Cargill focuses on health and consumer trends

Cargill's focus at this year's Health Ingredients Europe exhibition will be on functional ingredient solutions and the identification of emerging market trends.

For example, the company's texturising solutions business is continuing research programmes to develop new texturisers, emulsifiers and bioactive ingredients with nutritional benefits.

The firm has already identified low fat, high protein flour as a new emerging market, and as a result has been focusing on developing innovative texturising ingredients for sectors such as bakery.

"We are maximising the opportunities to create new niches for specialised health supporting solutions and will highlight the nutritional benefits of C ActiStar, a resistant starch; Balantose, a double fermented wheat fibre and Arthred, a hydrolysed collagen," said the company in statement.

The firm will also be showcasing Leci PS, a soy lecithin phosphatidylserine and ProSante, a textured soy flour. The addition of soy could help differentiate products in what is already a highly competitive food and beverage market.

Cargill is also a major supplier of sweetener solutions, the firm plans to highlight trehalose, a non-reducing disaccharide composed of two glucose molecules linked by an a 1-1 bond.

Found naturally in mushrooms, honey, lobster and shrimp, Cargill's trehalose is produced using the Hayashibara patented enzyme conversion and crystallisation process, which results in a white crystalline powder (trehalose dihydrate).

It can be used in a range of applications, from sports nutrition to dairy and confectionery products. Trehalose has about half the sweetness of sugar.

The company will also be showcasing sugar-free polyols such as erythritol. The EC Council of Health Ministers recently finalised the legislative process to approve the use of erythritol in foods, under the same conditions as other polyols.

Three countries - the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland - have given already permission for the use of erythritol in foods. Erythritol is a non-caloric bulk sweetener with a sweetness intensity 70 per cent that of sucrose. It is the first polyol to be industrially manufactured by a fermentation process and offers both health and indulgence properties.

Erythritol occurs naturally in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and fermented foods. It has a crystalline appearance, taste and functionality similar to sucrose, yet without the calories.

"In addition, we are proud to officially launch Xtend Isomaltulose and Xtend Sucromalt, a new specialty carbohydrate which provides sustained energy blunted blood glucose and insulin response," said the firm. Xtend is still awaiting EU approval.

HI Europe runs from the 14 to 16 November this year in Frankfurt, Germany.