PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2012

PREFORM PRODUCTION 39 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 09/12 www.petpla.net A further interesting option, on which visitors to drinktec can find out more at first hand, is the use of naturally sweet drink bases such as malt extracts or – distinctly more exotic – coconut water. But sweetness isn´t the whole story, as Caroline Sanders, Global Marketing & Communications Direc- tor, Tate & Lyle Speciality Food Ingredients, points out: “These days a whole variety of substances can be used or combined with each other to develop sweeteners and other sugar substitutes. As well as the property of sweetness, with sugar-free or sugar-reduced products we have to pay attention not only to the proper of sweetness, but also in particular to the sensory parameter of body/mouth feel.” Colouring from spinach and red cabbage Naturalness is also currently the headline theme dominating the world of flavours and colourings. Exam- ples of well-known natural pigments include chlorophyll and carotene. It has also been found that Spirulina microalgae are a natural source of blue pigment. Other pigment- ing extracts again are derived from beetroot, red cabbage, spinach or elderberry. Among natural flavours the trend is to concepts based exclusively on the source fruit or plant from which the aroma takes its name. However, it is worth remembering that, for very good reasons, some flavours do have to be made or harvested from other natural sources. For instance, the entire world harvest of strawber- ries would be nothing like enough to match the demand for natural flavours produced exclusively from strawber- ries. Also represented at drinktec will be natural ‘brown’ flavours like toffee, cappuccino, walnut, almond, caramel or nut. These are flavours of particular interest to the milk industry. Naturalness and technology The technological implications of the switchover to natural sourcing for flavours, colourings and key functional ingredients are far-reaching. Certain colours are just not provided by the natural environment, or substances used may prove less stable in terms of storage life, temperature or pH tolerance. The prerequisite for new developments is thus always a deep resource of specialist knowledge, built up through trial production runs, sensory analyses and, not least, representative keeping-quality tests. “Brilliance of colour, natural sourcing and stability were the objectives driv- ing development of the new red tones from the black carrot,” says Chris- tian Benetka, Senior Product Man- ager Colours for DöhlerGroup. “The pigmenting concentrates are now superior to other anthocyanin-based colourings in terms of stability. They also contain no sulphur dioxide.” www.drinktec.com