Everyone in the ingredients industry may think they are familiar with most new industrial ingredient discoveries, but, as the world’s population grows and demand for nutrients increases, new macronutrient sources are rapidly coming into play.
As well as the need for sufficient nutrients, today’s consumers are constantly demanding new solutions that heighten their self-actualisation and improve their quality of life, through health preservation and wellness. These market drivers keep the ingredients industry on its toes, as discoveries of new ingredients to reach commercial scale remains at the top of boardroom agendas, and discovery methods are applied within most companies.
Stick with tradition
Traditional medicines and habits will continue to influence ingredient discoveries significantly. The reason is that remedies or nutrients consumed on a long-term and regular basis have become the main interest for nutritional and health experts.
The lasting nourishment of certain substances may well have major health-status influence. In Asian traditions, adaptogens from herbal medicines are investigated as part of a more holistic approach to health and wellness in long-term usage.
Many of the centuries-old traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, such as gingko biloba and ginseng, are well known to today’s consumers and ingredients industry. Thousands of herbs and their bioactives have been identified and scientifically investigated. Less-potent substances, which cannot be considered for pharmaceutical use, are often reassessed as potential bioactives for the food ingredients industry, provided that their intake safety has been verified.
One of the more popular traditional Chinese ingredients of recent years is the goji berry. Also known as the wolfberry, this humble fruit contains certain polysaccharides that are being offered as standardised ingredients.
Natto, a fermented soy food traditionally eaten in Japan, has recently given rise to many new ingredient businesses promoting derived vitamin K2 types, and the South American Stevia rebaudiana plant does not need any introduction to people in the ingredients industry. This successful herb is predicted to become mainstream business for the sweetener industry.
Ayurveda, India’s traditional medicine, has also provided well-established beneficial ingredients, such as turmeric and ginger, as well as herbs like neem, ashwagandha and gotu kola, which are becoming increasingly popular.
Moringa is the fastest-growing Indian herb in terms of nutritional sales. As a food plant, 100g of fresh moringa leaves provide 8.3g protein (15% of GDA), 434mg calcium (33%), 738μg vitamin A (82%) and 164mg vitamin C (182%) – a nutrient-dense botanical valued for millennia by ancient cultures as a great vegetable source.
New frontiers
Today, ethnobotanical endeavours take place the world over. No tribe or hamlet is left untouched in the journey to discover new ingredients for consumer products that may improve health and wellness, and support the businesses looking to fulfil the constant desires for new solutions.
There are many examples of ‘new’ traditional ingredients, such as the chuchuhuasi tree, which is found in the western Amazon rainforest. The bark, roots and leaves are employed for many purposes; the bark is traditionally used as a tonic and is prized locally as an aphrodisiac. The bioactives are now being identified and studied for its anti-inflammatory potential.
The maca from the Andes looks like a turnip, and is used as a flavouring in drinks and soups. As well as minerals and vitamins – it is particularly rich in vitamin B – it also has high levels of bioavailable calcium and magnesium.
Herbs that are traditionally used as stimulants have become a recent focus of the ingredients industry, as demand increases for ingredients that have energising and cognitive-enhancing properties, such as yohimbe from Africa or Long Jack from Malaysia.
Among Africa’s traditional food sources, companies are introducing the baobab to Western consumers, creatively marketing this fruit as a powerful superfood. Baobab offers many minerals, and contains more vitamin C than oranges and more iron than red meat. Another trend is the African mango from West Africa. As well as being a delicious fruit, it is a traditional Cameroonian bush medicine, the edible seeds of which are said to help prevent fat absorption and lower blood fat levels – a much-desired function of today’s consumers.
Coconut sugars are another traditional ‘discovery’; for example, in the Philippines, an industry is emerging for coconut palm sugar, a low-glycemic-index sweetener. This is part of a more industrial approach to coconut cultivation, as the sugar-rich juice can be harvested from the palm trees before they start setting nuts, thereby providing smallhold farmers with additional income options.
The old traditions of many cultures are now being rediscovered and reassessed in terms of globalised industrial food ingredient potential.
Keeping it green
The world’s biggest ingredients driver is the growing demand for nutrients, in particular protein. Protein consumption is an essential part of daily nutrition, and there is an increasing trend among Western consumers for protein-enriched products.
From the days when protein ingredients were either dairy or soy-protein concentrates, there are many varieties entering the market from raw materials, the most novel of which is high-protein insect powders or silk protein.
Protein from well-known vegetables or grains has expanded from soy to include peas, beans, rice and potatoes, as well as hemp, canola, cotton seed, peanuts and micro-algae. Most of these are by-products of oil or starch production, allowing the industry opportunities for ‘greening’ ongoing production by exploiting the highly valuable nutrients in processing waste – in the process adding another revenue stream to their businesses.
Similarly, meat and fish manufacturers with high quantities of by-products are gaining new revenue streams from collagens, elastins and hyaluronic acid – not just for cosmetics but also for skin and joint health.
In April this year, an Irish-Norwegian consortium decided to build one of the world’s largest marine-food ingredients plants in the south of Donegal, Ireland. This group is looking to extract proteins, oil and calcium from fish species traditionally used as fish meal. Another, ecologically interesting, trend is the conversion of traditional animal feed nutrients into food nutrients for people, thereby skipping the least-sustainable link in the eco chain.
Into extraction
The refinement of extraction methods is also leading to discoveries that enable the industry to supply cleaner and safer ingredient types; for example, well-established dairy and soy manufacturers are creating new fractions as alpha-lactalbumin or clear soy isolates via new extraction and specialised filtering techniques.
New techniques, such as supercritical water extraction, offer benefits over traditional extraction techniques: it is faster, produces higher yields and the safety profile of the ingredient is hugely improved compared with the traditional solvent used, which often renders the extract unsuitable for human consumption. Also, supercritical extraction using CO2 is seeing increasing implementation within the industry due to its environmentally friendly traits compared with conventional organic liquids such as ethylene, methane, nitrogen, xenon and fluorocarbons.
High-pressure processing is undergoing a renaissance and is the most hyped extraction technology at the moment. The procedure involves the use of ultrasound with frequencies ranging from 20 to 2,000kHz, increasing the permeability of cell walls and producing acoustic cavities or microbubbles in the extraction liquid. Once formed, these bubbles absorb the energy from sound waves, leading to higher recovery of targeted compounds with lower solvent consumption and/or higher probability of retaining bioactive properties.
This method is extensively used for the industrial extraction of proteins, sugars, polysaccharide-protein complexes and fatty acids, which until now have had high related process costs in terms of energy.
Under the sea
As the world faces increasing demands to feed its growing population, our vast ocean resources are considered one of the best options for nutrient discovery and exploitation. This focus goes far beyond fish oils, encompassing items such as spirulina (blue-green algae). These algae are easy to cultivate and represent a valuable source of nutrients – as well as their high protein content, they also contain gamma-linolenic acids, alpha-linolenic acids, linoleic acid, stearidonic acid, EPA, DHA and arachidonic acid, as well as vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, C, D and E, and a number of minerals. There are many suppliers of spirulina ingredients, and some offer standardisation of various nutrients.
From algae, there are some promising discoveries entering the market. The ongoing studies characterising and efficacy-testing the many novel bioactives found in algae are just the beginning; for example, discoveries of polysaccharide bioactive ingredients have recently been produced from brown seaweed. These algae are said to be beneficial for blood-sugar control.
The identified bioactives work by inhibiting enzymes such as alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase, thereby reducing peak glucose and insulin levels after consuming high-starch meals. Other brown algae ingredients contain marine polyphenols that, as well as inhibiting amylase, block lipase activity, and therefore may help decrease fat and carbohydrate absorption from our foods. A specific ingredient with the ability to prevent disease is the brown seaweed wakame, which contains a substance called fucoidan that has shown potential in strengthening immunity and preventing cancer.
But the most advanced discoveries from algae relate to the industrial use of red algae. These are rich in carotenoids due to their own need for high-intensity light protection in tidal waters. These carotenoids are pigments and are nature’s means of photo-protection and fighting free radicals. The role of astaxanthin, lutein and beta-carotene in UV protection and immunoenhancement functions has already created a well-established and rapidly growing market of product innovations as food supplements and beverages.
The quest for finding and substantiating the effects of marine bioactives for foods has just started, and the ingredients industry is riding on the coat-tails of the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to making discoveries for better health and nutrition in the future. Indeed, ingredient-related discoveries and related technologies are doing well and thriving in many ways as the need for more and better nutrients, and more-responsible sourcing and usage increases to match demand for improved health and wellness.
