Functional Foods & Beverages | July 2014 ww Formulating Functional Beverages By Rachel Adams, Assistant Editor Functional beverages inherently address two top concerns for consumers: nutrition and convenience. However, like any other food and beverage product, taste is a primary concern, and, when it comes to formulating functional beverages, maintaining the taste, texture, mouthfeel and overall quality consumers expect can be a challenge. Careful consideration of ingredients, processing rigors and the beverage’s intended health benefit to the consumer are important factors for successful product formulation. Elements of Design “Consumers are looking for beverages that help deliver a portion of nutrients required to keep up with the demands of active lifestyles,” said Tom Burrows, director, strategic marketing, soy proteins, ADM, Decatur, Illinois. “The ingredients that can be used in the functional beverage market segment are as diverse as the beverages themselves, which span everything from highly-concentrated shots of energy and vitamin/mineral blends to balanced meal replacements and refreshing drinks for sports recovery. The common theme through all these products is the delivery of additional benefits to consumers beyond simple hydration.” Determining what that benefit is—and how consumers will receive it—is the first, and possibly most important, consideration when designing a functional beverage. “I look at the benefit of the product depending on the market you are trying to reach,” said Angela Skubal, flavor application scientist/technical sales, Prinova Flavors, Carol Stream, Illinois. “There are different nutritional blends that each market would like to see.” She cited the use of stimulants and other ingredients in sports nutrition products, which help consumers get the most from their workouts. Common stimulants include caffeine, betaalanine, L-arginine, BCAAs and creatine, she said. “When designing the product, it all depends on the market you are trying to target.” The energy-drink sector is a prime example. Considered one of the fastest growing beverage categories, according to Nielsen, the category saw sales increase 40 percent from 2010 to 2012. In addition, Nielsen Homescan data shows that in the United States, energy-drink consumers may not be who you think. Busy moms, in fact, are more likely to use energy drinks than average—even more so than young, post-college adults and singles in their 20s and 30s. In response, companies like 5-hour Energy and Monster Energy launched women-friendly energy drinks. Monster’s beverage, “Zero Ultra,” features no sugar or calories, a sweeter flavor and packaging with feminine design elements. 5-hour Energy pumped up its selection with a pink lemonade offering, and contributed a portion of its sales to a breast cancer foundation. Both beverages witnessed immense success, prompting Monster to release another similar product with www.foodproductdesign.com Page 1 Functional Foods & Beverages | July 2014 plans for a third. Both companies developed an understanding of the intended consumer, and provided a beverage to fall in line with those needs, which is key to successful product development. “Manufacturers need to clearly identify which functional benefits are most demanded by consumers,” said Stefanie Ringo, technical services senior supervisor, Cargill, Minneapolis. “Consumer demand, taste and consumer messaging are critical when designing functional beverages.” The Taste Test Achieving good taste is one of the biggest challenges to overcome when creating a functional beverage. Many nutritional ingredients tend to contribute off-flavors, which may require the use of masking agents or other ingredients or processing methods to improve taste. “Missing the mark on taste is the biggest pitfall,” Ringo said. “Many wellness ingredients, ranging from vitamins to herbals to omega-3 oils, can contribute off-flavors to beverages.” To improve taste in functional beverages, Ringo suggests using formulation technology to overcome taste issues. Encapsulation—which can protect sensitive ingredients from degradation during processing or shelf life—can also block off-flavors, she said. Ingredients like sweeteners, acids and flavor modifiers can also be used to improve taste of functional beverages. Different types of acids can improve the overall flavor of a fortified beverage by creating a diverse experience due to each acid’s unique flavor and acidity profile. Acids, such as citric, malic, lactic, phosphoric and tartaric, can be used independently or in combinations to help modify the flavor of beverages and mask unpleasant notes contributed from fortification. Flavor modifiers, including bitter masks and taste modifiers, can also help combat off-notes. Talin (thaumatin) is one example. Salt (sodium chloride) is another, and has been used to enhance flavors in beverages, along with other salts, like sodium citrate, which is a useful option to minimize bitterness contributed by stevia. Caffeine is one example of a functional ingredient that affects the flavor of a beverage. According to Skubal, “it adds an undesirable bitter note to the beverage, but this can be easily covered up with a bitter masker.” Taste can be an even bigger challenge when formulating natural functional beverages, as “natural” high-intensity sweeteners—like stevia, monk fruit or polyols like xylitol—can lend off-notes, like bitter or licorice aftertastes. “Using stevia or other natural sweeteners can even add to the undesirable off- notes that the base is contributing,” Skubal said. “Finding the balance between taste and functionality can be a struggle.” In some cases, product designers can weigh the benefits to consumers of nutritional ingredients against the off-flavors they provide. “If the benefit outweighs the negative taste the ingredient brings, then this ingredient would be used,” Skubal said. Fish oil is one such ingredient, she said. Fish oil is a www.foodproductdesign.com Page 2 Functional Foods & Beverages | July 2014 popular functional ingredient used to promote a healthy heart, along with other things, but, in some cases, lends an undesirable taste that can be difficult to mask. “If people realize that its benefit on the body outweighs the bad taste, they will make that compromise and consume the product.” Smooth Moves Texture, mouthfeel, viscosity and suspension can all be important considerations when designing a functional beverage. Proper use of gums and starches can aid in providing desired sensory attributes when adding nutritional components to beverage products. “[Gums] control viscosity and provide a creamy texture that may be lost when adding a high amount of proteins,” said Janae Kuc, research & development manager, Gum Technology, a business unit of Penford Food Ingredients, Tucson, Arizona. “They will also aid in suspending particles and provide a homogenous solution.” Texture and suspension are two barriers common in functional beverages. “When the formulator is adding in a large amount of protein or insoluble particulates, these additives tend to settle to the bottom of the beverage, rendering it unappealing. The high amount of protein may also impart a grainy texture,” Kuc said. “Adding gums to improve suspension, as well as impart creamy, smooth mouthfeel, can help correct this issue.” In functional beverages, “Starches can function as a source of carbohydrate, and in the case of resistant starches, sources of dietary fiber,” said Ibrahim Abbas, Ph.D., senior research & development manager, Penford Food Ingredients, Centennial, Colorado. “Some starches can provide emulsification characteristics and also can impact mouthfeel by altering viscosity.” For example, in beverages that use flavor oils, such as orange oil or lemon oil, the flavor oils “require an ingredient to emulsify them with the water phase. Emulsifying starches can provide the emulsification characteristics needed to keep the oil and the water from separating,” Abbas said. To improve mouthfeel in finished beverage products, product designers can use low-viscosity starches, Abbas said. In dairy products, such as drinkable yogurt, starches can add some viscosity into the product. When designing a functional beverage, product designers should consider the functionality of the gum, such as thickening, suspension, creamy texture,desired rheology or flow characteristics,and desired clarity or opacity, Kuc said. Processing will also affect gum selection; hydration rates, temperature and pH are key considerations. “For low-pH systems [those with pH of 4 or lower], pectin, xanthan gum and soy fiber function very well,” Kuc said. “A combination of fenugreek gum, konjac and xanthan gum will aid in producing a creamy texture and provide suspension and quick hydration rates for an instant protein beverage.” Plant-Based Nutrition Vitamin D is an important nutrient many consumers don’t get enough of; in fact, almost 50 percent of www.foodproductdesign.com Page 3 Functional Foods & Beverages | July 2014 Americans are deficient in vitamin D, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has deemed vitamin D a “shortfall” nutrient in the American diet. Vitamin D can be added to a variety of functional beverages—such as juice or milk—to enhance nutrition. PLT Health Solutions, Morristown, New Jersey, offers a highly concentrated vitamin D ingredient that can be added to nearly any beverage. The powder ingredient is derived from mushrooms, and delivers 40,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per gram. According to Barbara Davis,