Last lick for the X Factor

"There is overall growth because the processed food industry is here to stay. Hydrocolloids are growing at least as fast as GDP (gross domestic product) in most countries," says Seisun.

In recent years the market for all types of additives has enjoyed modest growth of 3-6%. According to Cargill Texturizing Solutions global marketing director Florian Bayerlein, stabilising and texturising solutions vary in this range from emulsifiers growing at about 5-6% to hydrocolloids at 3-4%. Across Europe, volume growth is led by consumers in central and eastern regions who are increasingly seeking convenience food.

However, this overall trend for gradual growth masks a more complex picture. Seisun values the global food market for hydrocolloids at about $3.9bn, with starch and gelatine combined accounting for 50% of that, followed by pectin, carrageenans and xanthan gum. But consumers have had a negative response to gelatine since the BSE crisis, leading many food manufacturers to look for substitutes.

"There is substitution of gelatine in the marketplace," agrees Bayerlein. "Nobody has a golden solution to replace gelatine in every product, but there is a range of solutions for different applications." Carrageenans are in contention, for instance, as are combinations of carrageenans with starch or pectin.

The fortunes of other product groups are also varying for many reasons - even the weather, according to Seisun. "The price of locust bean gum goes up and down depending on the Mediterranean weather. The cost can triple from one month to the next, so alternatives are sought," he says.

And for other ingredients, consumer appeal may even rest on something as trivial as a letter. "Xanthan starts with an x, so consumers think it's nasty," says professor Ian Norton, formerly chief scientist at Unilever and now specialising in soft solids at the University of Birmingham. "Chemical-sounding stuff is losing out. Things that will be growing are the natural products like pectins, alginates and carrageenans - although there are some issues surrounding carrageenans. But it takes a lot of expertise to perform a successful substitution."

For example, there's a definite trend towards using native starches in place of the modified variety. But Norton says this presents huge technical challenges. "It's one heck of a problem. If you process [native starch] the viscosity drops to zero, because the starch gets broken in the process. One solution is to 'hide' starch inside a guar solution so it doesn't 'see' the processing."

Positive labelling

The overall drive for clean labels is strongest in the UK, but it's having an effect right across Europe. "The demand for clean labels is definitely having an impact," says Seisun. "It makes manufacturers jump from one product to another but they can never get away from texturisers completely because texture is such an important characteristic of food."

Bayerlein cautions that supermarkets and food manufacturers should not overreact to what consumers say they want in terms of clean labels. "There's a difference between what consumers say and what they do in the marketplace. Not many people actually examine packets to look for all the ingredients in every product, so the industry needs to be careful."

On the other hand, everybody's got fibre on their mind and some of the hydrocolloids are benefiting from a positive labelling advantage by also falling under the umbrella title of dietary fibre. This group includes guar gum, gum arabic and pectin. "Guar gum and pectin have been in discussion for quite a while as playing a role as a prebiotic," says Bayerlein. "It's interesting for the future, but dietary benefits are not a reason to include these ingredients today. Functional properties are still the overriding reason for using a product."

Another shift in the market is the rise of more specialised ingredients. "Looking at the market for hydrocolloids and stabilisers, it's not growing much but it is changing so that a lot more of the specialist materials are growing quite well while commodities are not," says Norton. "The main driver is to make more convenient, healthier food and that requires specialist materials. You can't just throw potato starch at it.

"The future will be based on designing a function and creating a system to carry it out. Manufacturers will look at how to design a property and they'll have the ingredients from all the different suppliers on their shelves to choose from. They'll find a system that works, such as a pectin and alginate or pectin and starch, and then they'll look to see if they can source ingredients with the same function more cheaply. Suppliers hate it because their materials will be commoditised over time."

Diversification is an important factor in this drive for specialised structural functions, with manufacturers increasingly expected to provide a range of products with different characteristics to suit different target groups. "Looking back 20 years you had one yoghurt, but now you have 15," says Bayerlein. "This is creating challenges for manufacturers and that feeds back into the ingredients industry."

Texture in the tummy

Functional requirements could be even more complex in future, however. Norton says that engineers are increasingly looking at engineering the structure of food during digestion, as well as in the mouth. The aim might be to increase and prolong feelings of satiety, or to delay the breakdown of certain compounds until they can benefit the gut flora more effectively. "For example, we're working with an alginate that creates a self-assembling structure inside people," he says. "You can drink it but when it hits the acid in the stomach it gels."

Although a desire for health and wellness is undoubtedly the biggest consumer trend, another factor that is affecting the market is the tendency of consumers to exhibit a split personality when it comes to food. On the one hand they're health conscious and on the other they want to treat themselves. "The no fat/low fat craze is over," says Seisun. "Consumers now want reduced fat but taste and texture are more important."

Cargill's latest offering is a typical response. TexDesign is a carbohydrate-based fat replacement product that can reduce the fat content of baked goods by up to 50%. "It comes as a powder which the baker makes up into a cream. They then include it as a straight substitution for up to half the fat in a recipe. We're getting a great response so far," says Bayerlein.

This ease of substitution is crucial, and ingredient suppliers are working to make reformulation work as easy as possible for food manufacturers.

Tate & Lyle subsidiary Cesalpinia Foods supplies stabilising and texturising products, including the Frimulsion system. Technical director Elio Tironi says that he is increasingly looking to provide formulations that combine stabilisers with the other ingredients needed to make healthier-option products.

The aim of these formulations, which include ingredients such as sucralose or polydextrose along with the stabilisers, is to help manufacturers to respond more quickly to market demands. "We have been combining stabiliser systems with new product ideas," he says. "For example, Cesalpinia has already prepared stabilisers and sugar substitutes in one for a chocolate milk drink and for a chocolate mousse."

This is typical of today's commercial development work, which tends to focus on tweaking the existing portfolio of ingredients. "In my opinion there has been no breakthrough ingredient in the last 20 years," says Bayerlein. "Development work is about optimising formulations and exploiting synergies between existing ingredients."

Norton says he has been doing food research for 25 years and there have only been two new hydrocolloids in that time. "It's the same story with emulsifiers," he says. However, he believes that a growing interest in more natural products will see new ingredients coming through in the future. "A new group that people are getting really excited about are the hydrophobins, which are derived from mushrooms," he says. These natural emulsifiers coat the thin fibres that fungi use to spread through soil and other material.

"People will also stop refining hydrocolloids and emulsifiers," says Norton. "Plant cells will be used instead of refined products. If in a sunflower seed you have an oil emulsified with a natural emulsifier and you can get it out, why remove the oil and then have to add a separate emulsifier again?"

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