Fibre enriched products

The trend of “Positive Nutrition”.

Consumers are not only trying to moderate or avoid food and beverage consumption but they are becoming more inclined to purchase products that provide them with tangible health benefits. This trend of proactive attitude is clearly demonstrated by the increasing value of functional foods. The link between nutrition and health is strongly understood in the consumers’ minds. Since diet and nutrition play an important role in achieving a feeling of wellness or wellbeing, consumers are changing their dietary routines in order to incorporate healthier foods.

Digestive health is an important facet of overall health and wellness and contemporary lifestyles are unfortunately causing increasing digestion health problems for consumers. A Datamonitor source stated that “by 2012 over two million Americans and Europeans will suffer from gut health problems”. When aware of this, consumers are looking for a more balanced diet with foods from each of the different major food groups. One such trend which is relevant to this is that consumers are preparing more meals at home trying to incorporate more whole grains and cereals.

Regarding this trend, industry players should embrace “informative marketing” tactics to educate a wider audience about the benefits of fibres and digestive health products in general.

Not enough fibres in our diets

Fibre consumption in Europe doesn’t reach the recommended intake of 25 to 30 grams per day, increasing the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and other intestinal disorders. There are countless articles in media, and reports from the Department of Health urging us to increase our fibre intake but different surveys about the dietary habits conducted in Europe have shown that few adults achieve the recommended amount with most people averaging just 12 g per day.

As soluble dietary fibres, inulin and oligofructose are not digested and absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, but arrive unaltered in the large intestine where they are fermented. The particular soluble properties of inulin and oligofructose result in improved intestinal functions like bulking effect, relief of constipation and digestive comfort in general.

In addition, two health areas in which fibres are well-known to play a key-role are the gut health and the satiety effect.

Gut Health

Gut health problems can lead to cases of extremely serious diseases, such as bowel cancer. There is a strong link between fibre intake and a reduction of gut health problems. Prebiotic fibres in a consumer diet provide the energy source for probiotic bacteria to work effectively. This probiotic bacteria lives within the gut and ensure a number of gut-health benefits, including the overwhelming of pathogenic bacteria which encourage the onset of illness. As little as 5g of prebiotic fibre inulin a day can favour the growth of good bacteria within the human body.

Satiety (feeling of fullness for a longer period of time)

Researchers have discovered that it is not only the quantity of food that promotes satiety, but its macronutrient (i.e., protein,carbohydrate, fat) and ingredient composition, such as fibre and whole grains. The nutritionist Dr. Beth Reames from Louisiana State University Agricultural Center claims that a high fibre diet is linked with helping consumers control their weight. Foods high in fibre are denser with nutrients. This ‘fills’ the consumer and results in a smaller appetite for snacking between meals. Test subjects who ate from a healthy selection of low fat products, fruit, vegetables and high fibre foods had a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who ate more refined products like white bread, meat and potatoes.

The health benefits of high fibre products are well accepted among the nutritional research community.

High awareness of the positive health associations with fibre.

We all know that having the correct amount of dietary fibre in our diets is extremely important. We all hear about the 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables we have to take every day.

As shown in the following survey results, European consumers place high importance on fibre intake as a healthier dietary approach.

The % of respondents who felt that “eating fibre” is a ‘very important’ or ‘important’ dietary approach (2006)
	France	Germ.	Italy	Neth.	Spain	Swed.	UK	US	Overall
Very Important	35%	38%	47%	35%	44%	31%	38%	41%	39%
Important	42%	42%	35%	21%	36%	20%	23%	24%	30%

The % of respondents who felt that “eating whole grains or whole foods” is a ‘very important’ or ‘important’ dietary approach (2006)
	France	Germ.	Italy	Neth.	Spain	Swed.	UK	US	Overall
Very Important	11%	31%	24%	30%	23%	28%	25%	37%	27%
Important	22%	42%	41%	46%	36%	46%	48%	40%	40%

If we refer to these results, we can be surprised that people are not taking more fibres. In fact, consumers are looking for an easier way to consume fibres. Even if consumers understand the benefits of whole grains and fibres, they will not eat whole grains and fibres if they do not taste good. The fact that consumers are not ingesting enough fibre and whole grains despite their positive attitudes and awareness of the broad health benefits is undoubtedly linked to low expectations surrounding the taste and texture of high or added fibre products.

Inulin & Oligofructose, the invisible chicory soluble fibre

The combination of convenient, health and indulgent benefits is becoming a consumption imperative for shoppers. These are often ingrained from previous experiences of consuming such products when formulation advancements were less able to mask the gritty taste associated with whole grain or high fibre products.

With Chicory Inulin Fibruline® & Chicory Oligofructose Fibrulose®, high fibre food can taste good. Chicory inulin and oligofructose are ingredients of choice for food manufacturers whose aim is to increase the fibre content as well as maintaining their product as good as before.

As soluble fibre, Fibruline® and Fibrulose® are very easy to incorporate in a wide range of food and beverages, creating a good-tasting, high quality and high fibre product.

This will give the opportunity to industries to propose products like bread or UHT milk enriched with fibre but without any difference in term of taste and texture. These products will allow consumers to reach the recommended amount of 25 to 30 grams of fibre per day.

Fibre enriched products

To increase fibre intake, adults should be encouraged to adopt new eating habits. There are several simple steps that people can take to increase fibre in their diet. From starting the day with a high fibre breakfast cereal to eating fruits and snacking throughout the day, there are different ways to boost the fibre intake.

But above all, people should be encouraged to check food labels for foods that are enriched in fibre. These fibre enriched products can be part of the solution. Positioning products as a convenient and affordable fit into a daily routine represents a potentially compelling positioning.

Cosucra Groupe Warcoing has developed innovative recipes for manufacturers of different application sectors such as dairy, bakery or confectionery, who want to explore new market opportunities offered by the “Fibre Enriched Products” trend. Extruded cereals, minestrone instant soup or ham are examples of the various recipes proposed by Cosucra.