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Agglomerated sweeteners: Simply healthier

Source:Ringier Release Date:2011-09-08 786
Food & Beverage
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By DR THOMAS WALTER Head of Business Development, BENEO

A REVIEW of the Mintel trend forecasts for 2011 shows that manufacturers are concentrating their efforts on product reformulations to ensure they meet the growing consumer demand for healthier nutrition. One of the major topics – sugar reduction – is still very high up on the food industry's agenda. This issue is particularly pertinent as the entire sector prepares for the upcoming approval in their respective markets of the intense calorie-free Stevia, which claims to have mastered the delicate balancing act between calorie reduction and naturalness like no other intensive sweetener. The successful switch from saccharine, HFCS, fructose and glucose will allow food producers to make use of these ingredients in order to optimise their product offering with ease.
One of the leading manufacturers of functional ingredients, BENEO, offers a range of solutions to enable sugar reduction in food products and prides itself on producing innovative ingredient solutions for food manufacturers. By concentrating on the taste, functionality and qualitative elements of a product, the company has developed its agglomerated sweeteners that are simple to integrate and provide a multitude of benefits. Here, we provide insight into how its agglomerated sweeteners can be incorporated into products to provide sweetening solutions that are healthy and easy to use.

Why agglomerates?
The use of agglomerated sweeteners is mainly for technological reasons. Agglomerates do not tend to dust or build up electrostatic energy and have a distinct flowability. This provides the producer with additional benefits, such as ease of transportation and use when measuring or filling. As they don't absorb moisture, agglomerates can also be stored more easily. They dissolve quickly in fluids without forming lumps and, when consumed on their own, have a non-sandy texture in the mouth. The versatility of these agglomerates makes them an excellent choice for use within ready-to-use instant drinks, compressed tablets, chewing gum and granulates, which are consumed with no water.
When several active and functional ingredients are used for the agglomeration, further advantages can be found. During the course of the agglomeration process, all of the elements are distributed evenly in the mixture, no matter how much or how little is used. An even distribution of the ingredient is therefore guaranteed, whether this is the sweet characteristic of an intensive sweetener such as Stevia, or the nutritionally enhanced profile of vitamins, or prebiotic fibres, such as inulin.

Production process and variations
The agglomeration process is an established procedure that enlarges the particle size of an ingredient in powder form, using a mechanical method. The raw ingredients are sprayed with a fluid that encourages fluid bonds to form between the individual particles; these then change to solid bonds during the subsequent drying process. By doing this, the original fine powder form is transformed into a rougher agglomerate with a "blackberry-like" structure and different technological properties.
Depending on the desired use and end result required, Beneo offers various types of agglomerates to suit different demands. A single agglomerate is the variation of one individual ingredient whilst multi-composed agglomerates are a culmination of various ingredients. An ingredient providing mass and texture, such as isomalt, the isomaltulose Palatinose, inulin or oligofructose, always forms the basis of multiple agglomerates. Other sugars and sweeteners, such as saccharin, maltodextrin, stevia and also minerals, vitamins and flavouring agents can also be added at the food producers' discretion.

The versatility of these agglomerates makes them an excellent choice for use within ready-to<span id=Prime Hype DF 2016 EP

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