PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2016

BEVERAGE INGREDIENTS 12 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 04/16 www.petpla.net Ingredients and flavours for beverages to enhance wellbeing Concepts for healthy living Health is what matters – the trend runs through all segments and categories of the food and beverage industry. Suppliers of natural ingredients and flavours respond to this trend by offering tailor-made ingredients for health-attentive consumers. BEVERAGE +ingredients Ingredients that add to physical well-being Products enriched with a series of vitamins and minerals such as magne- sium and calcium promise health ben- efits as they are essential for many key metabolic processes. According to a Nielsen study, across the world, around 30% of consumers say that this is an important criterion in their decision on whether to buy a product. Slightly more 32% say that a high protein content in a product is relevant. As far as the bever- age segment is concerned, the range of beverages with a functional benefit varies from sports drinks to energy and still drinks as well as to fruit juice based beverages. Another plus for an individ- ual well-being: juice concepts contain- ing fruit and vegetables. According to Nielsen, more than two billion people were regarded as over- weight or obese in 2013. In the online study for the current Nielsen Global Health and Wellness Report, 75% of respondents worldwide said they wanted to lose weight and to change their habits to do so. The main stratagems here include reducing fat (65%) and eating and drinking fewer sugary products (62%). As a result, “less & low products” are estimated to offer huge potential. Wild Flavors & Specialty Ingredients (WFSI) is responding with a series of concepts, for example those sweetened with stevia for CSD and cola beverages that are said to have good taste profiles, but also “light” concepts with less sugar in general, as for example modern refreshers and “near waters”. Consumers do not expect this to be detrimental to taste, nor do they want sugar to be replaced by classi- cal sweeteners. WFSI is undertaking long-term research work in the field of “Taste Optimisation Technology” which masks the typical hints of bitter and liquorice flavours that come with stevia for example. After “clean” comes “clear” One key pillar in WFSI’s portfolio has long been concepts based on natural ingredients without E-numbers subject to declaration (“clean label”). Now, though, consumers want not only natural ingredients, but also a small number of them (“clear label”). Therefore, the company has devel- oped beverage ideas with a taste originating solely from the fermenta- tion of fruit juice concentrates without any additives at all. Soft drinks and fermented beverages “Refreshers” close the gap between flavoured waters, on the one hand, and more substantial spritzers, on the other. The end product con- tains 8-30% fruit juice concentrate and, as a rule, all the ingredients are natural. As their sugar content is lower, when compared to classical soft drinks, they fit well in the concept of healthy, balanced nutrition. Another trend is towards lemonades with a particularly fruity taste, thanks to the higher juice content than in conven- tional products. For instance, the “orange-mango” flavour from WFSI has a juice content of 15%. As consumers increasingly pay attention to the organic source of their products, WFSI offer concepts for organic lemonades with the flavours “orange” and “cloudy lemon”, contain- ing juices from organically produced raw materials. Also, with up to 20%