Consumer demand for natural, healthy and convenient products is the primary driver behind beverage development, according to the USA’s Beverage Industry’s New Product Development Survey for 2011. Survey results among the beverage manufacturing respondents show that consumer demands, changing tastes and the need to create excitement in a product line are driving new beverage product introductions with particular emphasis on health and wellness, profitability, all natural flavours and products, and gaining market share.
‘Natural and healthy are attributes that consumers must have,’ stated 38 per cent of respondents. On average, most respondents said they were keeping in line with this trend and using natural flavours and colours in 2011.
Sharon Bolel of Sharon Bolel Chemical Marketing (SBCM) indicates this trend is evident in South Africa too, with a growing number of consumers across the spectrum of income groups showing far more discrimination and discernment in their food and beverage product choices than in the past. ‘Consumers are reading labels and they want to understand what they read. They are looking for ways to bring health enhancing products into their homes – and natural products are often rightly perceived as the way to do that,’ comments Bolel.
This, she adds, has seen a move towards replacing synthetic flavours and colours in beverages and food products generally, with natural ingredients. ‘Often this means that the benefits extend to additional functionality for the product as well, as many of these natural ingredients also offer functional properties, such as vitamins, carbohydrates, and fibre.’
As the sole distributor for all-natural ingredients’ manufacturer Naturex’s products in South Africa, SBCM supplies a comprehensive range of Obipektin fruit and vegetable ingredients from Naturex that provide formulators with the means to add colour and flavour to beverages and food products – naturally.
The Obipektin ingredients range is sourced from more than 150 different pulp or juice raw materials and is available in granules, flakes and traditional powders to enable different textures, such as pulpy, juicy, or clear, while providing natural colours and flavours. ‘The real brilliance of this range is that it allows beverage and food product manufacturers to label their products as containing real fruit – even in a product such as an instant beverage powder.’
The Obipektin ingredients are available in a wide range of fruits, including citrus, berries, tropical, and orchard fruits, as well as an innovative range of exotic Amazonian fruits that include carambole, acai, lucuma, camu camu, araza, and acerola, and Asian fruits that include durian, mangosteen, tamarind, goji, and dragon fruit. Vegetable ingredients include carrot, tomato, celery, cabbage, mushroom, pumpkin and red beet; and a specialities range includes apple vinegar, honey, caramel, coconut, date, peppermint, and red/white wine. Several of the ingredients are also available as organic products.
The ingredients are manufactured according to four quality assurance standards to meet varying food manufacturing specifications. These are standard, organic, baby food, and baby food and organic. The stringent baby food quality product specifications are controlled by EU Directives. ‘These ingredients are so sophisticated that a baby food containing, say, an Obipektin blackcurrant powder, can claim to contain blackcurrant,’ adds Bolel.
Applications for these ingredients are wide and include beverages, baby food, confectionary, snacks, seasonings, soups, sauces, chocolate, and ice cream.
Bolel says, ‘Consumers are determined to improve their health and nutritional intake, and the modern generation of food ingredients, steeped in technological advancements, is helping them to gain the greatest benefits from the products they choose, while ensuring they can be classified as natural. It shows how committed the food and beverage manufacturing industry is to meet increasingly sophisticated consumer expectations.’
