Consumer interest in personal health is at an all-time high. Mainstream media has made people aware of the benefits that nutrients such as fish oil, fiber and antioxidants can have on the body. This in turn has forced manufacturers to ramp up their formulation expertise to figure out how to make these ingredients a viable component of their products. And, including these ingredients also offers them an opportunity to better target their products to specific demographic groups based on age, gender and specific health conditions such as cardiovascular, cognitive or diabetic management, just to name a few. 
 
Many times, multiple ingredients need to work in tandem to deliver the desired health benefit. This means not just overcoming the challenges of single ingredients, but overcoming the issues of combining and processing multiple ingredients.
 
When working with multiple functional ingredients, the core challenge facing product developers is the complexity of the food matrix. A food product is comprised of many different ingredients that together form a complete, uniformly balanced physical and chemical nutritional system. Many of these ingredients are multifunctional, so removing or adding new functional food ingredients may disrupt the total balance of the product. Unless done properly, this inevitably will cause a product to fail with consumers. A primary solution to optimizing taste in healthful foods and functional beverage applications is selection of the appropriate ingredients that can modify or minimize unpleasant taste attributes that often occur when formulating these products.
 
Solutions for Taste Modification & Minimization
 
According to our Supervisor Senior Formulations Scientist, Cathy Arnold, there are several options in ingredient selection that can help product developers preserve good taste: flavoring, texturants, market form and encapsulation.
 
Flavoring
Selection of flavor ingredients not only offers consumers taste options but may also help mask undesirable flavor notes imparted by functional ingredients. Some flavors are more transparent than others, so manufacturers should consider matching stronger flavors with nutrient profiles that present stronger off-notes. Chocolate, for example, is a relatively stronger taste masker than vanilla.
 
Texturants
Texture has a direct impact on mouth-feel—those properties of finished foods, apprehended by the eyes and by the skin and muscle senses of the mouth, including the roughness, smoothness, graininess, etc. The overall textural experience is derived from the sensations of the skin in the mouth after ingestion of food or beverages. It relates to density, viscosity, surface tension and other physical properties of the material being selected or sampled.
 
Market Form
Choosing proper market forms is of critical importance when formulating for specific applications. For ready-to-drink beverage products, nutrients such as calcium, iron and copper would use a different market form than for powdered beverages. The same is true for other nutrients relating to solubility. When a nutrient has a high solubility level, it will ionize, altering the taste as a result of interactions.
 
Encapsulated Ingredients
Selection of the right kind of coating can preserve taste by limiting migration and preventing premature release of ingredients that can negatively affect taste and limit shelf-life.
 
Beyond ingredient selection, processing methods may also play a role in delivering flavor characteristics to please consumers.
 
The following examples illustrate current approaches to overcoming taste issues with functional ingredients.
 
Overcoming Taste Off-Notes When Formulating a Fish Oil Based Beverage
 
The Challenges:
Taste
Aroma
Stability
Solubility
Bioavailability
 
The Solution:
Minimizing Oxidation of Long Chain PUFA’s (Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are chains of 18, 20 or 22 carbon atoms with 2-6 double bonds in their composition). Due to these double bonds, these PUFA’s become rancid at room temperature. Thus, due to oxidation it will generate unpalatable peroxide, which results in objectionable odor and taste.
 
By Adding:
Antioxidants
Metal Chelates
Proteins
 
Modifying Process:
Split Stream Processing
Nitrogen Blanketing
Low Shear Mixing
Low Oxygen Homogenization
 
Off Flavors (Bad Taste)
 
By Adding:
Flavor Maskers
Flavor Modifiers
 
Modifying Process:
Encapsulation
Emulsification 
 
Solubility
 
Modifying Process:
Co-processing
Encapsulation
Emulsification
 
Overcoming Taste Off-Notes When Formulating Nutrition Bars
 
The Challenges:
Taste
Aroma
Stability
 
The Solution:
To ensure good taste and enhance the shelf-life of nutrition bars, selection of the proper market forms of ingredients that are encapsulated is a key step. Edible barriers and coatings are used to prevent migration of macro and micronutrients along with moisture and oxygen transfers. Preventing migration will virtually guarantee a high quality, acceptable product with extended shelf-life and sensory properties. These ingredients provide stability during storage and minimize interactions during processing. They also block bad-tasting derivatives, or byproducts that could negatively impact the taste of the finished product.
 
Utilizing a Premix
The incorporation of nutrient premixes in food fortification is an essential step that manufacturers will need to take if they are to stay competitive in today’s marketplace. Nutrient premixes offer numerous benefits to manufacturers. A significant benefit is that they streamline the production process, because a nutrient premix is a single source of multiple nutrients whose interactions have already been addressed. As a result, manufacturers save on labor, cost and testing and can bring their product to market faster. For more information or to reach our technical team, visit www.fortitech.com