A toast to good health

Beverages have a ready ability to meet consumers’ nutritional demands.

Juices, dairy drinks and bottled mineral water, for example, have long been recognised for their intrinsically healthy image.

Today, consumers want beverages to carry benefits that exceed what their natural nutrient content can provide, or they may look for an entirely new healthy element.

In the industrialised world, particularly, concern about obesity and related diseases grows in line with consumer girths.

Right on target
Marie-Jane Fallourd is Danisco’s beverage team knowledge manager. She is responsible for optimising the opportunities created by global beverage trends.

As part of growth plans, a new collaboration with leading flavour company Firmenich has been established to develop innovative beverage concepts.

“Health options clearly continue to drive growth on the beverage market in many regions. We focus on providing solutions that either have a proven nutritional effect or that, for example, restore mouthfeel in low sugar and fat beverages. With our application concepts, our intention is to serve as a source of inspiration for our customers’ new product development,” she says.

Major health needs
Danisco’s nutritional ingredients cover sweeteners, probiotics and fibres. Within these categories lie countless opportunities to develop beverage products that stimulate digestive and immune health, promote weight management and reduce glycaemic response.

Alternative sweeteners and speciality carbohydrates have high potential in healthy beverages.

Here they provide an effective means of reducing sugar, fat and calories.

For diabetics and other consumers on low glycaemic diets, sweeteners are a particularly beneficial option due to their low glycaemic response.

Years of scientific study have also documented the benefits of Danisco’s speciality carbohydrates as efficient dietary fibres and prebiotics.

Danisco’s leading probiotic cultures, marketed under the HOWARU brand name, are attracting a growing following.

Comprising specially selected strains, theseobiotics have been specifically tested in dairy drinks and many fruit juices, where they have shown excellent survival rates throughout shelf life.

Their freeze-dried format also allows for easy enrichment of juice beverages in powdered form.

In defence of quality
The powerful functional support of Danisco textural ingredients ensures that the provision of health benefits and sensory appeal go hand in hand.

GRINDSTED Pectin, for instance, is used to improve mouthfeel in reduced sugar beverages, stabilise protein in acidified products such as drinking yogurt and formulate calcium- fortified acidified dairy beverages.

In high-fruit juices, GRINDSTED JU Stabiliser Systems are designed to maintain fruit pulp in suspension and improve overall stability throughout shelf life.

Functional ingredients can also be used to get more out of a fruit or vegetable’s natural nutrient content.

Danisco’s PEKTOZYME MAXJuice is an enzyme that ensures a higher proportion of the fibre and antioxidants in, for example, apple is extracted along with the juice.