With a heritage spanning more than a century, US multinational Ingredion today boasts a range of ingredients that helps manufacturers find the perfect balance between cost, agility, innovation and deliciousness, allowing them to deliver the ultimate sensory experience to customers – both quickly and cost-effectively. Food & Beverage Networker speaks with Sue Bancroft – Ingredion’s Category Lead, Beverages & PureCircle EMEA – as the global ingredients innovator presents its showcase at Food ingredients Europe (Fi Europe).

Could you provide an overview of Ingredion’s portfolio today, alongside the segments of the F&B sector to which these solutions cater?

“Ingredion’s current portfolio of ingredient solutions consists of: FIBERTEX® multi-benefit fibres, which are made from upcycled ingredients, and enable manufacturers to develop cleaner, more cost-efficient products with a consumer-preferred label.

“HOMECRAFT® Create multifunctional rice flours deliver the performance and shelf-life stability of a chemically modified starch, while HOMECRAFT® Create Tapioca Flour enables manufacturers to improve product stability over shelf life, and deliver a superior eating experience in soups, sauces, yoghurts, dairy desserts and more.

“NOVATION® Indulge starches are a range of co-texturisers to replace fat, protein and other ingredients in foods. Then there’s our NOVATION® Lumina clean label starches, which are ideal for applications with delicate flavours and light colours, enabling manufacturers to create great-tasting and visually appealing products. We’ve also created NOVATION® organic starches, which enable manufacturers to formulate clean-label, on-trend products that consumers trust and love. Additionally, NOVATION PRIMA® starches are a range of clean label, versatile and easy-to-cook starches. Meanwhile, UNI-PURE® IMF starches – produced from maize or rice, and manufactured to the highest microbiological standards – enable manufacturers to deliver specialist nutrition for infants with starch solutions. 

“Elsewhere in the portfolio, PureCircle™ by Ingredion stevia solutions enable manufacturers to deliver ideal taste, texture and nutritional appeal while achieving consumer-preferred labelling.

“In the proteins segment, VITESSENCE® Prista proteins is Ingredion’s revolutionary line of performance pulse concentrates for pristine taste and functionality. F&B manufacturers can utilise the proteins to create plant-protein enhanced food without the plant flavour, bitter taste or uncontrolled microbial levels inherent in dry-milled pulse products.

“Meanwhile, Ingredion’s portfolio of over 35 clean label NOVATION® functional native starches – made from waxy maize, waxy rice, tapioca and potato – enables manufacturers to formulate food and beverages with ingredients consumers accept, expect and prefer.

“Finally, Ingredion’s VITESSENCE® pea protein isolates help manufacturers formulate for in-demand protein, nutrition and lifestyle claims, while offering the functionality required. VITESSENCE® pea protein isolates feature 80-85-per-cent protein (on a dry basis) and provide the smooth, creamy textures that consumers crave. With excellent emulsification properties for improved shelf life, and optimal solubility and dispersibility, Ingredion’s isolates are ideal for a variety of applications.

“Ingredion’s solutions enable the formulation of products across multiple categories, including bakery; batters and breadings; confectionery; dairy; meat, seafood and poultry; plant-based dairy; plant-based meat, savoury, and snacks.”

Foods that enhance health and wellbeing are increasingly a consideration for consumers. What solutions does Ingredion offer in this area?

“The health and wellness trend continues to prove a key driver for consumer purchasing and consumption habits in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with one-quarter of consumers claiming to have started eating more healthily over the past 12 months, according to a recent survey conducted by Ingredion.

“The challenge for food and beverage formulators is therefore to develop products that support the growing importance of a healthy lifestyle. This means that products must be great-tasting, and deliver the ideal texture and nutritional appeal – all while achieving consumer-preferred label claims such as ‘natural’, ‘no artificial ingredients / non-GMO’ and ‘reduced-sugar’. Innovation in stevia is creating opportunities for formulators to develop products that achieve exactly that.

“Representing a new era of great taste and sugar reduction, PureCircle™ by Ingredion’s formulation expertise facilitates the development of solutions that leverage multiple steviol glycosides to bring a balanced taste for specific applications. PureCircle has also invested in new technologies to scale steviol glycosides, like Reb M, which appear in smaller quantities in the plant, to provide more options for food and beverage companies to utilise the best tasting stevia ingredients that deliver desirable products that delight consumers. 

“PureCircle’s bioconversion process starts with stevia leaf extract, and with the help of an enzyme, mimics the plant’s maturation process to produce select, non-GMO stevia ingredients. The company’s range of steviol glycosides produced via bioconversion has been adopted by Codex Alimentarius (Codex) and is currently in the final stage of approval with the European Commission.”

As the ever-evolving plant-based segment continues to gain momentum, how is Ingredion innovating to help manufacturers capture consumer attention in this market area?

“Achieving the right taste and texture while maintaining a clean label is a major challenge for manufacturers, especially when it comes to meeting consumers’ demands in plant-based. Finding functional and affordable ingredients to create optimum plant-based products is key.

“Ingredion VITESSENCE® Pulse range of proteins – sustainably sourced from peas and faba beans – are enabling manufacturers to formulate for in-demand protein, nutrition and lifestyle claims while offering the functionality manufacturers need. Featuring 80-85 per cent protein (on a dry basis), Ingredion’s pea protein isolates provide the smooth, creamy textures that consumers crave.”

Sustainability is increasingly on the radar of consumers. How is Ingredion responding in terms of its offerings and approach?

“According to a global consumer survey, 66 per cent of consumers find product formulation appealing when using fewer ingredients. Food and beverage manufacturers are under increasing pressure to provide more transparency around their ingredient stories, from farm to finished ingredient. In Europe, regulation (EC) 178/2002 – on general food law – requires that food and beverage manufacturers must track their ingredients and products by one step forward and one step back.

“Ingredient suppliers are striving to be vertically integrated, enabling them to have complete control over and transparency in their supply chain – thus showcasing authenticity and complete traceability to the stevia sustainable sourcing story, including the impact on people and the planet, and providing safety, security and integrity across each step of the stevia production process.

“When it comes to sugar reduction, a trend that Ingredion continues to tap into, PureCircle™ by Ingredion has ownership and visibility over every single step of the stevia process – from producing seedlings to farming and everything in-between – and is designed to optimise for the best taste, and to build better sustainability.

“PureCircle by Ingredion’s vertically integrated supply chain begins by contracting directly with its global network of farmers and growing partners, instead of using transactional, commodity leaf sourcing, making their relationship transparent and efficient.

“Cultivating close, long-standing ties, PureCircle™ by Ingredion actively invests in its farmers and growing partners. This includes providing its farmers with the seedlings for planting, training, education and resources for them to successfully make their operations more effective, thereby reducing waste and increasing earning potential for them to invest in their communities. Additionally, it puts in place requirements for ethical farming practices and techniques, fair pay and fair labour practices.

“After planting PureCircle appointed seedlings, its farmers then harvest the crop, before supplying the stevia leaf to PureCircle – tracked in accordance with their signed contract – and being paid directly, thus providing sustainable income for farmers and their families. Each truck or container of leaves is then assigned a batch number, which enables traceability from the harvest, through processing and purification and onto customers.”

What specific innovations is Ingredion showcasing at Fi Europe this year?

“Inspired by evolving consumer food and beverage trends around health and wellness, nutrition, plant-based and sustainability, Ingredion is showcasing a suite of delicious recipe prototypes at this year’s Fi Europe event in Paris, France. Designed specifically for the event, these recipes show food and beverage manufacturers how they can convert consumer trends into indulgent eating and drinking experiences that deliver business opportunities.

“Ingredion’s prototypes – available at stand 4F10 – include a plant-based ‘lamb’ kofta in a high-fibre pitta bread with sugar-reduced chili ketchup. Served with a sugar-reduced pomegranate dressing and a plant-based feta cheese salad. 

“We shall showcase a plant-based prawn cocktail with a clean label no-egg cocktail sauce, as well as a clean label plant-based cream cheese spread with falafel-spiced quinoa crisps.

“We’ll also be presenting an egg-free cupcake topped with a plant-based chocolate cream with pistachio; a plant-based caramel salted mousse, and a high-protein plant-based yoghurt with a calorie-reduced strawberry and mint fruit prep.

“Alongside such innovations, the stand will include a beverage menu, which consists of a: Plant-based, sugar-reduced chocolate milk; Thermised strawberry drinking yoghurt; Caramel coffee-powdered protein shake; Sparkling hibiscus reduced-sugar energy drink, and a no-added-sugar ‘Nojito’ mocktail.”

Below is a list of Ingredion products used in the sampling menu: 

• Novation® Lumina 340 starch (a functional, clean label, cold water swelling (CWS) waxy maize starch with high process tolerance and enhanced shelf-life stability);  

• Eyrsta® C100 Erythritol (a polyol produced by fermentation that enables manufacturers to achieve energy reduction or no added sugar claims in multiple applications by reducing or replacing sugar); 

• Fibertex® CF 502 (a multi-benefit citrus fibre); HOMECRAFT® CREATE 335 (part of Ingredion’s range of multifunctional tapioca flours); 

• NOVATION® Indulge starches; 

• PureCircle Reb M stevia sweeteners; 

• SIMPLISTICA™ DA 1311 (a functional texturising and stabilising system); 

• THERMFLO® 3310 (a modified food starch derived from tapioca); 

• VERSAFIBE™ 285 (soluble corn fibre); 

• VITESSENCE® Prista P 360 (faba bean protein concentrate); 

• VITESSENCE® Pulse 1853 (pea protein isolate);

• VITESSENCE® TEX Chunk 101 (a textured protein that’s recommended for use in a variety of meat alternative applications).

For further details on Ingredion’s innovative and expansive portfolio of ingredients, visit: www.ingredion.com