Food ingredients provide unique coluor, textures, nutrients, functionalities and flavours to cooked or processed food products.
Food ingredients are added to enhance taste and flavour to the processed food items. Specialty food ingredients are used by food and beverage industry to enhance taste and flavour to the processed food. Specialty food ingredients are able to meet customers’ demands owing to their unique features including processing aids, colouring, preservation, emulsification and nutritional enhancement. Also, help in enhancing shelf-life, stability and texture of the food products. Specialty food ingredients are majorly sold to food processing industry including large food manufacturing companies as well as medium-sized companies.
On the basis of function of different food ingredients, global specialty food ingredients market can be bifurcated into colour, acidulants, food enzymes, flavour, food preservatives, food emulsifiers, starches and nutraceuticals.
Nutraceuticals
It has the largest market share for specialty food ingredients, and is expected to dominate the global market in forecasted period. Specialty food ingredients are majorly used by food processing industry. Other major applications of specialty food ingredients include bakery and confectionery, dairy, convenience food, meat and seafood products and functional food items.
The supply of specialty ingredients to the international food and drinks market presents varied opportunities and challenges. The global specialty food ingredients market has grown considerably in the last few years and is estimated to grow at a rapid pace in the near future. Factors such as growing consumer preferences towards health & taste and soaring consumption in emerging economies are helping the market grow. Increasing innovations in the industry are driving down the cost of production, incorporating additional benefits in the products, and launching new types of products. This acts as an important driver for the industry.
Almost everyone knows the basics—free radicals damage cell membranes and DNA through a process known as oxidative stress, which may lead to future health problems and the early onset of disease or ageing. The good news, of course, is that antioxidants “fight” these dangerous compounds and help preserve health and longevity. Average consumers are far more interested in wellness and health than they used to be, especially baby boomers. Boomers, who will be living longer and staying more active than generations before them, are already refusing to accept the natural signs of ageing. As a result, antioxidants are in huge demand across a broad range of demographics. The market is already packed with a variety of ingredients considered to have antioxidant capabilities. Researchers and ingredient suppliers continue to scour the globe, including rainforests and other remote locations, hoping to discover the next new group of antioxidants more powerful than the last. Right now consumers are especially interested in superfruits, both long-time standards such as cranberries and blueberries and less familiar, more exotic entries. “Superfruits such as acai, mangosteen, goji and pomegranate are flying off both brick-and-mortar and Internet shelves.
Two common ingredients
Nowadays in most of the food items, two main ingredients are commonly added, dietary fibre and antioxidants because of their much importance in enhancing human health. Dietary fibre as a class of compounds includes a mixture of plant carbohydrate polymers, both oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, e.g., cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectic substances, gums, resistant starch, inulin and so on. Dietary fibre imparts various and much important functional properties to foods, e.g., increase in water holding capacity, oil holding capacity, emulsification and/or gel formation. Indeed, we shall illustrate that dietary fibre incorporated into food products (bakery products, dairy, jams, meats, soups) can modify textural properties, avoid synaeresis, stabilise high fat food and emulsions, and improve shelf-life.
Oat bran, barley bran, and psyllium, mostly soluble fibre, have earned a healthy reputation for their ability to lower blood lipid levels. Wheat bran and other more insoluble fibres are typically linked to laxative properties. Antioxidant activity is a fundamental property important for life. Many of the biological functions, such as antimutagenity, anticarcinogenity and anti-ageing, among others, originate from this property. These naturally occurring minor components of foods are biologically active in the human system. Several classes of compounds that occur in plant foods may have antioxidant properties in the body which include vitamin E, vitamin C, carotenoids, flavonoids, and other phenolic compounds.
Over time, free radicals can lead to diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. In natural conditions, free radicals are produced in small quantities that can be dealt by the body, but external pollutants like pollution and smoking increase their number.
Antioxidants are substances found in body and food sources that can quench these free radicals and negate their effects. Different types of antioxidants include vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene, lycopene, selenium, phytochemicals (flavonoids, polyphenols, anthocyanins), lutein and so on.
Antioxidant-rich Indian food items that boost health
The positives of a daily diet of fruits and vegetables overshadow any possible risks of pesticide exposure. Fruits and vegetables are critical sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin A (vision), vitamin B complex (metabolism), vitamin C (antioxidant, metabolism), vitamin K (blood clotting), iron (oxygen-carrier in blood), calcium (metabolism, teeth, bones), potassium (bones), manganese (bones), magnesium (metabolism), phosphorus (metabolism, teeth, bones) and zinc (immunity). They are also an excellent source of fibre (digestion) and antioxidants (disease prevention). Natural antioxidants are potent remedies to control environment and lifestyle induced illness –cancer, ageing, heart, metabolic and brain disorder.
Vegetables
In the West, broccoli and kale are hailed as the super foods that fight diseases.
However, the Indian market supplies equally effective antioxidant choices in the form of spinach, lettuce, and cauliflower that are rich in antioxidants like lutein, quercetin, along with minerals and vitamins. Tuberous sweet potatoes or shakarkand, onion and garlic are other rich sources of antioxidants. Orange vegetables like carrots are rich in vitamin A and phytochemicals, and can be consumed raw, included as salad or eaten as main dish.
Fruits
Grapes, especially dark grapes, are loaded with antioxidants such as phytochemicals (flavonoids) like proanthocyanidin and anthocyanidin, along with selenium and vitamin C, helpful in protection against heart disease and cancer. Apple, another staple Indian fruit, is rich in vitamins and quercetin. Bananas are the easy-to-eat fruits packed with vitamin B6 and C, potassium and manganese, and can be enjoyed as it is, be sprinkled with chaat or blended into a smoothie.
Indian spices
An Indian meal is never complete without the inclusion of spices.
Good news is that many of them also provide antioxidant benefits. Turmeric, a common food flavouring and colouring agent, carries an ingredient called curcumin, which has proven to interfere with the development and spread of cancer. Other spices rich in antioxidants are ginger, cinnamon, mustard seeds, chilli and black pepper.
Tea
Apart from the taste, the antioxidant properties of tea leaves are a boon for tea lovers, who can enjoy a dose of anthocyanin and proanthocyanin, which help the body fight inflammation, and quercetin and catechins, with the latter blocking cell damage that could cause cancer. Green tea contains the catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), known to have strong antioxidant properties.
Beans and dals
Black beans, red beans, pinto beans, soya beans – this food group is packed with the goodness of flavonoids, folate, vitamins and minerals. Lentils like the mung bean is rich in vitamin B1 and magnesium.
The rising incidence of diabetes and obesity in both developed and developing countries is driving consumers and governments to focus more on healthier lifestyles and in turn, increasing demand for ingredients from food and beverage manufacturers in the health and wellness space. Consumer demand for more natural, 'cleaner label' products is increasing.
Rapid urbanisation in emerging markets and rising levels of disposable income continue to increase the penetration of packaged and convenience foods which in turn is supporting demand for speciality ingredients that provide added functionality such as extending shelf-life, stability and texture.
Against the backdrop of continuing tough macroeconomic conditions and a weaker consumer environment, particularly in Europe, coupled with high and volatile prices for certain raw materials, cost optimisation continues to be an important driver for food and beverage customers, looking at ways to reduce costs and provide more value-based alternatives for consumers.
