Tereos claims protein-rich wheat gluten gives added chew for healthy cereal bars

The company claims its wheat gluten offering Amygluten can be used to produce cereal bars with an added chewy texture that will appeal to the weight management market.

Michel Flambeau, head of the application centre and customer technical support at Tereos, presented a new chewy bar concept at the Healthy bars and grain snacks conference organised by Bridge2Food in Cologne on 3 February 2012.

Added chew​

Céline Hurson, communication and marketing engineer at Tereos told BakeryAndSnacks.com​: “It brings a chewy texture that we would usually find in confectionery (gums for example), but without modifying the product characteristics too much.”​

“Wheat gluten is not a typical ingredient to cereal bars, but as it is extracted from wheat, it remains in line with the cereal sourcing that you expect to find within this product category. Therefore, there will be no issue of ingredient acceptability.” ​

Asked whether consumers really wanted to be chewing for longer, Hurson said: “We don't have any consumer study saying so, but we know that consumers are more and more health conscious.”​

“Especially, within the weight management offer, satiety and satiation is positioned as a "natural" way of controlling weight and as such, might be appealing to consumers.”​

Formulation​

Hurson said there were no specific issues with stability or formulation over a conventional cereal bar.

She added that the ingredient would not increase the formulation cost for manufacturers.

Hurson suggested combining prebiotic fibres with the wheat gluten to produce a product that could rebalance a person’s diet for a healthier gut.

She added that as a vegetable protein the ingredient would allow for high protein content claims in the end product.

Modifications​

In order to use the ingredient, manufacturers using a cold process would need to adapt equipment as a heating treatment (5 minutes at 110°C) after lamination to allow glycerol to plasticise gluten.

Hurson said the ingredient was available worldwide.