Bakers rise to the healthy challenge

Related tags Innova market insights Maize Flour Bread

As health continues to be a major trend, manufacturers look towards ingredient suppliers for added benefits, reports Hayley Brown

Innovation in the bakery sector has held its ground, despite continuing economic pressure. And ingredients often very expensive ones have taken pride of place at the heart of new product development (NPD).

Arguably, one of the most significant developments over the past year involved the scramble to produce the UK's first mass-produced loaf made with 100% British wheat. This saw Warburtons and Hovis go head-to-head in the race to launch the 'all-British loaf'.

"It's too early to comment on the success of this launch, as we don't have the figures yet," says Rank Hovis's marketing manager Sara Reid. "But Hovis has seen an increase in sales versus the same period last year and the TV and press advertising around this has certainly had an effect."

Reid says the strain of wheat behind the 100% British campaign is a high-quality bread-making wheat. Rank Hovis pays a premium for this product to ensure there are no technical issues with using it. "Farmers growing this in the UK are very happy with the performance of this grain. This means that our British-wheat campaign can continue," Reid declares. "It has captured the imagination of our customers."

Healthy bakery products

Reid remarks that some of the most significant trends in the bakery sector at the moment remain focused on health. "As a flour supplier," she adds, "one of our main challenges is how to add natural health into bread. For this reason fibre and wholegrains remain popular ... Oats and other grains are also taking the fore as they deliver specific heart health benefits via the lowering of cholesterol."

Bakery ingredients supplier ADM agrees that health is a mega trend, which continues to gather pace in the bakery sector. Quoting figures from the Federation of Bakers, an ADM spokeswoman says that, while white flour is still the most popular on the market, demand for wholemeal flour has increased by 4.8% since last year. "In the current economic climate, consumers are looking for indulgence that also offers health benefits without the premium price," she says.

Health has been the focus of much NPD activity over the last year, adds Innova Market Insights. Wholegrain and 'no-additives' and 'no-preservatives' claims are found in the top-five claims for nearly every bakery category. "Consumers are choosing more natural products, with minimal ingredients and minimal processing," says Lu Ann Williams of Innova Market Insights. "Wholegrain is perceived to be a natural choice."

Gluten/wheat-free products

But there is one section of the population that tends to miss out when it comes to wholegrain goodness, adds National Starch. And that is coeliac sufferers and those who avoid wheat-based bakery products. This now accounts for almost 16% of the population, claims the ingredients supplier.

In response, it has launched a wholegrain maize ingredient, which can be added to gluten-free bakery products, allowing bakers to make the wholegrain claim.

"The gluten-free and wheat-free bakery market is a fast-growing sector," says Pauline Taggart, European business manager of nutrition, National Starch Food Innovation.

She reveals that later this year National Starch will launch a range of maize- and tapioca-based, gluten-free starches, flours and fibres to service this rapidly expanding market.

Gluten-free and wheat-free bakery is seeing substantial growth because the number of people that self-diagnose allergies or intolerances is rising, says market researcher Mintel.

Supermarkets are also offering lower priced own-label, gluten-free products to encourage trial and repeat purchases. "By driving the price down, consumers will be more tempted to try these products rather than avoid certain foods altogether or have gluten-free prescription foods," it says.

But the challenge facing the free-from sector is to lose the image of being 'better than nothing', or 'better than going without altogether', says Mintel.

"Manufacturers will endeavour to make their point of difference, as consumers will no longer accept the taste compromise for free-from foods." Increasingly, consumers are also purchasing gluten-free products because of other perceived benefits. A prime growth area is dieting. However, according to Mintel, this leaves the market vulnerable to "forensic consumer examination", as additional sugar is often used as a binding agent in wheat-free/gluten-free bakery products.

Branded maker of gluten-free and wheat-free products Nutrition Point uses locust bean gum as a binding agent, rather than additional sugar.

"We therefore still appeal to the 'dieting' consumer, although our primary market is to target those with coeliac disease and intolerances," says Nutrition Point md Chris Hook.

Under its Glutafin and Trufree brands, Nutrition Point bakes a variety of biscuits, breads, cakes and pastries. It uses a combination of rice flour, rice starch and maize flour in its bakery products.

"We carefully select, blend and experiment with different ingredients to help us overcome the main technical problems we encounter as a free-from manufacturer: this is recreating the elasticity of dough," adds Hook. "We mainly use guar gum with a careful blend of flours to help us achieve this."

The company has experimented with a raft of ingredients, including lupin and soya flour. "But these just do not perform as well," says Hook. "Consumers will not buy products unless they taste as good as the standard alternatives."

Over the last 20 years, this market has come a long way. At one point, the only gluten-free bread available came in a tin, he adds. "I worked in a factory that made tinned bread and dog food. On the tinning line, bread would go to the right and dog food to the left, and that's how it was packaged. It's amazing to see how far the market has developed since then."

Hook welcomes new EU legislation coming into force on January 1, 2012, which will mean products will have to contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten if they are to be labelled 'gluten-free'. At the moment the limit is less than 200ppm.

"We welcome this legislation because we are already producing products that have less than 20ppm," says Hook. "In our opinion, the legislation helps raise standards of gluten-free bakery products."

At the end of last year, Nutrition Point launched its first gluten-free fresh bread, which it hailed as a "massive breakthrough". Traditionally, gluten-free bread is sold in modified atmosphere packaging and had a shelf-life of 1012 weeks.

"After speaking extensively with consumers we realised that what they really wanted were similar choices to wheat and gluten standard varieties, and that included a fresh bread," says Nutrition Point NPD manager Emma Herring.

Hot on the heals of the launch, Stiletto Foods, manufacturer of Mrs Crimbles free-from products, also launched a gluten-free fresh bread made using a blend of rice flour, potato starch, maize flour and soya flour; with stabilisers guar gum and xanthan gum to encourage dough elasticity.

"These days people are a lot more aware of the food they eat and the effect that this has on their health and wellbeing," says Stiletto Food md Jeremy Woods. Media attention has also helped the trend, through research and TV programmes, as well as additional shelf-space in the supermarkets.

The future of bakery ingredients

Looking towards the future of bakery ingredients, sooner rather than later the baking sector will need to have a much needed debate on genetically modified (GM) sources of ingredients, says suppliers.

Although Ulrick & Short is keen to point out that it produces non-GM, additive-free, functional flours and starches, it believes the debate needs to start.

Ulrick & Short director Andrew Ulrick says: "The introduction of GM foods is unavoidable and, despite the high level of resistance, many farmers view GM as a cost-effective way to secure their future stainability."

However, he says consumer scepticism about GM means that food manufacturers and bakers will need to source non-GM ingredients for some time to come.

"At present there is no genetically modified wheat available for use in the UK," adds miller ADM. "In the longer term it may be that this technology will be useful, but flour from GMOs is not currently under consideration."

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