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The many uses of fruit and vegetable powders
Next-level nutrition

The growing need for clean label products is a broad demand but a real one. According to Nielsen, clean label products have been the biggest growth drivers of the packaged food and beverage industry in the past five years. Fruit powders can help slim down ingredient labels and increase wellness claims as they are natural and retain many of their built-in health advantages.

“Fruit powders have been used in baked goods for quite some time,” said Brigham Sikora, research, development and applications director, Bakery, Kerry. “The innovation we are seeing currently and some of the uses we are trying to explore are using our vegetable and fruit powders to add claims of servings of fruits or vegetables in the final product. In some cases, we are also able to label just the fruit or vegetable in the ingredient declaration with no other additives.”

Kerry’s portfolio of powders includes a range of fruits, vegetables and specialty varieties such as honey, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar and have been applied to cookies, muffins and donuts as an added health component.

“Traditionally, fruit powders have been used in bakery items to add flavor and in some cases color,” Mr. Lutomski said. “But recent trends look for more than just taste, color and ease-of-use; these trends are looking for ingredients with inherent functional benefits and clean labels.”

The advantages of produce powders can be seen in scientific studies as well as countless consumer trends. For example, a 2016 study performed at the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center involving adults who had mild cognitive impairment — a risk condition for Alzheimer’s disease — revealed that participants given the powdered equivalent of a cup of blueberries vs. a placebo powder had improved cognitive performance and brain function compared with those who took the placebo. The blueberry group also demonstrated improved memory and improved access to words and concepts. As these studies reveal health benefits, powders instead of other fillers could be used to leverage these research-based claims and target consumers searching for specific benefits.

Welch’s Concord Fruit Powder is packed with a wide variety of polyphenols. The polyphenols found in concord grapes have been shown to help support a healthy heart and early research indicates they also provide enhanced cognitive function. The fruit & vegetable powder format has a denser concentration of the polyphenols allowing it to have a real effect on products.

“The baker will need to determine what claims they are comfortable making, but Welch’s will gladly share its research to help our customer make that decision,” Mr. Lutomski said.

Another factor to consider is the growing desire among millennials for snacks loaded with vital minerals, nutrients and vitamins. “Snacking Motivations and Attitudes US 2015,” a recent report by Mintel, revealed they are more likely than older generations to buy snacks with added nutritional benefits such as high fiber, energizing claims or protein content.

Kate Leahy, spokesperson for Sunsweet Ingredients, noted that Sunsweet’s new Dried Plum Powder’s most common use so far has been in bars with a health positioning. The powder, composed of 99% dried prune plums, imparts the digestive benefits found in prunes and contains high levels of powerful antioxidants. She added that the powder may be used in place of flaxseed, rice bran or citrus fiber for boosting fiber content. It also may replace 50% of inulin or maltodextrin allowing for reductions in sugar and salt.

FutureCeuticals offers manufacturers the ability to deliver a clean label with substantiated U.S.D.A. serving claims through its line of TruServ Organic Whole Food Powders that offer fruit and vegetable serving claims based on U.S.D.A. My Plate. Each claim has been verified by FutureCeuticals’ exclusive method of validation that connects its extensive production data and the U.S.D.A. Nutritional database.

Herbal extracts are primarily added to the cosmetic formulations due to several associated properties such as antioxidant, anti inflammatory, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. Even today, people in rural and urban areas depend upon herbs for traditional cosmetics. Information on the herbal cosmetics was collected via electronic search (using pub med, scifinder, Google Scholar and web of science) and library search for articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, information also was obtained from some local books on ethnopharmacology. The herbal extracts, as a whole or part, have been used for various ailments of the skin, hair, and dental care for overall appearance. Cosmetics alone are not sufficient to take care of skin and others body parts, it requires association of active ingredients to check the damage and ageing of the skin. Herbal cosmetics have gained much popularity among the population. Herbal cosmetics products claimed to have efficacy and intrinsic acceptability due to routine use in daily life and avoid the side effects which are commonly seen in synthetic products. Due to the awareness of the environmental damage caused by industrialization, a trend has developed to use products with natural ingredients. Various adverse effects may occur in the form of acute toxicity, percutaneous absorption, skin irritation, eye irritation, skin sensitization and photosensitization, sub chronic toxicity, mutagenicity, and photo toxicity by the usage of synthetic products that’s why today’s generation prefers herbal cosmetics for hair, skin and dental care. This review attempts and emphasizes the benefits of herbal extracts in cosmetics.

The Rise Of Functional Ingredients
The use of dietary supplements has grown over the years because of increased media attention for health issues. By Shikhar Aggarwal, Senior Director—Chemicals, Materials and Nutrition, APAC, Frost & Sullivan.

Functional foods are typically classified as traditional foods that have been enriched with an ingredient (bioactive in many cases) that is able to provide additional benefits to human health. These days, a functional ingredient does not have a strict definition, however, they are broadly considered as ingredients that have the potential to influence health over and above their basic nutritional value. These ingredients can be obtained from a variety of sources such as primary produce, marine sources, microorganisms as well as inorganic raw materials. Many of these functional ingredients can also be used for the preparation of nutraceuticals which include food & beverage products as well as dietary supplements.

Nutritional and functional food ingredients can typically be classified from a source, type or health perspective. For example, from a health perspective, they can be divided into eye health, digestive health, heart health, and women’s health ingredients and so on.

Eye health ingredients cover astaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta carotene etc.

Digestive health ingredients cover probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes etc.

Heart health ingredients cover soy proteins, beta glucan, omega 3 etc.

Women’s health ingredients include iron, calcium, vitamin D, soy isoflavones, cranberry extracts and so on

The use of dietary supplements such as vitamins, probiotics, prebiotics, minerals, carotene, calcium, polyunsaturated fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), dietary fibre, and antioxidants has grown over the years because of increased media attention for issues such as obesity and coronary heart disease (CHD). This media attention had increased consumer awareness for health and wellness trends.

There are many trends, drivers and challenges in the industry that have been observed through the various studies conducted by our Wellness Ingredients team.

INCREASING HEALTH AWARENESS
Various studies conducted by Frost & Sullivan have highlighted the benefits of using different nutritional and functional ingredients in food and beverages, resulting in an increased awareness of these ingredients among end users.

Nutritional ingredients are generally perceived as safe, and this assumption of safety has been used for branding purposes. Because end users are aware of nutritional benefits and consider food safety important, food and beverage producers are positioning their products to reflect the health advantages that their ingredients engender. Increasing competition among nutritional and functional food ingredients participants has led to proactive marketing, which caters to the demand of both end users and food and beverage producers for ingredients with additional health benefits.

Our studies have also revealed that consumers purchase products with nutritional and functional ingredients for their preventative, rather than curative, claims. Indeed, the fortification of products through nutritional and functional ingredients is necessary to prevent some human disorders and conditions. Technological advances have helped to identify which ingredients would enhance fortification, creating further opportunities for stressing the health benefits of nutritional and functional foods.
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