Food Pacific Manufacturing Journal

HEALTHY offerings coupled with rising urbanisation and disposable incomes will fuel growth in Asia-Pacific's $68.5-billion bakery & cereal segment, reports Datamonitor. Asians are still favouring their sweet tooth, however, as the region's bakery and cereals market is led by cakes & pastries (representing 48.5% of the segment), followed by bread & rolls and cookies (sweet biscuits), with 23.2% and 14.9% market share, respectively. Crackers (savoury biscuits), breakfast cereals and morning goods constitute the remaining categories with a 7.1%, 4.9% and 1.3% market share, respectively. Sweet stuff can still be guilt-free when formulated properly! Catering to the penchant for great flavour as well as the need for health benefits in one product is much simpler these days. Ingredient developers and suppliers are offering more and more options by which industrial bakers and cereal makers can fortify, enhance, differentiate and create good-for-you products. Dietary fibre solutions, for instance, are so much easier to incorporate and more often than not also improve the food's sensory characteristics. Whole grain foods are also poised to take off, as technological advances now allow them to have a more acceptable and familiar flavour profile whilst still providing fibre, B-complex vitamins and other important nutrients. Kraft Foods has done just that, as John Nielson relates in boardroom connection. Not everything that's growing is palatable. Food allergies are also on the rise - at least, this is what the public assumes and what recent studies suggest. Nobody knows exactly what percentage of the population is affected by an adverse immune response of a food protein (the causal agent in most allergies). Experts and industry players do agree in our research section that a standardised response based on reliable data is essential "in a global marketplace where industries must manage hazards across complex supply chains spanning continents."