a problem. You can make a pureed chicken five different ways, but if you don't go out and talk to people about the problems you're having or how you're going to puree it, you're just not going to know. So if you have questions, don't be afraid to ask.

We can't wait to attend the 2024 Food &?Nutrition Conference & Expo in Minneapolis! Stop by?SimplyThick Booth #811 from Sunday, October 6th? -Tuesday, October 8th! SimplyThick is also sponsoring a Trivia Night? during #FNCE at Brit's Pub & Eatery on Sunday,?October 6th. Test your knowledge and win gift?certificates and various prizes! Only 75 Spots are?available, so RSVP today! https://lnkd.in/gqTAEBas #eatrightPRO #FNCE #FNCE2024 #simplythick?#dysphagia #swallowingdisorder

Visit SimplyThick at the GFS Show in Grand Rapids and try your hand at thickening a variety of beverages. Stop by Booth #522 October 1st and 2nd.

To my health nerds out there, today we’re going to answer “how does SimplyThick affect the gut microbiome?” Short answer - The gums and thickener doesn't really break down. They pass through the body as soluble fiber. So it helps the gut microbiome, because it's considered a prebiotic fiber. It was up until recently, that here in the United States, we couldn’t claim gums as soluble fiber. Even though they have been recognized as fiber sources globally for decades, the FDA decided to make a silly rule on what food fiber is, so we couldn't claim this fact in the US. Let me explain more - A few years back there were a plethora of different companies (ingredients) that were claiming they were food fiber and grabbing onto the health benefits of food fibers. The FDA came back and said, “You know what, we're going to say that these seven fiber types are the only ones you can call fiber on a food label, and the only ones you can use in your fiber calculations.” Gum acacia and xanthan gum, both ingredients in SimplyThick, did not make the list. If you look around the world, both of them were considered fiber, but in the US, we couldn't label it as having fiber or fiber content. Long story short, the gum acacia industry got together as a group and funded studies to present as evidence to the FDA that gum acacia is, in fact, what everyone else in the world knew: a source of dietary fiber. With the recent FDA approval, we are in the process of changing the labels on our products to include fiber as a part of our nutritional panel. (But we still can't claim the xanthan gum as a fiber source in the US)

https://lnkd.in/gSGF68kQ Parkinson’s support group suggests SimplyThick to help aid with swallowing liquids and pills.

Why is thickening so hard? A super technical and nerdy explanation from an expert in thickeners: 1?? Thickeners work on a logarithmic scale and our brains don't think that way: If I made beverages for you, you could watch me put 1 pump of the thickener in drink A and 2 pumps in drink B. You would think drink B would be twice as thick but it’s actually way more thick than that. Imagine you’re making food for hundreds of people, it's just hard to get your brain wrapped around that in a simple way. 2?? When you use thickening powders, you get clumping: Balls of product that don’t dissolve (I’ve found golf sized balls of undissolved thickener in commercial grade vat’s during trials at a paper manufacturing plant one time.). Now, go back to point 1, if thickening happens logarithmically, in small batches (i.e. one or a few servings), seemingly small amounts of substance not being dissolved can have a massive impact on the consistency of the final product. 3?? Non-ideal mixing conditions: The example in the second point had clumping occur in a commercial manufacturing facility. Kitchens in nursing homes and hospitals are not made for ideal mixing, exacerbating the problem. Why did I create a liquid thickener? To solve all this variability. I knew from a decade in xanthan gum manufacturing that if you can prehydrate the powder, thereby pre-dissolving it in a controlled mixing facility, you could give the facilities and caregivers a far more consistent outcome with no guesswork. When we have a competitive bid, I just say “their product is my raw material.”

Have you ever gone to Chipotle and ordered a side of guacamole, only to see the server leave a big air hole in the bottom corner of the plastic serving cup? Makes you want to scream because even though the guac looks flat across the top, the amount missing in that bottom corner is going to change your entire burrito to guac ratio. I know, I am angry too. But I swear this is going somewhere. When kitchen employees use powdered thickeners, they have to scoop powder into a volume based container too. Here are some super common problems with power scoops: ?? Powder to look flush on top with a big air bubble underneath ?? Powder is not flush with the top - rounded or concave ?? Transporation and scooping create a greater variety of particles sizes that separate, changing the density as you scoop Thickeners working logarithmically means that a small divot in volume has a big impact on thickness. Just like missing guacamole has a big impact on deliciousness. Liquids, unlike powders or solids, don’t have the problem. Every two cups fill the same.

What’s the deal with the color coding you see on our packaging? And why do customers consistently cite it as a loved feature? Okay, so, it all goes back to the whole philosophy of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative, which everyone refers to by its acronym IDDSI (pronounced ‘id-see’). Within the IDDSI framework, each diet level is depicted in 3 ways: ???? There's a term ???? There's a color ???? And there's a number ...one for each dietary level IDDSI recommends that you should use at least two of these labels on all of your thickened beverages and texture modified foods. For example: Moderately thick (the term) is also color coded as yellow and number coded as level 3. On our packaging, whether pump bottles or single use packets, we opted to label all 3 so they're instantly distinguishable. As the first US supplier to update to labeling designed for IDDSI, our customers consistently rave that it's one less thing to worry about in a very busy, very regulated, very overworked kitchen environment.

The primary picture below is of thickened food at my friend's nursing facility. Try to guess which picture is the pancakes, which is the peaches, and which is the sausage gravy. Gross, right? The more appetizing looking shots are a couple of recent plates I prepared, also thickened food, to a point that meets specific industry standards. ?? Puree plate is Asparagus, Mashed potatoes, and salmon with capers and lemon butter sauce. ?? Minced plate is beef fajita meat, broccoli and cauliflower. So when people say thickening foods is why the patients are not eating though, I send them these pictures. It’s not the thickening, it’s the food. The patients on my recipes enjoy better quality of life, more nutrition, and happier staff around them. In fact, we just sold 1500 cookbooks with these techniques.

An interview with our President - John Holahan.