Increasingly, however, those qualities do not necessarily have to throw up a caution sign to food formulators or consumers obsessed with limiting the use or intake of fat or other undesirable ingredients that mimic fat. Quite to the contrary, foods with a typically indulgent profile today actually can be very healthful at the same time they wrack the consumer with guilt for enjoying something that pleases the palate.
Take a product like fruit smoothies. A couple of recent entries into the market for this meal-like beverage (that has growing mass appeal) credit protein for delivering products with a unique mouthfeel, a critical sensory quality. General Mills', Minneapolis, new fat-free Yoplait Nouriche smoothie uses whey protein to help give the product a thick, yogurt-like consistency. Frulatté Foods Co., Oakland, Calif., meanwhile, has combined both whey protein isolate and soy protein isolate in the company's debut product line that bears the same name. Frulatté's six fat-free or low-fat flavors derive five grams of protein each from whey and soy isolates.