The Benefits of Functional Food Ingredients

Ingredion has debuted a functional native corn starch ingredient designed to help achieve a gelled texture for application in dairy and dairy alternative products like yogurts, puddings and cheeses, called Novation Indulge 2940.

The ingredients giant touted the better-for-you elements of the starch, which it noted as being minimally processed, non-GMO and “clean label.”

According to Ingredion, application of the ingredient in yogurt products resulted in a 2.6% decrease in costs and added $6.1 million in projected revenue per 100,000 metric tons of product created.

The ingredient furthers Ingredion’s reach into the dairy and vegan spaces as it works to build out its portfolio to give formulators healthier options for their products.

In a press release, Ingredion revealed that their in-house Atlas consumer insights showed that consumers preferred “corn starch” as a gelling agent over gelatin, carrageenan, and other texturants.

“Consumers increasingly expect all of the products they buy to be made with recognized and accepted ingredients, and at the same time provide a satisfactory eating experience,” Nick Ferraro, the company’s global senior strategic marketing manager, said in a statement.

The starch provides a creamy mouthfeel and can help plant-based cheeses improve their stretch and melting characteristics, allowing them to better mimic dairy cheeses, Ferraro told Food Ingredients First.

The launch follows previous innovations from Ingredion that aim to further its reach in the ingredients space by building out its portfolio. The company’s specialty segment focuses on trendy categories through the creation of plant protein-based ingredients, honing in on the better-for-you attributes consumers increasingly seek. In an interview with Food Dive earlier this year, Ingredion’s global director of strategic marketing said customers often look for ingredients to serve multiple needs, such as being plant-based and sustainable.

Consumer interests continue to drive the company’s direction. Ingredion cited internal data which found 79% of consumers want to know the ingredients of the products they are eating and 62% said they always or usually read the back label of the food and beverage items they purchase. suggest moving this bit up higher

Other ingredient formulators are capitalizing on the growing plant-based dairy space to better replicate dairy products. Like Ingredion’s new starch, Pureture is also avoiding genetic modification in its ingredients, instead utilizing yeast protein to turn into a melty texture for cheese alternatives.

Whether it’s a melty grilled cheese or creamy foam on top of a coffee, animal-based dairy products provide a creamy texture that many of these craveable foods and beverages are known for.

The creamy feel comes from casein, a milk protein that creates a stable emulsion and prevents fat and water from separating. 

As plant-based companies look to emulate these characteristics in products such as vegan nut milks, cheeses and sauces, many of them lack the same smooth texture and none of them have been able to replicate both the nutritional and functional properties of animal-based casein.

Alternative protein company Pureture is looking to solve this problem with the creation of their plant-based casein product.

Unlike its competitors, New York-based Pureture’s product is non-GMO and completely plant-based, according to the company. A lot of its competitors in the space are taking a genetically modified approach to replicating the casein protein by altering sequences of animal-based casein’s DNA, extracting it from an animal-based cell and putting it in a plant-based product, explained Danny Yang, head of business development at Pureture. 

“The biggest obstacle right now that we're facing with plant-based products is that the protein sources that companies are trying to add into their products are not binding with their base fat and their oil,” said Yang in an interview. “As a result, things like starches and gums are added to ingredient lists, and it’s a lot of additives going into the product that don’t have to be there.” 

Turning yeast protein into melty cheese

Pureture sources its protein from yeast. After the yeast is cultivated in a 50-liter fermentation tank, it goes through an enrichment stage before the protein is separated. Then, the emulsification properties of the protein are tested before it goes through the company’s spray drying process. This turns it from a liquid to a powder. 

Pureture’s three 30,000-liter tanks produce 24,000 tons of protein annually. 

The entire multi-step process of yeast fermentation, protein recovery and emulsification is carried out continuously so that it can be priced 20% to 30% lower than the existing dairy ingredients, according to the company.

Because Pureture uses a traditional fermentation process, it doesn’t have to meet regulatory hurdles to enter the market. The product’s characteristics allow it to mimic the stretchability, meltability and creaminess of traditional dairy products, all while being completely plant based. This is a challenge other brands in the category have struggled with.

Nutrition labels of many nut milks often have lengthy ingredient lists. Oatly, for example, has ingredients such as dipotassium phosphate, calcium carbonate and tricalcium phosphate. Brands that avoid a lot of these additives create plant-based dairy products that have a tendency to be chalky in texture and easily separate, and Pureture is looking to mimic the texture, taste and nutritional benefit of animal-based dairy products, all while doing it at an affordable price.

“If you look at most of the CPG brands that are in the alternative protein space, and you look at the nutritional value, you will likely see zero grams of protein per serving size,” said Yang. 

The company also has found a way to go through the spray drying process at an affordable price, which is typically costly. Because of a decrease in demand for baby formula in South Korea, where Pureture is manufactured, and its ability to leverage the country’s infrastructure in that region, the process comes at a cheaper price.

‘Bigger than our own brand’

Eventually, Pureture wants its plant-based casein product to be dominant in the plant-based dairy space.

“We’re in this industry to grow this market as a whole,” said Yang. “The value of this technology is much bigger than just our brand on its own.” 

Pureture’s goal is to create a business-to-business model that allows other plant-based companies to use their casein product in order to replace additives and gums without sacrificing on taste, which entails making the product available for all brands in the sector.

Last week, the company went through a final round of taste testing with its investors. Pureture is nearing a partnership with a major dairy alternative brand, Yang said.

Pureture also has plans to collaborate with major dairy companies to co-brand its product as well as partner with global ingredients vendors to expand its usage and shape the industry, according to Yang. 

“Most of our direct competitors at this time are not in sample or pilot stages yet, but we are already looking to scale on a commercial level within a year,” he said.

Whole Foods Market forecasted a trend of more companies putting the “plant” back in plant-based products, the grocer announced earlier this month in their 2024 predictions report. 

With a focus on protein content, more plant-based products are using ingredients like mushrooms, walnuts, tempeh and legumes in place of complex meat alternatives. Plant-based milks are following suit as well as some brands pump out products with just two ingredients, the report said.

The plant-based category has faced criticism in recent years, with many consumers growing confused about what classifies a product to be “plant-based,” and whether or not it is healthy.

Leaders in the plant-based category like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have run with the strategy of creating a product that mimics the real thing. 

However their recent sales have shown that this strategy may be losing steam with consumers. Beyond Meat, for example, saw its revenue plummet by almost a third last quarter and the company said there was a “considerable gap between the strong health credentials of our products and a broader color narrative that is now a foot, and this gap appears to have widened.” 

The second ingredient listed in the El Segundo, California-based company’s popular Beyond Beef patty is expeller-pressed canola oil — which contains trans fats that have been linked to health problems. The product also contains pea protein, rice protein, natural flavors, potato starch and sunflower lecithin. The Impossible burger starts with soy protein concentrate, and has other ingredients like inflammatory sunflower oil and modified food starch. 

According to the Whole Foods report, an increasing amount of shoppers are looking for recognizable ingredients in the items they buy.

Brands like Actual Veggies and Meati sell products that align with this trend, according to the report. 

Actual Veggie’s Green Burger features ingredients like broccoli, kale, yellow onion and white bean and oats, while having a relatively high protein content. And Meati’s Carne Asada Steaks uses ingredients like mushroom root, salt and fruit juice for color. 

Even some plant-based milk brands are moving away from trying to emulate the same creamy texture of dairy milk and focusing on clean ingredients. The Whole Foods report pointed to Three Seeds almond milk, which only contains two ingredients, almonds and water. Bigger companies selling plant-based milk alternatives like Oatly have an “oat base” of oats and water with added ingredients like rapeseed oil.

Like Beyond and Impossible, Oatly is facing headwinds as they reported net losses of $75.6 million last quarter, citing supply chain issues.

An increasing amount of smaller brands in the plant-based space have popped up in recent years, many of which tout themselves as only using healthy, clean ingredients. The report listed Abbot, Atlantic Sea Farm, Smallhold, among others in offering items that fit this emerging consumer interest.

While cultivated meat companies Upside Foods and Eat Just have been making headlines with developments in the space and openings of new production facilities, one startup has been quietly applying this same concept to berries. 

Israeli nutritech startup Novella is in the early stages of developing intact-cell berry compounds grown outside of the plant using “novel, precision-controlled-environment technology,” the company announced earlier this month. 

Berries’ main health benefits are their antioxidant capacity and overall wellness attributes, the company said. With that in mind, Novella has found a way to extract these nutrients, without using an entire plant.

“We know much more about specific health condition categories that particular phytochemicals could help benefit, and which berries have higher concentrations of the compounds that confer these studied benefits.”

The startup has lofty plans to introduce an entire new supply channel for these nutraceuticals which, according to the company, are currently in peak demand.

The nutraceutical industry has seen massive interest over the last year. In 2022, the market size was worth $423 billion, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% from 2023 to 2032, according to a report from Global Market Insights. 

Nutriceuticals — which is a space Novella hopes to see its products — have grown to become vital components of consumers’ lifestyles, the report said. While nutraceuticals are typically used to address a specific health issue, many can serve multiple therapeutic purposes, like Novella’s berries.

While the cultivation of the fruit uses the same technologies as cultivated meat companies, the purpose is also the same — less waste. 

“What we realized is that you don’t need the whole plant, or the whole fruit, you just need the one part of it,” said Itay Dana co-found of Novella, in an interview with Food Dive. 

“Essentially, we screen different tissues of the berry plant, look for the highest concentration of nutrients, extract them, and eventually end up with a product that is 100% plant cell or berry cell, without any waste of any kind.” 

The end result is a powder that the body can readily absorb, and Novella plans to sell this product to other players in the nutraceutical space. 

According to Dana, Novella has no direct competitors.

“Most companies are focusing on bulk material, and the one that is looking on nutraceuticals like we are, they are essentially exploding at the end of the process,” said Dana. 

Novella recently opened a new facility to house both its operational headquarters as well as a pilot plant to accelerate the cultivation of whole-berry fruit cells from five varieties. “Each variety is designed to meet distinct supplement market demands,” the company said. 

The startup has hopes of easing some of the bottlenecks in the supply for high-demand berry ingredients within the global supplement space, but just like cultivated meat, consumer education is a barrier, said Dana.

Functional ingredients supplier Beneo is launching Beneo-scL85, a fiber derived from beet sugar to help manufacturers meet growing consumer demand for low-sugar products.

Beneo-scL85 is a short-chain fructooligosaccharide, a prebiotic that escapes digestion in the small intestine. It offers a mildly sweet taste, good solubility and natural credentials that can contribute to improved taste and texture. The ingredient also can be used for bulking in applications such as bakery, dairy and cereals.

Beneo-scL85 is the latest ingredient supplier offering to assist food makers in improving the nutritional quality of their products as shoppers keep a closer watch on what they consume.

As manufacturers look to improve the nutritional content of the foods they produce, few areas in recent years have received as much attention as reducing sugar.

When curtailing the amount of the sweetener needed, CPG companies have to take into account how removing sugar impacts the texture, structure, color and shelf-life of their products. The more options companies have as they create a new product or reformulate the ingredient mix of an existing one, the closer they can get to mirroring the original product but in a healthier way.

Fifty-seven percent of consumers said recently that “low in sugar” claims influence their purchasing decisions, Beneo noted in a press release. Beneo-scL85, the company said, will allow more of its customers to respond to this trend through new product development or re-formulation.

The global reduced sugar food and beverage market reached $46.18 billion in 2021, according to Grandview Research. It is forecast to post a compound annual growth rate of 8.9% from 2022 to 2030 due largely to increased demand for healthy and low-sugar foods and drinks.

The ability to lower sugar use is not the only value of Beneo-scL85. Beneo noted in a statement that it not only helps replace sugar, but adds dietary fiber. The result is a stronger nutritional profile for the product, allowing manufacturers to achieve a healthier offering.  

Beneo-scL85 “is a valuable addition to Beneo’s portfolio because it increases flexibility and availability for our customers,” Eric Neven, commercial managing director for Beneo’s functional fibers, said in a statement. It “will further secure supply to meet the high demand for solutions to reduce sugar.”

Even as consumers look to reduce how much sugar they eat or drink each day, most people far exceed the recommended amount.

The American Heart Association estimated that men should consume no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day; for women, the figure is lower at 6 teaspoons. What people typically consume each day is much higher. American adults have about 17 teaspoons of added sugar every day, more than 2 to 3 times the recommended amount for men and women respectively, the health group said.