try for the greater part of its 73-year history, MGP continues to bring an expansive portfolio of specialty starches and proteins to the market. These ingredients are focused on providing solutions to help make customers’ products better by enhancing nutritional qualities, while also improving functionality and sensory appeal, such as taste and texture.The company’s newest ingredient innovation is a lightly hydrolyzed wheat protein named Optein™, which provides clinically-tested benefits that are especially ideal for nutritional drinks, smoothies, meal replacement bars and sports beverages. Applications are also as diverse as breads and other bakery products.
“Addressing increased demand for ingredients that aid in muscle recovery, Optein is one more example of MGP’s successful initiatives to create solutions for the health and wellness segment,” said Mike Lasater, vice president of ingredients sales and marketing. “To be responsive to our customers, we feel it is important to continually explore novel ideas for adding to MGP’s family of high quality ingredients that deliver nutritional benefits while also enhancing the taste and textural qualities of food and beverages,” he added.
According to Lasater, other prominent examples of how the company is “adding more goodness to food,” include Fibersym® RW resistant wheat starch, Midsol™ specialty starches, Arise® wheat protein isolates and TruTex® textured wheat proteins.
Fibersym delivers a simple and convenient solution to boost dietary fiber and lower caloric levels in a wide range of products without distorting taste, texture or appearance. Midsol offers superb choices for reducing sodium content while maximizing flavor in a variety of food applications, including soups, sauces, gravies and seasonings. Arise increases protein levels and can also deliver processing benefits and cost savings opportunities for a host of bakery formulations, as well as pasta and noodle products. The TruTex textured proteins possess a unique meat-like structure when hydrated, have minimal fat content and produce no unpleasant aftertaste, providing perfect matches for beef, poultry, pork and seafood enhancement applications, as well as vegetarian dishes.
Liming Cai, Ph.D., who joined MGP as applications scientist this past August, said, “It is both highly rewarding and gratifying to be in a position to help carry on the company’s legacy as an innovator and preeminent supplier of high quality wheat proteins and starches.” He further noted that he “is very excited about his role in working with food manufacturers by helping incorporate the company’s ingredients in their formulations and ultimately bring added value to consumers on multiple fronts.”
Dr. Cai, Lasater and their colleagues agree that advances in the food industry occur at an ever-accelerated rate. “MGP wants to be at the forefront of these advances through our work in starch and protein science,” Lasater said. “As a result, we remain solidly committed to providing ingredient solutions that aren’t only delicious and highly effective in a functional sense, but also promote the adoption of healthier lifestyles for today’s consumers.”
