The British clean label specialist has announced its range of scilia fibres which help to enhance the nutritional profile of carbohydrates, making them healthier for consumers.
"Scilia are a range of fibres that are added as a dry ingredient during the manufacturing process of pasta. It can be used in fillings too," said Adrian Short, director at Ulrick & Short.
As a result of these fibres, the brand claims an added 4.5% of fibre can be added to pasta, with no change to its taste, texture or mouthfeel.
Ulrick & Short say it is still experimenting in order to achieve an addition of 6% more fibre.
The scilia range includes both soluble and insoluble fibres which can bind to different degrees of water, meaning they can be used in numerous different food processing applications.
“Enhancing the nutritional profile of foodstuffs such as pasta is challenging enough – but we also need to ensure that our solutions are equally as deliverable on the factory floor as they are in our technologically-focused development kitchens,” said Danni Schroeter, R&D manager at Ulrick & Short.
“We have achieved this with significant nutritional claim potential on pasta lines, but this claim offers even more massive potential in conjunction with our other revolutionary ingredients”.
Manufacturers can use the fibres to enhance the nutritional content of pasta based ready meals or for meals in quick service restaurants.
The fibres can also be used in meat products and vegetarian products, "anything formed or reformed", said Short.
"Depending on the level [of fibres used] the manufacturer may be able make a claim. They are also very good at binding water or oil and can be used to improve/modify texture and give more stability to the food they are in," Short said.