Wellness Foods - August 2009
Product Development
Look To The FuTure
According to Maria Emmer-Aanes, director of marketing and communications for Nature’s Path, other healthy trends for the breakfast bowl of the future focus on ingredient availability, “especially of certified organic and non-GMO ingredients, as well as shelf-life and packaging efficiencies through biodegradable, non-GMO bioplastics and smaller packaging.” As an example, she notes, “Our EnviroKidz EnviroPacz sales have exploded, so we have to ask, is it because we reduced sugar or is it because this pack size offers consumers two-and-a-half boxes of cereal in one bag, reducing packaging by 66 percent while offering a 15-percent reduction in price? We believe it’s the latter.”
Pass the grains
Sorghum also is in position to play to its strengths in breakfast foods. As a sweetener, it’s an iron-rich replacement for stronger-tasting sweeteners such as molasses. But recall that it’s a grain, and as such it’s the recipient of a surge of research into greater use in cereals and baked goods. “I’m pretty optimistic about seeing an increase in sorghum’s use in healthy food products,” says Jeff Dahlberg, research director for the National Sorghum Producers’ United Sorghum Checkoff Program (
www.sorghumcheckoff.com
), Lubbock, Texas. “Sorghum is gluten-free, and as we begin to better understand its starch and protein properties, you’ll see more uses for it in this particular market,” he says. “We are also excited about some of our specialty sorghums, which contain tannins that have excellent ORAC [antioxidant] values. We also have several groups working on products using bran from these specialty sorghums.” While Dahlberg recognizes the growth of whole grains as more research points to their importance in nutrition, he also sees the challenges the ingredients present to processors. “Obviously, getting products [such as sorghum flour] to taste like and react like they are refined flours will take more research, but I believe we are making excellent strides in addressing those issues. For instance, Twin Valley Mills LLC [Ruskin, Neb.] is producing sorghum flour, and Enjoy Life Foods LLC [Schiller Park, Ill.] is making a very nice cereal product using sorghum.”
Another leap forward for breakfast foods on the horizon is the use of nongrain ingredients as the fundamental component. “Lentils, peas, beans and chickpeas are candidates for future formulations,” explains Heather Maskus, manager of the Food Innovation Project for Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Pulse Canada (www. pulsecanada.com). “Pulses are high in fiber and protein, gluten free and contain a host of other nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and other phytochemicals.” Previous technical hurdles for use of pulse flours in cereals have been overcome. According to Maskus, recent advances in cereal flaking roll-equipment – which improved flake consistency for innovative ingredients such as ancient grains – is applicable to pulses, easing their incorporation into flaked cereals. Agricultural processing giant ADM (
www.adm.com
), Decatur, Ill., has taken notice of the untapped functional, flavor and applications values of bean flours for breakfast concepts. The company rolled out its VegeFull brand of bean powders at this year’s IFT show, featuring it in a breakfast bar to great success. The company also presented a line of natural dry sweeteners, such as its Sweet ’n’ Neat dry honey powder. Other natural dry sweetener offerings by ADM include dry molasses and dry malt extract for similar applications.
Sweeter future
Speaking of natural low-calorie sweeteners, the approval last year of stevia as an ingredient for foods and beverages
Food Processing’s Wellness Foods™
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