NutraSolutions' New Products Annual - Dietary Fiber/Prebiotics - March 2007
While the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage people to consume more fiber, whole grains actually receive more frequent and direct mention. (See www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/
dga2005/document/html/chapter5.htm.) Specifically, in the “top line” key recommendations, Americans are advised to “consume three or more ounce-equivalents of whole-grain products per day, with the rest of the recommended grains coming from enriched or whole-grain products. In general, at least half the grains should come from whole grains.” Fiber, on the other hand, gets no specific mention at all. Therefore, it should be no surprise to witness an escalation in new product launches containing whole grain—versus fiber—over the past five years.
While the whole grain-affiliated new product category grew by 740% between 2002-2006, fiber grew 284% with much of whole grain-affiliated growth occurring between 2005 and 2006. Despite seemingly aggressive growth, however, whole-grain claims do not appear among the top 10 most frequently used claims accompanying new product launches in 2006. Products with natural, “clean labels” and kosher ingredients led the claims category.
While consumers have glommed on to whole-grain goodness, two areas of confusion have emerged. First, consumers (and even some nutrition professionals) are not clear on what constitutes a whole grain. Second, buying whole-grain products does not necessarily equate to high fiber. According to the article “Beliefs About Whole-grain Foods by Food and Nutrition Professionals, Health Club Members, and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Participants/State Fair Attendees,” published in the November 2006 edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, “the major benefit of eating whole grains was reported to be fiber intake.” Breads and cereals were the categories most frequently affiliated with whole grains. Appearance and color were also identified as a means to identify whole grain content or lack of it, with “white foods” frequently identified as sharing no affiliation with whole grains. These observations are important from a fiber standpoint because the color of a grain does not translate to fiber content of the grain. In other words, brown does not mean “high,” and white does not necessarily mean “low.” As the chart “Fiber Content of Whole Grains” shows, color is not a good indication of fiber concentration, since brown rice and (black) wild rice are among the lowest sources of fiber among whole grains.
Adding validity to the point that whole grains are not affiliated with a good source of fiber, a query of the Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) database for 2006 whole-grain new product launches that are also high in (added) fiber revealed a mere five products. Of these, only one was truly high in fiber (7g), namely 8 Whole Grain Penne Regate Pasta from Raconto. Interestingly, searching GNPD new product launches during 2006 for “high fiber” and “wholegrain” revealed only one new product launch with this specific claim. The product, Fiber One Heart Healthy Blend from General Mills, contains 8g of fiber derived from its whole-grain content of barley, oats and wheat. This product reflects an excellent health “catch-all,” given its high content of fiber, beta-glucan and whole grain.
Querying the database for “high fiber” only yielded four additional new products in 2006. Gnu Foods launched its Flavor and Fiber line of bars in August, with each bar featuring 12g of fiber. El-Diaz capitalized on the naturally high fiber content of guava with its organic Guayaba in Syrup product containing 14g of fiber per serving. Guava also is an excellent source of vitamins A and C.