Tate & Lyle cereal ingredients target health market

Breakfast Cereal ENRICH 701 and Breakfast Cereal ENRICH 702, which were unveiled recently at the American Association of Cereal Chemists 2005 Conference in Orlando, Florida, contain a combination of functional ingredients designed for use in multigrain or wholegrain expanded cereals.

According to the firm, both systems contain high amounts of oat fiber without sacrificing the radial or axial expansion, and crispiness of the product.

If used in the suggested formulations, the two ingredient systems provide 8 grams of whole grain per 30 gram of the finished cereal.

Tate & Lyle claims that formulations made with the 701 product meet the "good source of fiber" claim, while those made with 702 meet the"excellent source of fiber" claim.

Dietary fibre is receiving increased attention in the US after the nation's new Dietary Guidelines, which were published in January, recommend that adults consume between 25-30g of fibre a day.

And a recent study conducted on 116,671 women and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed how the higher diabetes risk associated with high Glycaemic Index was entirely eliminated by higher cereal fibre intake (at least 4.4g a day).

The US diet is notoriously low in fiber, and consumers are often put off of high-fiber products because they tend to think that it tastes bad.

But Tate & Lyle believes that its new ingredients range will enable food makers to get around this problem.

"Both of these new ingredient solution sets provide consumers with a great tasting, high fiber cereal, without the chalkiness sometimes associated with high fiber products," said Doris Dougherty, Tate & Lyle advanced technical specialist, research & development.

"By using our solution sets, we can help our customers deliver reduced sugar and high fiber products that offer light and crispy texture and taste great."

The company says that formulas made from both breakfast cereal ingredient solution sets contain 100 calories per 30 gram serving.

The ingredient systems contain sucralose to provide uniform sweetness distribution, as well as eliminate stickiness created during extrusion of sugar-containing formulas.

The launch comes on the back of the company's ambitious plans to build a new $100 million bio-based energy plant, underlining the company's forward-looking strategy.

DuPont and Tate & Lyle have formed a joint venture to build the plant, which will use corn to replace petrochemical-based products.

"We think the time for corn is now and that we are ideally placed to bring this new bio-based material to market," said Tate & Lyle chief executive Iain Ferguson.

"The corn fields of today will be the oilfields of the future and we believe that our joint venture, due on stream next calendar year, is well matched to meet the demands of the current climate."

The company claims that production of bio-propanediol (PDO) consumes 30 to 40 percent less energy than petroleum-based PDO (on a per pound basis).

Production of 100 million pounds of Bio-PDO in the Loudon plant will save the equivalent of 10 million gallons of gasoline per year.

External links to companies or organisations mentioned in thisstory: Tate & Lyle