Improving the nutrient profiles of foods: Challenges and Solutions Sarah Chapman – Campden BRI

Why improve the nutrient profile of products? Reducing Sugar Reducing Fat (saturated and total) Reducing Salt Conclusions

Why improve products nutrient profiles? 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, fructo- oligosaccharides, 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: ) 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 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 –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 ProductsTasteTexturePreservation Ready meals ++ Bread ++ + Meat products (processed) ++ Processed fish +++ Soup ++ Pickled vegetables +++ Savoury sauces ++ Cheese ++++ Crisps ++ Breakfast cereals +++ Condiments +++

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 pre- competitive research could be beneficial Scope up possible project

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