Beverage News
Döhler to showcase new innovative ingredient solutions and product ideas at “FREE FROM – Food Ingredients 2014”
Adding value with less! Healthy food and beverages are increasingly defined not by long, complex lists of ingredients and E numbers, but rather by what the recipe consciously does not include. The trend started with “calorie-free”, “free from artificial additives” and “sugar-free”, and now product claims like “lactose-free” and “gluten-free” are moving from niche to the mainstream. At the first “FREE FROM – Food Ingredients” trade fair in Brussels from 3th to 4th June, Döhler will present innovative ingredient solutions that embrace the ever more important “free-from” trend. Döhler’s range extends from completely natural ingredients such as flavours and colours to a broad spectrum of options for sugar and calorie reduction, all the way to gluten-free malt extracts and solutions for lactose-free and dairy-free products. Visitors of the Döhler trade fair booth will be able to see for themselves the wide variety of product ideas, such as lemonades with stevia, gluten-free malt beverages, almond beverages, lactose-free yoghurt desserts, alcohol-free fermented grape juice “type wine” and a vast range of product applications with purely natural ingredients.
Free from artificial additives – with natural flavours and colours
The trend for natural products has proved to be the most important in recent years: starting with more natural reformulations of existing products and extending to consciously avoiding the use of artificial additives and preservatives in new products. Döhler offers a comprehensive portfolio of natural ingredients for food and beverages. The extensive ingredient portfolio is based on global access to high-quality fruit and raw vegetable ingredients, Döhler’s own fruit and vegetable processing facilities and a global network for the procurement of raw materials.
In its plant in Karaman, Turkey, for example, Döhler produces colouring concentrates from black carrot. The Red Brilliance colour range obtained in this way stretches from shining ruby tones all the way to shades of blueish red. These colours meet the requirements of clean labelling and are suitable for a wide range of uses in food and beverage applications. Thanks to the use of the latest technology, Döhler has optimised the processing of black carrot. The colouring concentrates resulting from this processing are far superior to other colours containing anthocyanin in terms of stability and cost-of-use.
In addition, Döhler will also be showcasing a new generation of Crystal Clear Colours at “FREE FROM – Food Ingredients”. Crystal Clear Colours 2.0 completes the colour range of crystal clear orange and yellow tones with an additional yellow tone. Moreover, the extended portfolio is based on purely natural colouring principles such as paprika extract, beta carotene and lutein. The taste profile and stability in the new range of Crystal Clear Colours remain just as outstanding.
Besides natural colours that allow a claim of “free from synthetic colourings”, Döhler offers a broad portfolio of natural flavours with a particularly authentic taste. Döhler’s own facilities for fruit processing and flavour production give the company direct access to premium FTNF/FTNJ flavours, flavour extracts, fractions, isolates and oils.
Thanks to its well-founded flavour expertise and the use of the very latest flavour technologies, Döhler also continuously develops natural flavours for innovative taste sensations. The flavour creations are characterised by particularly fresh and authentic taste profiles. Thorough analysis of the fresh fruit and decades of expertise enable Döhler’s international team of flavourists to create natural flavours that taste exactly the same as the natural product they are modelled on.
Free from sugar – without compromising on taste
Around 3,200 beverages claiming “low/no/reduced sugar” and around 2,000 claiming “low/no/reduced calories” were introduced to the market globally in 2013*. This means that – besides “naturalness”
(= free from synthetic additives) – calorie and sugar reduction was among the most important product positioning criteria. To accommodate this trend, Döhler has developed innovative systems for reducing sugar content. These include Döhler’s sugar reduction technology (SRT). SRT is a flavour technology that allows significant amounts of sugar to be removed from soft drinks, for example, without changing the taste or adding sweeteners. In addition, Döhler has developed MultiSweet® Stevia, a natural and calorie-free sweetener. MultiSweet® Classic even makes it possible to reduce the sugar content by up to 100 %. Thanks to sweetness improving technology (SIT), product applications with MultiSweet® Stevia and MultiSweet® Classic are characterised by superior multi-sensory properties.
Gluten-free malt extracts and solutions for lactose-free and dairy-free food and beverages
Döhler has recently been able to achieve a breakthrough with a new portfolio of gluten-free malt extracts. The increasing demand for gluten-free products around the world is presenting the food and beverage industry with new opportunities and challenges. In 2013 alone, over 7,000 new products labelled “gluten-free” were introduced to the global food and beverages market*. Through market research and trend spotting across the globe, Döhler detected this trend in its early stages and has conducted intensive research on a new generation of malt ingredients. This driver of innovation provides both the food and beverage industries with application-specific, gluten-free malt extracts that can be used as a specific flavour component and as natural ingredients for a variety of products for natural colouring and sweetening. At the 12th World Food Technology & Innovation Forum in London, Döhler won the Food Innovation Award 2014 for its gluten-free malt range.
In addition to increasing demand for gluten-free products, there is also a growing need for lactose-free and lactoprotein-free food and beverages
. Roughly two thirds of the world’s adult population are lactose intolerant. In Asia and Africa the percentage is as high as 90%, while only about 10% of adults in northern Europe are affected. Many gastro-intestinal dysfunctions have now been identified as a consequence of the insufficient presence of the enzyme lactase, which is required for the digestion of lactose. Despite this insufficiency, many consumers do not want to go without the taste of milk products. At the “FREE FROM – Food Ingredients” trade fair in Brussels, Döhler will be presenting natural lactose-free and dairy-free alternatives such as soy and almond beverages.
In addition to the ingredients and applications already mentioned, Döhler will showcase many other product ideas and solutions, such as for non-alcoholic fermented beverages, sugar-free sweets, almond pudding and almond ice cream, at its trade fair booth. When developing those innovative products and product applications, Döhler’s main focus is always on the multi-sensory product experience, appealing harmoniously to all the senses. This holistic sensory approach allows Döhler to guarantee its customers an important building block to success – helping them to stand out from the crowd.
Source: Döhler Market Research
