Bamboo fiber, protein beverages, and gummies: Hydrocolloid expert talks innovative delivery systems
Speaking with FoodNavigator-USA & NutraIngredients-USA at the recent SupplySide West show in Las Vegas, Wanda Jurlina, Technical Service Manager for CP Kelco, explained that the company has been working extensively on delivering fibers, minerals, and protein in beverages.
“Protein is really hot right now,” she said. “There’s lots of things going on with protein. You go all the way from those high protein clear beverages where you’re using that solubility at low pH to get the protein loaded in there, but you’re not going to be the best tasting products down at that low pH.
“We’re still doing a lot of work in acidified protein drinks and across the realms of protein, with dairy protein, soy protein, with rice protein, with pea protein where folks are looking to make smoothie products.”
Jurlina also said that, while the company has dealt with mineral fortification in beverages for a long time, they’re now starting to see more demand for fortifying with insoluble fiber.
“Something like a bamboo fiber, it’s not going to be soluble and it will settle out. You want to make sure the consumer is actually drinking it so you need to make sure it’s suspended.”
Gummies
The first part of picking a hydrocolloid for a gummy-type product depends on the label claims, she said. “Probably the easiest solution is going to be gelatin, but when you’re looking at products with a vegan label or non-animal based system, then you need to look at what you’re going to be fortifying with.
“If it’s vitamins and maybe a little bit of mineral, maybe energy products, then we’re probably looking at pectin. If it’s only the vitamins we might be able to do textures that are pretty close to gelatin using carrageenan-based systems, but we are going to have limits when you move to the high mineral contents.”
