Cholesterol-cutting foods and food ingredients are relatively common, but the same cannot be said of drinks, largely because of taste issues. But now consultancy firm Arthur D. Little (ADL) claims to have developed the first drink brand to contain soluble dietary fibre which reduces blood cholesterol levels and which also meets consumers' taste requirements.
"Consumers can already enjoy the health benefits of dietary fibre in hot and cold cereals, but our challenge was to formulate oat fibre so that it could be used in beverages that people grab on the run," said Colleen Zammer, manager of food product development at ADL.
"Without compromising taste, mouth-feel or texture, we've created beverages so healthful that they can be used as meal replacements because they contain a balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals and can reduce cholesterol."
ADL worked closely with a subsidiary of Van Drunen Farms, a food ingredient manufacturer based in Illinois, to develop the range of drinks using Nutrim, a new generation of oat bran with a highly concentrated amount of oat beta glucan, the cholesterol-cutting component of oat fibre. Nutrim was originally developed and patented by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a food additive to act as a healthy replacement for butter, oil, cream and other fats.
Van Drunen Farms licensed the USDA technology and in association with ADL has been developing a line of beverages which contained sufficient amounts of oat beta glucan to enable it to make a claim about the cholesterol-cutting properties while at the same time retaining the flavour, mouth-feel and texture of other meal replacement drinks and smoothies.
ADL already produces a number of smoothies and meal replacement products, as well as a low-carbohydrate beverage for use by athletes and people on weight-reduction programmes. The Nutrim meal replacement formulations have been designed to qualify for the American Heart Association's Heart Healthy seal of approval, the company said.
To ensure the flavour quality of the beverages, ADL said it used an objective method of sensory analysis called Profile Attribute Analysis (PAA) which asks an expert panel to describe a set of defined flavour attributes to provide a complete description of the beverages. The ADL sensory panel found no difference in flavour, mouth-feel, and texture between these new formulations and the leading meal-replacement beverages, the company claimed.
ADL and Van Drunen Farms are now seeking to partner with a major food manufacturer to bring the cholesterol-lowering beverages to the market.