While the weather was hot and muggy outside, attendees of this year’s Institute of Food Technologists’ Annual Meeting and Food Expo stayed cool sampling some of the latest innovations beverage ingredient and flavor suppliers had to offer. Health and wellness was the primary theme of the show as exhibitors developed beverage prototypes showcasing the emerging health trends driving beverage innovation today. Leveraging the growth in functional beverages, suppliers were showcasing branded functional ingredients as a way to differentiate their products and add marketing value to customers’ beverages.

Healthy on the Inside
Many suppliers exhibiting at IFT focused on health trends such as digestive health and immune support by incorporating branded ingredients into a range of flavored beverage prototypes. Cargill demonstrated the wide range of its ingredient and application capabilities while also addressing consumer demand for taste and texture with a raspberry-flavored heart healthy juice containing 1.5 grams of its Barliv barley betafiber, a source of soluble fiber, in each serving. Due to its high purity and low molecular weight, Barliv barley betafiber can be used to create a low-viscosity, clear beverage and has a minimal effect on flavor, says Jennifer McLenighan, marketing manager, beverage category, Cargill Food Ingredients and Systems North America. According to research, taste is the No. 1 factor when consumers consider selecting a food or beverage and Barliv barley betafiber helps reduce cholesterol without adding unwanted taste, the company says.

Tate & Lyle showcased its Promitor dietary fiber ingredient in blueberry and cherry-flavored fruit shots, which contained five grams of fiber per two-ounce serving. The company also debuted its rapidly dispersible, highly soluble Promitor Soluble Corn Fiber 60A in convenient stick packs that could be added to eight ounces of water. Available in goji berry and Schizandra passion fruit, the stick packs have 60 percent dietary fiber content and is a colorless, flavorless prebiotic fiber, said David Lewis, business development manager, health and wellness at Tate & Lyle. DSM offered IFT attendees a taste of its Gluco Balance orange-flavored beverage prototype, which contained the company’s InsuVital milk protein peptide, which helps to regulate blood sugar levels after a meal and also offers five grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Protein also is quickly becoming an in-demand functional ingredient and numerous exhibitors at the show highlighted the versatility of branded protein ingredients that can be incorporated into a broad range of beverages. ADM combined its branded ingredients NovaSoy soy isoflavones, Pro-Fam isolated soy protein and Fibersol-2 soluble dietary fiber into a Peaches & Cream meal replacement beverage. Targeted specifically for female consumers, the beverage contained seven grams of protein and three grams of dietary fiber per serving. Invented by Japan’s Matsutani Chemical Industry Co., Fibersol-2 is stable in beverage applications, has viscosity and adds virtually no flavor to the finished product.

Immune enhancement is a major driver of new functional beverage development and Biothera is capitalizing on this growing trend with its Wellmune WGP, a natural ingredient clinically proven to enhance key immune response. Biothera displayed a lemonade beverage prototype that contained 200 milligrams of Wellmune WGP. According to David Walsh, vice president, communications at Biothera, the immune health ingredient is a natural gluco polysaccharide that is designed to engage the body’s natural defenses to protect against a wide range of challenges and has been proven to activate innate immune cells to more quickly recognize and kill foreign intruders.

Beauty from Within
There were just as many companies focused on external wellness as well, as witnessed by the number of beauty beverages or weight management drinks on display in exhibitors’ booths. Fortitech, a leading provider of fortification technology and nutrient systems for the beverage industry, proved it was on the cutting edge of trends with a cosmeceutical beverage prototype combining the hot flavor of the year, goji berry, with a blend of nutrients including collagen, co-enzyme Q10 and lutein to help nourish the skin and deliver anti-aging benefits. According to Patrick Morris, communications manager, Fortitech, the US market for ingestible cosmeceuticals grew 15.7 percent between 2001 and 2006 and is predicted to reach a market value of $1.3 billion by 2011. “Consumers have come a long way in their understanding of how diet plays a key role in their long-term health and how certain nutrients can target specific health conditions.  They are now coming full circle and understand that what one eats also affects how they look,” Morris notes.

Super Citrimax, an appetite control ingredient from InterHealth Nutraceuticals USA, has seen tremendous success in the weight management beverage market and the InterHealth booth featured a number of functional products to illustrate how the ingredient, which is tasteless, odorless and colorless, can be added to beverages.

With an ongoing focus on beverage innovation, Wild Flavors highlighted its applications capabilities with a lemon meringue-flavored beverage containing both milk and 30 percent juice and fortified with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is becoming a popular ingredient in weight management beverages as it can help reduce body fat while maintaining lean body mass.

From Beverage World August 15, 2008