Roquette Scoops FiE Innovation Award for Novel Microalgae Ingredient

20 Nov 2013 --- Roquette's microalgae High Lipid Algal Flour has been awarded as the most innovative overall ingredient of the year at this year’s Food Ingredients Europe Excellence Awards. It was the first time that the French starch company had entered an ingredient into this competition. The Award was accepted by Valerie Le Bihan, Global Microalgae Product Manager (pictured right) after the company had earlier won the Bakery Innovation category.

“This is fantastic news for the teamwork involved and demonstrates the high potential of microalgae products,” Emily Lauwaert at the company told FoodIngredientsFirst. “This success truly helps to open the door for this ingredient which has outstanding textural and functional properties. The bakery success is just the beginning and we are exploring other formulation possibilities, including sauces and eventually all applications, including dairy and confectionery,” she added. Roquette are currently looking to exploit the properties of High Lipid Algal Flour in sauces and dressings. The first recipes are very promising (e.g.: butter-free and egg-free hollandaise sauce has recently been developed with more than 70% total fat reduction). The company will start producing 5,000 metric tons of the ingredient per year at their Lestrem (France) headquarters site in 2014.

High Lipid Algal Flour is a new renewable whole food ingredient. Multi-component and hence multi-functional, this innovation is promoted as an astonishing alternative to fat/oil and eggs. The result is baked goods with less fat and even little or no egg, with an optimized lipid profile, yet with outstanding sensorial and functional features.

“Many baked goods are high in fat and calories – consumer taste expectations demand it. The challenge is to meet those traditional expectations without the traditional fat and calories. Roquette’s microalgae High Lipid Algal Flour offers an astonishing new answer. Naturally rich in healthy lipids, it’s a renewable whole-food ingredient containing protein, carbohydrate (polysaccharides, including fiber and simple sugars), and emulsifiers – a multi-nutrient flour to help revolutionize baking formulation. Now baked goods can be made with less fat and/or less egg or yolk (or none at all) yet with outstanding taste, sensorial, functional and consumer-friendly features,” says Lauwaert.

The full list of Fi Excellence Awards 2013 individual category winning products appear below:

Bakery Innovation

• Roquette – Microalgae High Lipid Algal Flour

Roquette's microalgae High Lipid Algal Flour is a new renewable whole-food ingredient. Multi-component and hence multi-functional, this innovation is an astonishing alternative to fat/oil and eggs. The result is baked goods with less fat and even little or no egg, with an optimized lipid profile, yet with outstanding sensorial and functional features.

Savory/Meat Innovation

• DSM Food Specialities – MaxiPro HSP

Maxipro HSP is a unique proteolytic enzyme, or protease, which enables the isolation of valuable protein from animal side streams. In contrast to generally used broad spectrum proteases, Maxipro HSP is able to mildly and selectively hydrolyze protein in side streams due to its high selectivity for the amino acid histidine. As a result of this selectivity, Maxipro HSP can be used to isolate proteins without destroying their sensory or functional properties. Indeed, application tests using protein isolated with Maxipro HSP have demonstrated excellent flavor, gelation and water-binding properties in a variety of processed meats, such as cooked ham.

Dairy Innovation

• Chr. Hansen – SaltLite

SaltLite is a natural, cross-functional solution comprised of both bacterial cultures and enzymes which allows sodium reduction of up to 50% in cheese. DVS adjunct cultures which produce specific organic acids have been selected to enhance flavor while the coagulant CHY-MAX M has been selected to reduce bitterness and improve texture. Together, these components allow for the production of consistent, high-quality reduced-salt cheese equally as desirable to consumers as regular-salt products.

Snacks/On-The-Go Innovation

• Novozymes A/S – Acrylaway HighT

Novozymes Acrylaway HighT has been proven to substantially reduce the formation of acrylamide by at least 50% in a broad range of breakfast cereal products. The asparaginase Novozymes Acrylaway HighT was launched in 2013 to help reduce the formation of acrylamide in food products such as breakfast cereals that are typically manufactured at high temperature. In the case of breakfast cereals, Acrylaway HighT is simply added during ingredient mixing and is most active during the cooking or pre-conditioning step.

Beverage Innovation

• Tate & Lyle – PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre

Tate & Lyle was crowned the winner of the Beverage Innovation of the Year for its innovative PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre. Tate & Lyle showcased the award winning ingredient in the form of a Raspberry Lime Tea drink, demonstrating that sugar and calorie reduction is achievable while maintaining body and taste through the addition of fibre. The prototype was developed by replacing sugar with Tate & Lyle’s, no-calorie, TASTEVA Stevia Sweetener to provide the clean sweetness and fresh taste from a natural source adding PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre to maintain the right mouth feel and increase fibre content. Tate & Lyle’s PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre provides transparent bulking and fibre fortification as it is highly soluble and has very little colour or taste making it easy to incorporate in a wide range of products. In 2012, PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre also won the IFT Industrial Technology Achievement award, honoring outstanding development and significant advance in the application of food science and technology to food production.

Confectionery Innovation

• IOI-Loders Croklaan – CristalGreen

CristalGreen is a new generation, high speed crystallization starter that does not require hydrogenation. The technology in CristalGreen enables our customers to produce chocolate confectionery and chocolate spreads at higher production outputs and longer shelf lives, while offering the consumer a product without hydrogenated fats on the label. As Loders Croklaan we deliver on ideas.

Sustainability Initiative

• Symrise AG – Simply Vanilla

Symrise is one of the world’s largest buyers of vanilla. It purchases, ferments, and extracts vanilla in Madagascar, making it the only fully integrated flavor house to retain a significant part of the value chain in the country. Symrise has set itself the objective to source 100% of its vanilla responsibly. Through a comprehensive array of activities at the farm and community levels, Symrise’s commitment contributes to the protection of the Malagasy eco-system. This ground work is leading to a step-change in the economic and social framework for vanilla farmers. Symrise employees are passionate about their work on the island. They live and work on Madagascar – in direct cooperation with more than 5,000 local smallholder farmers, and this number continues to rise. The result: authentic vanilla flavors and shared value for customer brands around the world.

by Robin Wyers