Taura: The Next Generation of Fruit is Functional
13 Nov 2013 --- Taura Natural Ingredients is launching a range of next-generation URC fruit concepts combining the goodness and flavour of real fruit with the health benefits of functional ingredients.
There are three variants in Taura’s new functional fruit line-up, which is set to be unveiled at the forthcoming Food Ingredients Europe 2013 exhibition:
- URC Fruit & Protein – fruit enriched with milk and pea proteins
- URC Fruit & Energy – fruit with natural caffeine from green coffee, plus guarana
- URC Fruit & Fibre – with natural fibre from fruit and healthy grains
Each concept has been developed to provide both natural health benefits and great taste. Functional URC fruit is suitable for creating delicious and nutritious bagged snacks and snack bars, and is available in different shapes and sizes for inclusion in applications such as chocolate, baked goods and breakfast cereals.
Snack products developed using Taura’s functional URC fruit can be clearly differentiated from the many existing grain-based products on the market because they are made using the goodness of real fruit and contain no fat and no added sugar.
Protein – a nutrient that is rapidly growing in popularity all over the world – is often incorporated into conventional grain--based snack bars, but can just as easily be added to fruit snacks, enabling companies to create a new, more natural segment in the protein category.
Taura CEO Peter Dehasque said: “Energy, protein and fibre are among the key trends in the nutrition category at the moment, but delivering the benefits of these to consumers is always a challenge. Taura’s URC fruit is the perfect carrier for these ingredients, as it enables food companies to create next-generation products that provide functional benefits in a way that is natural, convenient and pleasurable – ticking all the boxes in terms of what consumers are looking for.”
Taura will exhibit on Stand 8A71 at FIE, which takes place in Frankfurt from 19-21 November 2013. Also new at the show will be a range of Texture concepts – part of Taura’s URC Inclusions range – which blend URC fruit with a variety of other ingredients to achieve new and exciting tastes and textures:
- Crocoa chocolate-flavoured URC fruit
- URC strawberry pieces containing strawberry seeds
- URC fruit combined with biscuit pieces
- Cracbran URC fruit with added fibre
- URC fruit with ancient grains such as quinoa and chia
- URC fruit with pepper-seasoned crispies
In addition, Taura will exhibit new flavour innovations, including URC peanut pieces free of peanut allergens, alongside cola-flavoured and blackcurrant & echinacea pieces.
Peter Dehasque added: “Taura understands that our customers need to keep innovating to ensure shoppers are consistently surprised and excited by the products they see in--store. This is why we place so much emphasis on investing in a constant stream of new product development, with the focus on concepts that are original and delicious, and tap into key consumer demands for great taste, naturalness, wellness and convenience.”
URC (Ultra Rapid Concentration) is a unique process of concentrating the taste, texture and natural goodness of fruit into pieces, flakes and pastes for use in applications such as chocolate, baked goods, confectionery and snack bars.
