Download Improving the nutrient profiles of foods

Improving the nutrient
profiles of foods:
Challenges and Solutions
Sarah Chapman – Campden BRI
• Why improve the nutrient profile of products?
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Reducing Sugar
Reducing Fat (saturated and total)
Reducing Salt
Conclusions
Why improve products nutrient
profiles?
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Growing obesity crisis and increasing health
service cost
On going government pressure to reduce energy
density, saturated fat and salt
New labelling regulations requiring nutritional
information on all foods
Likely introduction of nutrient profile compliance
in order to make a nutrient or health claim
What are nutrient profiles?
• The 2006 Regulation on nutrition and health
claims – outlines criteria for making a
nutrition or a health claim
• To bear this claim the product will need to
have appropriate nutrient profile
• Nutrient profiles have not yet been agreed
• They are likely to be based on maximum levels
of sugar, saturated fat and salt
• They will be food category specific
Sugar
• Sugars– term for nutritive sweeteners – 4kcal/g
– Includes fructose, glucose, liquid sweeteners such
as honey and agave syrup.
– Sucrose – gold standard for sweetness
– Provides a clean sweet taste
– Contributes to viscosity and mouth feel
– Is caramelised by heat
– Has good solubility
– Reduces Water Activity and can extend shelf life
Replacing/reducing sugar
• Change of sweetness profile
– Lingering sweetness
– Detection of undesirable flavours
• Changes in flavour and aroma
• Decrease in viscosity or difference in mouth
feel/texture – hardness, stickiness, melting
characteristics
• Less browning during baking
• Reduction in shelf life in some applications
Approaches to reducing sugar
• Artificial high potency sweeteners – aspartame,
sucralose, acesulfame K, saccharin
• Natural high potency sweeteners – thaumatin and
steviol glycosides
• Bulk low calorie sweeteners – sugar alcohols/polyols
• Bulking agents/fibres – inulin, fructooligosaccharides, polydextrose and dextrins
• Addition of hydrocolloids or starches to improve
mouth feel
New Approaches to reducing sugar
• Sweet taste modulators and sweet aromas –
enhancing sweetness
– Senomyx and flavour houses
• Multiple emulsion technology
– Water/oil/water emulsions
– Potential to reduce sugar but have processing
stability issues
New Approaches to reducing sugar
• Pulsation induced taste enhancement
– Perceived sweetness intensity increased with the
size of contrast in sucrose concentration
– (Mosca AC, van de Velde F, Bult JHF, van Boekel MAJS, Stieger M. Enhancement of
sweetness intensity in gels by inhomogeneous distribution of sucrose. Food Quality and
Preference 2010;21:837-842.)
• New natural intense sweeteners
– Lo han guo (monk fruit) – has GRAS approval in US
– Brazzein and Monatin - no safety or regulatory
approvals
Benefits of fat in foods
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Function will vary in different applications
Mouth-feel and texture
Carry, enhance and release flavours
Colour – lipid soluble pigments
Solidity (saturated)
Reduced oxidation (saturated)
Emulsion stability and aeration
Problems with reducing fat
• Reduced consumer acceptability (due to
preference for fat associated aromas, flavours
and textures)
• Considerable reformulation to achieve
acceptable sensory properties and shelf life
• Potential cost increases
• Changed heating patterns
Approaches to removing fat
• Remove/Reduce
– Leaner meat cuts
– Reduced fat ingredients
– Reduce oil uptake during frying
• Replace
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Water/air
Fat replacers
Fibres
Replacement often requires several ingredients
Fat Reduction – ingredient approaches
• Protein based fat mimics – based on whey,
soy, egg – e.g. Simplesse™
• Carbohydrate fat mimics – based on starch or
modified starch e.g. N-Dulge™FR
• Fibre based fat mimics – dextrins, gums,
inulin, polydextrose
• Fat-based substitutes - less than 9kcal/g act to
reduce the absorption of fat
– Salatrim, Capreinin, and sucrose polyesters
Fat Reduction – processing technologies
• Cryogenic crystallisation – small fat crystals
• Removal of fat from ingredients – Solvent
extraction (cocoa), Super critical fluid
extraction (cheese)
• Emulsions
– Water in oil in water (WOW)
– Water in oil emulsions – work at Campden BRI on
alginate water gel and sunflower oil emulsion
Reduced both total and
saturated fat
Reducing fat uptake during frying
• Pre-treating products before frying – for
example drying, sweet treatment, warm oil
blanching
• Coating products with barrier films
– reduce fat uptake moisture loss – hydrocolloid
gums and protein coatings
• Modified Frying
– Vacuum frying
– Vacuum draining after frying
Salt Reduction
Food Products
Taste
Texture
Preservation
Ready meals
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Bread
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Meat products
(processed)
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Processed fish
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Soup
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Pickled
vegetables
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Savoury sauces
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Cheese
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Crisps
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Breakfast cereals
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Condiments
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Current approaches for salt reduction (taste)
• Reduction by Stealth
– gradual reduction used by many food manufacturers
• Salt Substitutes – KCl based
• Salt Enhancers – yeast extracts, flavours,
seaweed based ingredients
• Using salty aromas to enhance salt perception
• Changing the structure of the salt crystal –
Soda-lo™
• Pulsed delivery of salt can enhance perception
Conclusions
• Significant reduction of sugar, fat and salt is
challenging
• More difficult where 2 or more of these need
replacing
• Growing number of both ingredient and
processing options
• Some approaches still at lab scale
• Approaches must be application specific
• A tool box approach is recommended
Brainstorming Exercise
• Aim 1: To capture your current challenges of
reducing sugar, fat or salt
• Aim 2: To identify potential reduction
solutions
From results to identify areas where precompetitive research could be beneficial
Scope up possible project
Thank You
For more information please contact:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01386 842212
Web: www.foodhealthinnovation.com