New functional beverage ideas

Cargill juice can now deliver specialist flavour and product development expertise as well as enhanced expertise and understanding of how flavours and functional ingredients behave in compounds or in finished products.

Cargill Juice Beverage Applications has recently supported its drive towards development of value-added applications and customer-focused solutions for the beverage industry with significant growth of its team of flavour and product development experts, bringing a wealth of industry experience, ingredient expertise and product development know-how under one, virtual roof.

Beverage players working with the juice division will benefit not only from a strong supply chain where just-in-time delivery and quality of raw materials can be guaranteed - the business unit can now also deliver specialist flavour and product development expertise as well as enhanced expertise and understanding of how flavours and functional ingredients behave in compounds or in finished products.

Thanks to the expansion of its team, and the creation of beverage customer-focused networks within Cargill, Cargill Juice Beverage Applications is now able to create and even tailor-make a full range of applications and product solutions for drinks manufacturers worldwide, including functional drinks.

"Consumers today are better educated on health issues, ingredients and supplements, and they have much greater understanding of their own dietary requirements, " said Alexander Lichter, Business Development Manager of Cargill Juice Beverage Applications. 

"Our research shows they are prepared to pay a premium for food and drinks with added benefits, and we are therefore currently putting a lot of our product and flavour development focus into the development of great tasting beverages that have proven health benefits."

Eye health
Cargill Juice Beverage Applications is particularly excited about new developments using Lutein, an ingredient which has been proven to aid eye health but which has not yet been widely supported in beverage applications.  Lutein supplements are known to improve the natural filter system of the eye, and could therefore help improve the eye health of people who sit in front of a computer screen all day, or even skiers exposed to high UV levels.

Cargill Juice Beverage Applications is currently looking at ways of incorporating the ingredient - which has been used in nutritional supplements - into new beverage products. Fruits such as blueberries, which have high antioxidant levels that also have a beneficial role to play in eye health, are also being used for the development of new beverages with potential eye health benefits.

Heart health
Another example is developing beverage products to support heart health, which is set to be an exciting growth area for manufacturers.  Cargill Juice Beverage Applications already has developmental products in the pipeline with high magnesium and potassium content  - an example is the relatively unknown guanabana, which is not only a highly indulgent fruit with a great taste and texture but also has high potassium levels.   Because the fruit is white, it is easy to mix with other colours - it also has an exotic aura about it, which will appeal to consumers.

Cranberry
White cranberry is another innovative ingredient being used by Cargill Juice Beverage Applications to develop beverage products which can be linked to heart health - although red cranberries have long been regarded as supporting urinary tract and cardiovascular health, white cranberries provide equally good health benefits whilst being less 'tart' and more adaptable in the development of different coloured beverages.

Soy applications
Another example supporting heart health is Cargill Juice Beverage Applications' range of Soy drinks, using Prolisse(tm) - a soy protein isolate created by Cargill.  These soy drinks, being free of cholesterol and lactose, offer unique opportunities for the beverage and dairy industry as innovative and good tasting products with heart and general health benefits.
Sport and lifestyle

Cargill Juice Beverage Applications also offers products for functional drinks producers aiming at the health and fitness market.

"Evidence shows that consumers are increasingly looking for healthy, functional products with an active ingredient to achieve a specific lifestyle or physical or mental objective," said Lichter.

"Sport drinks continue to be a growing segment, embracing 'real' sport drinks developed for athletes and 'lifestyle' sport drinks with a strong sporting image for the armchair sports fan!  That's why we designed our range of 'Juice Fitness' products to re-energize a hard-working body through the delivery of vitamins and minerals; also from fruits."

Since the creation of the Juice Fitness range, there have been many additional concepts created within the organisation using innovative combinations of functional ingredients supporting the sport, fitness and lifestyle demands of consumers.

"We are always keen to stress to our development partners that natural fruit contains so much goodness in itself, and because we are a global supplier with access to the highest quality fruits available, we can help beverage manufacturers harness that goodness straight from a freshly-squeezed fruit with the highest possible nutritional value," continued Lichter.

Beauty boosts
Along with health and fitness, the benefits that fruit-based beverages can bring to a beauty or diet regime are becoming more widely known.  Cargill Juice Beverage Applications not only focuses on health and wellness drinks or convenience drinks such as a fruit juice based lunch replacements. It also focuses on refreshment with low fruit juice and water based beverages, developing beverages with indulgent yet healthy and low calorie taste experiences.

One of the more recent areas of beverage development, potentially supporting both the beauty and health markets, is the creation of drinks containing fruit and vegetables.  Cargill Juice Beverage Applications' product and flavour development specialists are currently looking at harnessing the health benefits of various vegetable products in drinks products, to help support this growing market.  

"Since the recent expansion of our services, we now have a comprehensive team of beverage application specialists who have helped many companies develop innovative refreshments in the functional food arena," summarised Lichter.

"Our goal is to bring our customers an array of beverage ingredient systems and solutions. We can create together functional beverages that will quench consumers' thirst for even healthier and tastier drinks in the future."

www.cargilljuice.com