Barry Callebaut Strengthens Offering of Healthier Confectionery Alternatives

Barry Callebaut has succeeded in achieving a global reduction in saturated fat content across the board and now offers innovative products with significantly reduced saturated fat content, without compromising on technical functionality or taste.

3/25/2011 --- Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, continues to respond to the call for healthier alternatives in the confectionery segment. Following increased consumer demand for products that are lower in saturated fats and in anticipation of new European measures, Barry Callebaut now offers a wide range of filling and coating applications with significantly lower saturated fat content.

Over the past few years, Barry Callebaut has been taking major steps to dramatically reduce the use of hardened (hydrogenated) fats in its confectionery fillings and coatings while still maintaining the high standards of taste and quality for which the company is renowned. To put this reduction in perspective, the hydrogenated fat content of Barry Callebaut products has been reduced from 47% to 20% in just 8 years. Barry Callebaut has also drastically reduced the trans-fatty-acid content of all vegetable oils in use since 2002 (from 6.1% to 1.3%). As a result, practically all trans-fatty-acids have been eliminated from the vast majority of its products.

As a result of these measures, Barry Callebaut is now able to offer an extensive portfolio of products that are low in both saturated fats and trans-fatty acids. Examples include Barry Callebaut’s Tintoretto fillings for confectionery products with significantly reduced saturated fat content and without hydrogenated fats. Other examples include several bakery fillings with saturated fat levels below 10% and the bakestable barquette and pancake fillings range with less than 5% saturated fat.

A significant reduction in saturated fat

In addition to the above specific products, Barry Callebaut has succeeded in achieving a global reduction in saturated fat content across the board and now offers innovative products with significantly reduced saturated fat content, without compromising on technical functionality or taste, such as:

* Confectionery fillings: SAFA reductions of up to 60%
* Bakery fillings: 80% of all fillings are now low SAFA
* Ice coatings: several alternatives with up to 50% less SAFA without affecting quality (taste, texture, cooling time, etc.)
* Biscuit and confectionery coatings: up to 35% reduction in SAFA possible

Hans Vriens, Chief Innovation Officer of Barry Callebaut: “Developing healthier alternatives for standard confectionery products is part of our innovation strategy. That is why we consistently work to reduce saturated and hydrogenated fat usage and try to eliminate trans-fats altogether. This is because we know that more and more confectionery consumers around the world are calling for precisely these kinds of developments. As a result, Barry Callebaut is ready for the future and can provide “healthier alternative” solutions for a wide variety of applications, not only for the confectionery and biscuit industry, but also for ice-cream and bakery applications.”