Fiberstar Grants Three Awards For Outstanding Innovation In Bakery And Noodle Applications At Citri-Fi Seminar

 

The seminar featured thirty presentations that focused on Citri-Fi’s ability to improve food quality, nutrition, label declarations and affordability. Each presentation covered a commercially successful application of Citri-Fi products from the speaker’s home country and concluded with a cooking demonstration. Presentations spanned all sectors of the food industry including baked goods, dairy products, meat products, sauces and other prepared foods.

 

Citri-Fi is a natural, fiber based, functional food ingredient derived from orange pulp. Citri-Fi is used in foods for moisture management, partial oil, fat, egg and meat replacement, and emulsion stabilization and thickening.

 

The three day event was highlighted by the announcement of the 2012 Citri-Fi Innovation Award winners. The global network of food technologists working with Citri-Fi were invited to submit applications to this year’s competition. To qualify, an application had to demonstrate a new and unique use of Citri-Fi that has been successfully applied in a commercial food product. The winning applications use Citri-Fi to address current industry challenges for which solutions are being sought.

 

A panel of judges, comprised of food-trade publication editors, was invited to the seminar to review the applications and select the winners. The applications were judged on their inventiveness and the scale of the potential market impact. Judges also considered the quality of the research and data supporting the project and the clarity of the presentation materials.

 

A prize of $6,250 was awarded to third-place winner Ms. Annekathrin Segger of IMCD Deutschland GmbH (Germany). Ms. Segger was able to demonstrate how Citri-Fi can be used to replace guar gum in a German bread roll. In this application, Citri-Fi is able to reduce costs while providing the same excellent product texture and functional benefits as guar gum. Citri-Fi improves the quality and freshness of the bread product by tightly binding moisture through freezing, baking and shelf life. Replacing guar gum with Citri-Fi also improves the label declaration of the product; consumers are happy to see ‘fiber’ on the label compared to guar gum. Guar gum replacement has become an important objective in the food industry as prices have experienced dramatic fluctuations and increases over the past two years. Ms. Segger has proven Citri-Fi can effectively reduce or stabilize these costs in baked goods.

 

A prize of $12,500 was awarded to second-place winner Mr. Hermawan Widartha of P.T. Grand Kemindo Pratama (Indonesia). Mr. Widartha added Citri-Fi to instant noodles to improve eating qualities and yield while reducing ingredient costs by 1.5%. Additional cost savings and nutritional improvements are achieved when the noodles are fried. Noodles with Citri-Fi absorb 20% less oil during cooking compared to control. Yield and product quality are improved because instant noodles with Citri-Fi are larger, more elastic before cooking, and less likely to break after frying.

 

A grand prize of $25,000 was awarded to first-place winner Mr. Joao Marcelo M. Teles of Hela Ingredientes (Brazil). Mr. Marcelo used Citri-Fi as the key ingredient in a reduced fat cake snack for children. The total caloric content of the product is reduced by 33% when Citri-Fi and extra water are used to partially replace formula fat. Citri-Fi’s water holding properties help double the shelf life of the product by preventing moisture migration and staling. The addition of Citri-Fi made this product the first to meet the strict children’s nutritional requirements of the global bakery manufacturing the product.