Radical shifts in how consumers and the FDA are viewing oils and fats today are influencing the fats and oils supply chain and creating a market for new ingredients that appeal to both.
Enzymes help solve some of the biggest challenges in the food processing industry. This makes them especially valuable for handling today's "hot button" issues of sugar reduction, sustainability, and acrylamide reduction, as well as applying to a myriad of clean-label approaches.
"Clean label"—despite lacking a legal or commonly accepted definition—is a wake-up call to the food industry to re-examine ingredients, formulations, and processing for contemporary consumers who are increasingly mindful of their food and beverage choices.
Frozen foods have the advantage of increased shelflife and retention of flavor, plus today’s technology and ingredient solutions mean these products can also retain those freshly prepared characteristics that comfort food connoisseurs crave.
Fats have a multifaceted functionality affecting nutrition, flavor and palatability, texture, shelf-life extension, lubrication, volume/bulk, satiety, and heat transfer. To date, there still is no single “silver bullet” replacement for fat in any food application. Instead, there are customized replacers. And in many formulations, these replacers perform “double-duty” as emulsifiers.
The acceleration of successful launches of healthy products is driving a demand for healthier fats and oils. Specialty oils and fats are an important beneficiary of this growing trend.
Notable efforts at producing plant-derived meat substitutes and analogs abound. And sports and energy food and beverage designers tapped into the value of protein for active bodies years ago. Further, with a major shift under way to reduce reliance on meat as a primary daily source of protein, ingredient technologists are engaged in providing high-value, technologically advanced protein alternatives.
Nuts long have been considered part of a healthy diet, and they certainly are among the most popular snack ingredients around. But what if you can’t have them?