Additive-free formulation stays top of National Starch agenda
The company said its Novation Indulge 2550 is an instant pulping agent, soluble in cold water, that improves texture in cold prepared products with moderate processing. Its 2450 version is able to withstand moderate to high processing and both ingredients can act as co-texturisers in chilled dips, cheese fillings, tomoato bases, as well as fruit or marzipan preparations.
Labelled as 'starch, fibre', the pulping agents also deliver cost benefits for brand owners needing to replace pice sensitive ingrdients such as tomato solids, claims National Starch.
Taking the temperature on consumer demand for additive-free foods, the company cites a poll conducted on its behalf on by MMR Research in February this year indicating that the buying decision of over 50% of consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK was influenced by a ‘no additives/ E numbers’ on the label.
FoodNavigator.com spoke to Jorgen Kokke, vice president and general manager at National Starch Food Innovation for Europe, Middle East and Africa, at FIE in Paris last week. He flagged up the ways in which the company is overcoming the formulation challenges in relation to using clean label ingredients.
Kokke said the new texture lexicon it has developed jointly with Corn Products International allows food makers better understand how to translate a consumer term like ‘crunchy’ into quantifiable sensory attributes such as hardness, duration of sound and fracturability.
Meanwhile, Kokke was keen to stress the on-going importance of modified starch within the producer’s portfolio.
The company’s Purity Gum Ultra - a starch-based emulsifier derived from waxy maize and developed to give stability and turbidity to soft and alcoholic beverages - won the Beverage Innovation of the Year at the FIE Excellence Awards 2011.
