The company states that food manufacturers can easily achieve "good" to "excellent" dietary fiber source claims in many applications, such as bars, cereal, confections, snacks, and yogurt.
"Consumers are increasingly aware that they need more fiber, but it can be difficult to find fiber-rich foods that taste good and have an appealing texture," said Jon Wiersum, snacks and cereal category manager, Cargill. "In addition, food manufacturers can find it challenging to incorporate higher levels of fiber into products without compromising taste.
"With the Fiber Krunch crisp, manufacturers can readily achieve easy formulation and fiber claims in many applications," he said.
The extruded crisp, reported to contain 35 percent dietary fiber, was introduced as ready for commercial sale at the Chicago Section Institute of Food Technologists event last week.
"Adding the Fiber Krunch crisp to Cargill's portfolio of health-promoting solutions gives our customers a unique combination of benefits: crispy texture, stays crispy longer, great taste, 35 percent dietary fiber, 2.6 kcals/g and easy formulation in many applications to meet consumer needs," said Peter Nielsen, starch product line manager, Cargill.
The crisp is said to resemble crisped rice, with a neutral color and taste that, according to Cargill, "provides versatility for easy and invisible fiber fortification". It is currently only available in one size, but the company anticipates additional sizes to be forthcoming next year.
A statement by the company said that the ingredients of the system, food starch-modified and chicory fiber are safe: food starch-modified is an approved food additive and chicory fiber is GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe), said the company.
Cargill Texturizing Solutions is a leading supplier of texturizers and emulsifiers to the global food and beverage industry. Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services with 149,000 employees in 63 countries.