Taura Natural Ingredients has launched an innovative range of ingredients that combines – for the first time – ancient grains and Ultra Rapid Concentrated fruit and vegetables.
The new range, which is called URC Inclusions, will allow manufacturers to fill a gap in the market by creating products that contain customised blends of ancient grains such as quinoa, amaranth and chia with 100 per cent pure concentrated fruit and vegetables for applications in the snack, bakery, breakfast cereal and confectionery categories.
Ancient grains are rapidly gaining a very positive reputation among consumers for their great taste and superior nutritional content. The number of new product launches incorporating them is rising fast. Data from Mintel's Global New Product Database (GNPD) shows that there were 241 new product launches in Europe containing ancient grains in 2010, a significant increase over the 200 launched in 2009 and the 169 introduced in 2008.
However, intriguingly, the GNPD has also picked up that there have been no European launches of products that combine both ancient grains and 100 per cent fruit or vegetable ingredients. This indicates that Taura's URC Inclusions range constitutes a genuinely pioneering and unique ingredients concept.
Mattias van Uffelen, head of European sales at Taura, said: 'These Mintel figures clearly illustrate the growing popularity of ancient grains as food ingredients among European consumers. And now, our new URC Inclusions range will allow manufacturers of snacks, baked goods, breakfast cereals and confectionery to do something that's never been done before – combine them with fruit and vegetables.
'Ancient grains are set to be one of the top food industry trends for 2012. Now, thanks to URC Inclusions, we can offer companies a great way to benefit from this by creating innovative products that not only look and taste superb, but also tap into consumer demand for healthy and delicious products. There's no end to the fantastic combinations possible with this new range.'
URC Inclusions was unveiled for the first time at Food Ingredients Europe. The range presents manufacturers with a huge variety of potential combinations, all offering fantastic flavours, textures and striking visual contrasts.
As well as ancient grains, URC Inclusions can incorporate crisped rice and cereals to create a novel crispy-crunch texture, and sweet treats such as chocolate for more indulgent product concepts. In addition, the URC Inclusions range is a perfect carrier for functional ingredients, such as probiotics and prebiotics.
