Special Report: Sugar and Sodium Reduction Top Priorities in Bakery Trends

05 Jun 2017 --- Bakery is a huge and ever changing food sector. From breakfast to convenience, snacks to sandwiches, the bakery business has been heavily influenced by some of the leading trends in the food industry. As consumers look towards healthier options for an improved lifestyle, the definition of healthy products can vary from market to market, specifically when it comes to bakery items. In one market, a healthier option might mean using wholemeal flour whereas in another, the presence of grains immediately provides the perception of a healthy product.

FoodIngredientsFirst takes a closer look at some of the health claims trending in the bakery sector.

Sugar Reduction for Sweet Baked Goods
In line with the overall healthy lifestyle trend, the food industry has seen an increase in low/no/added sugar claims in bakery, it is a growing topic and very high on the agenda for the bakery sector.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Anna-Lena Hamann, Strategic Marketing manager, Bakery EMEA, DuPont Nutrition & Health said: “Bread normally does not contain very high levels of sugar, but consumers’ increasing focus on health and consequently sugar levels also impacts the perception within the bread category.” 

“In particular the sweet baked goods are a category that offers opportunities for innovation; consumers are increasingly looking for ways to reduce sugar intake and hence consume healthier sweet baked goods.”

Sweet baked goods are becoming increasingly popular but the growing awareness of health and wellness means that consumers still want a sweet treat but without the guilt of added sugars. 

Abby Ceule, Senior Industry Director of Bakery for Corbion tells FoodIngredientsFirst that reducing sugar has been and continues to be a focus for bakery manufacturers. “With the trend of clean and simplified labels and the FDA announcing the new Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods last year, bakers have been trying to find ways to reduce added sugars in their products.” 

“Consumers expect a delicious, indulgent experience when consuming sweet baked goods. To help bakery manufacturers meet those expectations, Corbion’s industry-leading experts have recently launched a specially created emulsifier portfolio—SweetProTM—that protects the consistency, improves the handling and increases the storage stability of sweet baked goods.” 

Corbion is also launching a line of clean-label cake mixes to help bakers meet the demands for clean and simple products that still have an appealing taste.

Svenja Frank Head of Social Business & Communications at GoodMills Innovation said: “Throughout many of the first-world countries in the West, trends such as sugar, salt or fat reduction, as well as free from products, are increasingly common and ubiquitous. Sometimes, though, the underlying factor behind those trends can be very different, depending on the geography; for example, sugar reduction is huge in the UK at the moment.”

“Even when it comes to sweet treats or indulgent products, consumers are more frequently opting for healthier options,” she states. 

“We’re also seeing a rise in “back to basics” purchasing. There’s a growing desire amongst consumers to buy their baked goods from a small bakery where they know the baker and the provenance of the ingredients being used. Ideally, those ingredients would be natural and organic. However, in reality, that may not be the case. So, to address this, we’re introducing new ingredients that enable manufacturers to produce baked goods with an added health value, a clearly identified source of origin and an accompanying marketing strategy,” Frank explains. 

Ulrick & Short director Adrian Short also agrees that sugar reduction is a hot topic in the industry. “We have seen in the last 24 months significantly increased demand for sugar reduction in response to health campaigns and of course the sugar tax. We have worked extensively with many of our customers to ensure effective sugar replacement in a variety of baked goods and applications, from frostings to muffin batters. As media and government pressure intensifies, this is only likely to increase further.” 

He adds: “Consumers are always looking for products that will make their life easier. Another important aspect is health. Consumers are now demanding products with lower levels of sugar, fat and higher levels of protein, and fiber.”  

Clean Label & Gluten-Free
“In bakery, we observe that the health and convenience trend is here to stay and goes hand in hand with trends such as naturally nutritious, sugar reduced, gluten free, clean label, traditional/ artisanal and snacking,” explains Hamann from DuPont. 

The consumer demand for clear labels and free-from means that producers have to work hard to replace synthetic ingredients in their products. Ingredients that were hidden are now coming under more scrutiny. Germany and the UK specifically are both experiencing a rise in sales of gluten-free food products and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. 

The gluten-free market offers massive potential for food processors, now, German wheat starch innovator, KRÖNER-STÄRKE, these items can be produced from native wheat starches and organic wheat starches which have had the gluten content washed out. KRÖNER-STÄRKE’s sales director, Henrik de Vries revealed: “Organic gluten-free wheat starches are, in fact, a more cost-effective option than corn and other alternative starches, as their functionality and flavor is naturally much closer to that of the original ingredients.”

The German ingredients’ supplier has developed a range of functional gluten-free wheat starches, offering food processors the opportunity to maintain excellent baking properties, texture and flavor combined with good dough elasticity. In fact, in comparison with corn and tapioca, wheat starches offer much better baking properties and a superior taste.  Bread, pasta and other bakery products can be manufactured to replicate, to a high standard, their traditional equivalents. Even croissants and other puff pastry products, which need to be light and flaky, can be created by incorporating such starches.

According to Ceule from Corbion, millennial consumers are also setting the demands for more transparency and cleaner labels around the foods they purchase. “Consumers are paying more attention to what goes into the products they consume by looking at the labels and hoping to be able to make more educated purchase decisions around the foods they buy. While perceptions do vary across the consumer audiences, for most, clean label and transparency mean products with the fewest ingredients that aren’t harmful or overly processed.”

“So it’s key for bakery manufacturers to develop products that offer simpler, more transparent labels that consumers can easily understand and that still meet their expectations on taste, quality and freshness,” she adds.  

Sodium Reduction 
The latest edition of the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “Salt Assault” found widely varying amounts of sodium among brands of 100% whole wheat and white breads. For example, Whole Foods’ Organic 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread has an astounding two-and-a-half times as much sodium per 100 grams as Target’s Simply Balanced 100% Organic Whole Wheat Bread. According to CSPI, when it comes to sodium, eating one slice of the Whole Foods’ bread is like eating 22 potato chips. 

“It’s clear that many bakers can reduce sodium significantly,” said Jim O’Hara, CSPI’s Director of Health Promotion Policy. “The excessive amount of sodium in our food raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.  Meaningful reductions of sodium would save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars in medical costs every year.”

“The FDA needs to continue its efforts to reduce sodium in foods, and the new commissioner’s first task should be to issue final guidance for short-term sodium reduction targets for industry,” said O’Hara. “Doing so could save thousands of lives each year.”

Tom van Zeeburg, Business Development Manager OneGrain for Akzonobel recently spoke with FoodIngredientsFirst on the challenges involved for sodium reduction in baked breads: “Typically for the bread making process, taking out sodium makes the taste less prominent and it is also an important ingredient for having a robust baking process.”  

“The stickiness for the dough is very much related to the demand of salt,” he explains, “The more salt you take out the more critical the process gets. And that’s where Akzonobel can offer solutions to our customers who make bread and are able to reduce three percent of mineral salt, but have only 1.5 percent salt in the bread, so they are very compliant with legislation.”

“These solutions allow the products to still have the artisanal taste and also the artisanal process in which they can stick to when baking. So that’s really a win win situation for both the consumer and the producer,” he claims. 

Grain Inclusion 
Short from Ulrick and Short tells FoodIngredientsFirst that generally, in bakery, we find that the UK market either sets market trends, or is the most responsive to those coming from the US.  “As for the bakery sector specifically, along with an increasing demand for high in fiber and protein claims, we are seeing manufacturers attempting to achieve this through innovative and exciting new ways by using new crop bases that were previously not considered; most notably ancient grains,” he claims. This is partly in response to the growing gluten/allergen free trend forcing manufacturers to be creating in developing new products.

Frank from GoodMills Innovation discusses how the industry perceives grains in baking: “We’ve been watching the rising interest in ancient wheat varieties for some time and believe that that trend will continue in the same fashion. Industry is under pressure to make these original raw materials — which, for a long time, have been niche products — available in sufficient quantities and at the right price for the mass market.” 

As such, manufacturers and suppliers have committed themselves to making that happen. “At GoodMills Innovation, we’ve invested a lot of R&D time and effort to rediscover an ancient grain, extend our knowledge base about these ingredients and learn how we can use our comprehensive, cutting-edge technologies to process them,” she continues, “We’re very proud of the resulting product, which combines maximum compatibility with maximum indulgence.”

Hamann at DuPont also says: “High fiber content bread or rye based toast bread – are a good example of sustainability in baking as they are healthy and they allow for a larger part of the grain to be used.”

Need for Flavor – What’s Next?
Across the globe, when consumers buy bread, pastry, patisserie or chocolate, their decisions are driven by three key criteria: freshness, healthiness and taste.

According to Luc-Olivier Rahier, Group Conversation Manager at Puratos, consumers around the world want both innovation and classics when it comes to flavor. “That's where we see the popularity of hybrid bakery goods: new patisserie and bakery goods made from the combinations of well-known classics.” 

Ceule from Corbion explains: “In Asia, the trend of incorporating ethnic flavors and themes into bakery products has provided opportunities for bakery manufacturers to adapt their products to Asian tastes and cultural sentiments.” 

She speculates further: “In the US, savory baked goods, like pretzel breads, are becoming more on trend to deliver delicious and convenient foods that adapt to consumers’ busy lifestyles and the need for more on-the-go foods.”

Business Development Manager at Pecan Deluxe Candy, Jenny Baillie, notes that trends differ across the globe but they often do travel. “US trends often come over to the UK and vice versa. An example of that is American “retro” which is popular in the UK and red velvet and “birthday cake” flavors which has increased in popularity dramatically over the past few years.” 

The cake combining trend is also one that interests consumers, in particular, hybrids of bakery items such as brookies and cronuts. 

“Salted caramel is an enduring trend big across Europe, and European baking is currently a big influence and inspiration for UK products,” Baillie finalizes, “Maybe partly due to TV shows like The Great British Bake Off, and travel including the popularity of Christmas markets and the likes of items such as speculoos and amaretti biscuits.”

by Elizabeth Green