Naturally Functional Flax: Formulating Clean-Label Foods for Today’s Consumer

In today’s health-conscious world, consumers are becoming increasingly mindful of the foods they eat and where the ingredients come from. As a result, demand for clean-label products continues to soar as consumers actively seek recognizable ingredients they perceive as healthier and more natural. There are many factors influencing purchase decisions. Plant-based, non-GMO and gluten-free are all among the factors that contribute to current consumer demands.

While consumers are looking for clean label, they still want products that are innovative and provide sensory experiences. Qualities such as viscosity, mouthfeel, shelf-life extension and stabilization are critical to product success, but formulating products to carry a clean label declaration can be challenging.

Natural hydrocolloids, therefore, present an opportunity for manufacturers as they look for functional ingredients for ‘clean label’ product development. With their thickening, stabilizing, gelling, fat-replacing and binding qualities – naturally occurring, plant-based polymers can fulfil many of the same functions as commercial ingredients like xanthan, guar, acacia and cornstarch. Additionally, these natural hydrocolloids can provide value-added benefits through more favorable nutritional profiles.

Finely milled flax meal, comprised of water-soluble polysaccharides (hydrocolloids), can offer several advantages over other gums and thickening agents – and can even be used as an egg replacement. It is also vegan, non-allergenic, gluten free and non-GMO – making it perfect for use in clean label product formulations. Unique clean-label functionality delivers improvements to texture, freshness, nutrition and stability in various applications.

Join this webinar to hear experts from Bioriginal investigate clean-label product formulation trends and showcase how the functionality of finely milled flax meal powder can be leveraged in a variety of gluten-free bakery, batter and breading, pasta and meat-analogue applications to deliver differentiative textures, enable clean-label declarations and meet the demands of the market.

Speakers

Tom Vierhile, VP Strategic Insights, North America, Innova Market Insights

Tom Vierhile is vice president of strategic insights North America for Netherlands-based Innova Market Insights. He has more than 20 years of experience in packaged goods reporting and analysis. Based in Fairport, NY, he is a new product marketing expert and has been quoted by Bloomberg, Ad Age, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Mr. Vierhile has given presentations on new product trends at conferences in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. A regular contributor to Prepared Foods magazine, Tom has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from St. Bonaventure University and an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Message Presenter

Rakesh Kapoor, PhD, Director of Science & Technology, Bioriginal Food & Science Corp.

Rakesh is Bioriginal’s Director of Science & Technology. Rakesh has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy, a master’s degree in pharmacognosy, and a PhD in Physiology. He has more than 25 years of experience in new product, process and analytical developments, clinical and basic research, and technology evaluation. He has been with the company for 20 years and is responsible for new product/process development from concept to full scale production and translating science to simple messages. He has more than 15 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, several articles in trade journals, and has written 2 chapters in Bailey’s Industrial Oil & Fat Products.

Message Presenter