17 Mar 2011 Cargill unveils tripartite approach to reduced calorie beverages
Q: What do the car industry and reduced calorie beverages have in common?
A: Tribology, or the science of interactive surfaces in relative motion, according to Cargill, which is using it to determine the textural characteristics to be rebuilt in reduced calorie beverages – along with sweetness and flavour modification – as part of its new tripartite approach called Taste Wise.
TasteWise reduced calorie solutions use Cargill’s patent-pending technology, application capabilities and ingredients to enable beverage makers to deliver better-tasting, reduced-calorie products.
The secret to delivering a superior taste experience to consumers is in optimizing the balance between texture, sweetness and flavour. When producing reduced-calorie beverages, manufacturers typically lower sugar content. To compensate for losing sweetness, it is common to add zero- or mid-calorie high-intensity sweeteners and taste-modifying flavours. Although this effectively addresses the loss of sweetness, the resulting beverage is likely to deliver a thinner mouthfeel and a different taste profile.
To remedy this challenge, Cargill utilizes its expertise in texturizers, sweeteners and flavours to balance taste and mouthfeel with unmatched precision. Using “tribology” – the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion – Cargill is able to more accurately mimic and measure what goes on inside the mouth when a beverage is consumed. Cargill is a pioneer in the use of tribology in the food and beverage industry, and through its use can predict and shape mouthfeel with an accuracy previously unknown in the industry.
“With this new approach, Cargill not only provides the ingredients to achieve desired sweetness and enhanced mouthfeel, but the science and expertise to achieve the right balance,” said Andy del Rosal, team leader of Cargill’s North American beverage applications scientists. “This is the culmination of years of scientific research to help our customers develop reduced-calorie beverages that also taste great.”
Sensory and consumer testing of Cargill’s measurement and ingredient technology, conducted at North Carolina State University‘s Sensory Science Center, validates the connection between key mouthfeel sensations and consumer liking.
The new approach helps customers save time and reduce costs. TasteWise™ reduced calorie solutions helps speed product development through the utilization of its unique prediction capabilities and new texturizing components. The pre-screened texturizing blends, commercialized as Trilisse™ blends, optimize mouthfeel in reduced calorie beverages based on specific applications. These proprietary texturizing blends also may allow beverage makers to use less sweeteners or other ingredients to achieve the same mouthfeel.
Additional elements of TasteWise reduced calorie solutions include Cargill’s sweeteners, such as the stevia-based, zero-calorie sweetener Truvia rebiana, and taste enhancing and masking flavours.
“Cargill’s philosophy is that you must examine sweetness, texture and flavour in relation to one another,” said Majella de Bruijn, EMEA Beverage Category manager, Cargill. “Any time one is modified, it affects the others. Today, only Cargill has the capabilities to address all three factors from a holistic perspective and help customers deliver the great-tasting, reduced-calorie beverages that consumers demand.”
Cargill has six patents filed on TasteWise reduced calorie solutions, and is now working to extend its capabilities into food products including dressings, sauces and soups.
De Bruijn said that although Cargill has only just started offering its Taste Wise approach, the response so far has been positive.
“The way we approach taste is different. Feedback from customers so far is that they have been amazed.”
The main benefits of the holistic approach, she said, are that it offers a one-stop-shop for customers for ingredients, know-how and applications. They do not need to go to separate suppliers to deal with sweetness, flavour masking, and texture separately, but can deal with it all together, under one roof.
This translates into accelerate product development cycles, allowing customer to take products to market faster.
Although Cargill is using the Taste Wise approach for beverage development in both the US and Europe, the regulatory situation for stevia-derived sweeteners in Europe means manufacturers must, nonetheless, wait for the European Commission’s green light. There are high hopes that this will be granted in 2011.
In the US, on the other hand, sweeteners with high purity levels of the sweetest steviol glycoside, known as Reb A (or Rebiana in Cargill’s lingo) have been FDA GRAS (generally recognised as safe) since late 2008.
Source: Cargill & FoodNavigator