Nature-based ingredients and functionality drive clean label emulsifier innovation

21 Aug 2024 --- Chemical emulsifiers have been scrutinized for years as consumers become more conscious about what they eat, where it comes from and how it is made. This demand is driving innovation for natural, plant-based emulsifiers with clean labels as brands and manufacturers formulate F&B products with the correct functionality (centering on helping water and oil to blend as well as boosting texture) while still appealing to today’s mindful consumer base.

Against a background of food inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, consumers are more than ever looking for longer-lasting food that represents good value for money but doesn’t compromise on being clean label.

Food Ingredients First examines the latest innovation, trends and market dynamics in the emulsifiers sector, which, like many other categories in the F&B industry, centers around healthier, functional and clean label ingredients.

Stability and shelf life 

Emulsifiers are surface-active ingredients that allow stable emulsion formation, they can help with texture, and, crucially, extend shelf life. 

Emulsifiers have witnessed a growing demand in F&B launches in recent years. Innova Market Insights data indicates that the global use of emulsifiers in food and beverage launches grew by 4% from July 2019 to June 2024. 

The Bakery category led with 22% of these launches, followed by Confectionery (21%), Dairy (9%), Desserts & Ice Cream (7%), Ready Meals & Side Dishes (6%) and Others (25%).

The data also indicated that soy lecithin was the top emulsifier, used in 25% of products, followed by mono- and diglycerides (17%), lecithin (14%), sodium citrate (11%) and pectin (11%). Meanwhile, 48% of launches with emulsifiers were also packed in sustainable packaging.

Highlighting lecithin solutions

Cargill’s portfolio of lecithins offers high-quality solutions that are label-friendly, plant-based and have “broad functionality,” i.e., good emulsifying and stabilizing properties across various applications.

Sternchemie’s hydrolyzed sunflower lecithin powder, SternPur S DH 50, offers several advantages in functionality and labeling.Cargill says its plant-derived, versatile, label-friendly emulsifier “helps to create and stabilize emulsions, both oil in water and water in oil while helping to improve texture, mouthfeel and viscosity in a range of applications.”

In baked goods, it helps to improve the machinability, the dough release and moisture retention, while in dairy alternatives, it enhances the mouthfeel. In chocolate applications, it helps to adjust the viscosity and reduces the use of cocoa butter. “It can serve as a release agent, as a replacement to synthetic emulsifiers, and disperses fat and water-binding ingredients in instant applications…It also provides anti-oxidation for enhanced shelf life,” says the company.

Another lecithin producer is Sternchemie, a manufacturer in Hamburg, Germany. Its product range includes lecithins from IP soy, rapeseed, and sunflower and organic lecithins from soy and sunflower. The company’s hydrolyzed sunflower lecithin powder, SternPur S DH 50, offers several advantages in functionality and labeling.

In vegan cooking cream and coffee creamer, SternPur S DH 50 forms heat-stable complexes with plant proteins that protect against denaturation in the production process as well as in the final application. “Additionally, it functions as an emulsifier for fat distribution. This is suitable for all products with a fat content of up to 30%,” the company says. 

It has similar high functionality in barista oat milk. “SternPur S DH 50 functions as an emulsifier for fat and air distribution, benefiting taste and texture. It gives your products a thick and fine foam structure, similar to cow milk. Due to the pH-stability of SternPur S DH 50, flocculation of milk in your coffee is prevented.”

Nature-derived emulsifiers

Another key player in the emulsifiers space is Alland & Robert. The company leverages acacia gum which is used across several applications as a clean label emulsifier. 

For instance, acacia gum works in confectionery products as a film former, emulsifier, sugar crystallization management, and bulking agent. In beverages, acacia gums stabilize emulsions, suspend solids and add dietary fiber.

Meanwhile, ADM is hailed as the first company in the US to make commercial soy lecithin decades ago. Today, its portfolio of emulsifiers is used across a wide range of applications, including dairy desserts, yogurt, sauces, soups and prepared meals, baked products, cakes, pastries, cookies and biscuits.

“We have a diverse plant-based portfolio of label-friendly plant-based emulsifier options — such as our soy, canola, sunflower and without GMO labeling lecithin lines.”

They promote even blending and mixing, as release agents to ensure clean separation, instantizers to help proteins and other materials disperse in aqueous systems, or as a nutritional source.

Ingredion offers a complete beverage and flavor emulsion concentrate portfolio including OSA-modified starches, Purity Gum Ultra, and high-performance gum acacia, Ticaliod Acacia Max. Both products allow formulators to increase oil loads in their emulsions resulting in less water, energy and transportation usage while reducing formulation costs. There are also solutions to remove weighting agents, resulting in shorter labels and production times.

“Ingredion’s portfolio of emulsifiers stabilize flavor and beverage emulsions allowing for unique flavors, nutritional benefits and a brand’s sustainability message to build connections with consumers,” Karen Silagyi, Ingredion senior manager Global Product Portfolio, Hydrocolloids & Citrus Fibers, Texture Solutions, tells Food Ingredients First. 

“We see consumers asking for cleaner labels and sustainable products in the beverage and emulsion space. At the same time, consumers are looking for value, which is driving innovation for ingredients that can offer cost-in-use savings.”

Weighting agents

Silagyi explains how brands looking to reformulate beverages have the opportunity to remove weighting agents without impacting flavor, color, taste or appearance. Weighting agents provide stability and turbidity to beverages by enabling the delivery of oil-soluble flavors and actives. Functional plant-based ingredients are being widely adopted for egg replacements.

However, she flags a number of disadvantages of weighting agents, from regulatory and labeling challenges to a high cost compared to using alternatives. 

“Ingredion can help brands create beverage and flavor emulsions, minus weighting agents such as ester gum, brominated vegetable oil (BVO) and sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB). Ingredion emulsifiers offer the high stability and sufficiently small emulsion droplet sizes needed to match functionality without sacrificing product performance and appeal.”

“Ingredion’s novel emulsification solutions can help to reduce formulation and production costs (based on an internal cost analysis), simplify ingredient statements for label appeal and help improve productivity,” she says. 

Functional plant-based replacements for egg ingredients

Nexus, Palsgaard’s specialized R&D sister company, aims to replace 10% of the eggs used globally as ingredients in baked goods, dressings, desserts and ready meals. Claus Hviid Christensen, CEO of Nexus, discusses the challenges in emulating eggs’ multiple functionalities, like emulsification and foaming, which the company aims to achieve through plant-based ingredients. He also spotlights the ingredient’s role in sustainability and animal welfare.

Nexus has just started a partnership with Aarhus University in Denmark to develop a plant-based replacement for eggs, which are often used as an emulsifier in food applications, particularly in bakery. 

“Eggs are amazing ingredients which have been used for millennia. They are emulsifiers in their own right; they are also foamers and can gel. In most foods where you use eggs, you rely on several of these functionalities. For instance, in a cake, you need the emulsification to incorporate fat in the cake. Hence, the egg is a multi-functional ingredient, and our challenge is to fine-tune the plant-based ingredients so they can emulate the different functionalities that eggs have in different recipes,” Hviid Christensen tells us. 

Nexus and Aarhus University are collaborating with global companies to co-create egg replacer solutions, including in terms of better emulsification. 

“We believe that we will be able to supply solutions that are as good as eggs, but they will definitely be more sustainable in terms of CO2 footprint, animal welfare and cost competitive.”

By Gaynor Selby