Beneo highlights sugar, fat replacers at Fi Asia

USING the right functional ingredients, food manufacturers can create products with reduced fat and sugar while maintaining taste and texture, according to Soh Bee Bee, Area Sales Manager at Beneo. This is significant in Asia where a consumer survey shows over 50% of respondents want to consume food/beverage with less fat and sugar. Switching to healthier foods can be a challenge for many consumers who don’t want to sacrifice texture and taste.

Estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that obesity has been climbing fast in Asia, leading to a higher risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Consumers are becoming more aware of the health risks associated with consuming too much fat and sugar. She said three in four people in Asia generally think about the healthfulness of their diet, and pay much attention to the amount of calories, fat and sugar of a food product.

She said that with the right choice of natural ingredients, manufacturers can create innovative food and drink products that contribute to a healthier nutritional profile, with great taste and texture.

“Food and drink products that are designed to help consumers to maintain a healthy weight must have a balanced nutritional profile. At the same time, they need to also convey palatable taste and texture. Beneo’s food technologists continuously work on improving the sensorial and organoleptic characteristics of our ingredients to make them ideal fat and sugar replacers,” she said.

Talking about Beneo’s sugar replacer, Isomalt she shared that it is the only sugar replacer derived from beet sugar. It has a sugar-like sweet taste, while only containing 2kcal/g and being very low glycaemic. As such, Isomalt allows manufacturers to reduce the calories from sugar and lower the blood glucose response of their products, yet maintaining the same sweetness profile.

Furthermore, she spoke on the benefits of Beneo’s rice starch and chicory root fiber, inulin. Both products are ideal fat replacers as they provide the creamy and fat-like mouthfeel consumers are seeking when enjoying ‘indulgent’ products such as yoghurt, ice cream and cream cheese. At the same time, they help to significantly reduce a food product’s total fat and calorie count. The addition of chicory root fibre also helps to boost the fiber content of the product.

Soh Bee Bee also discussed the next generation sugar Palatinose™ (isomaltulose), a fully available but slowly released sugar derived from beet sugar that supplies the body with fully available energy in a more balanced and sustained way as compared to common sugars. Palatinose™ enhances fat oxidation in energy metabolism, potentially providing benefits for glucose control, body composition and weight management.

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