New creamer waves goodbye to palm oil
Dr Walter Lopez, nutritionist at LCI said: "Creamer agents are used to clarify white sauces, soups or dairy desserts, while delivering a creamy texture. They are resistant to major industrial processes such as sterilisation, freezing, acidic pH and are based on an essentially lipid-based composition from palm oil."
To a certain extent, consumers have a negative perception of palm oil, both from environmental and health perspectives: traditional equatorial forest is being destroyed to plant palm oil trees and the oil is rich in saturated fatty acids.
LCI's cereal creamer comes from wheat flour, from a strain bred by Limagrain and cultivated by Limagrain farmer members. As well as being less controversial, wheatflour adds nutritional value by reducing fat and calories, while increasing the intake of complex carbohydrates.
One of the challenges for cereal flours in the past has been their limited solubility in products such as beverages, jams and compotes. Limagrain has overcome this by developing its own novel hydrothermal treatment during grinding and sieving called the Farigel process, which prevents liquids becoming highly viscous. It is a way of adding a wheatflour ingredient to products without detracting from their texture or mouthfeel.
Lopez said: "The specific wheat variety coupled with the Farigel process allows us to make Cereal Creamer. This synergic effect between variety and process, gives our ingredient the ability to switch from palm oil, to be equally functional and cheaper than classic creamer agents."
"In addition to the functionality, our Farigel process ensures batch-to-batch consistency, reduces bacterial and enzymatic activities."
