Stevia, which recently won FDA approval for use in food and drinks, is competing against sweeteners with loyal followings. However, it has an advantage over aspartame, sucralose and saccharin because it is derived from a plant and is being marketed as natural.

For the last decade, the big three – pink packets of saccharin, aspartame in blue and sucralose in yellow – have fought to a kind of stalemate, reported The New York Times. But now a new player, dressed in green, hopes to shift the balance of power, opening up the $1.2-billion-a-year world of artificial sugar to all kinds of changes.

Almost half of all American households use some kind of no-calorie sweetener, according to 2007 figures compiled by Packaged Facts. Although finding a no-calorie sweetener that tastes exactly like sugar remains the holy grail, the battle is getting people loyal to the distinct flavors of one fake sugar to jump to another.

Stevia has one distinct advantage over the others because it comes from a plant and marketers can call it a natural sweetener. But stevia products coming on the market are not without problems. Unless the new sweetener is extracted from the right part of the leaf, processed correctly and mixed with bulking agents that soften its flavor, stevia can have a lingering taste of licorice or menthol.

For more information on overcoming processing issues with stevia, be sure to join NAFFS at its Technical Meeting on May 28 at the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center in Somerset, N.J. Complete details are available on www.naffs.org.

STUDY SHOWS ACRYLAMIDE
NOT LINKED TO LUNG CANCER

New research suggests acrylamide doesn’t raise the risk of lung cancer in men and may even offer slight protection for women, reported Health Day.

In a study which included more than 120,000 men and women, Dutch researchers reported they found no association between lung cancer and acrylamide in men and an 18 percent lower risk in women for a 10-microgram/day average intake of acrylamide.

“After taking smoking and other lung cancer risk factors into account, it turned out that men who ingested more acrylamide were not more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than men who consumed less acrylamide,” said study author Janneke G.F. Hogervorst of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. “Unexpectedly, women who ingested more acrylamide were less likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than women who ingested less acrylamide,” said Hogervorst, who added that since this is the first study to come to this conclusion, the findings need to be replicated before any dietary recommendations could be made.

The findings are in the April 28 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Approximately one-third of the calories Americans consume contain acrylamide, according to an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal.

ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN HAS
LIMITED IMPACT ON APAC FOOD INDUSTRY

Food and beverage companies should look to Asia to bolster their business in times of economic crisis, while differentiating their products closer to home, reported Food Navigator.

Compared to elsewhere in the world, the economic slowdown has had a limited impact on the Asia-Pacific food industry, said Christopher Shanahan, research analyst with the Frost & Sullivan North America Chemicals, Materials & Foods Practice.

This means that for Europe and North America, Asia remains a “shining spot in this economic doom and gloom that many companies are experiencing”.

Shanahan believes that what distinguishes the food industry’s high performers from the average more than any other single factor is differentiation. This is differentiation of product, application, service and price, as well as differentiation in terms of the kinds of collaborative partnerships and alliances struck with customers and providers.

With regards to ingredients companies in particular, Shanahan suggests they invest in marketing strategies that focus on core product offerings and gave the example of a salt provider.

He said: “If I supply that to Campbell Soup, I want to be able to perhaps offer a strong marketing strategy that enhances their product, such as offering a wider selection of sodium chloride products (sea salt, kosher etc).”

As well as having a wide product line, he suggested focusing on ensuring strong supplier availability credentials.

The health and wellness trend was also described as a “bright spot” in the food and beverage economy in both Asia and the European and North American markets. The analyst said this was particularly true of ingredients with an emphasis on trying to prevent the increasing occurrence of disease - the main beneficiaries being key suppliers of health ingredients, especially Omega 3, probiotics and antioxidants.

MEMBERS IN
THE NEWS

David Michael & Company introduced a number of flavor modifiers that can assist manufacturers in achieving a more flavorful and oftentimes healthier product. To find out more about DM Flavor Sensations, contact 1.800.DM.FLAVORS.

Campbell’s Soup Company is soliciting scientists, entrepreneurs and inventors to submit ideas via a new website, “Campbell’s Ideas for Innovation.”

“The Ideas for Innovation website is one of the ways we are accessing innovation from outside sources," Campbell's chief strategy officer Carl Johnson said.

Campbell is seeking ideas for new products, packaging innovation, product line extensions, environmental sustainability, business processes and marketing. The company said it is particularly interested in new technologies related to sodium reduction, vegetable nutrition and healthier fats and oils.

FLAXSEED GUM SHOWS
POTENTIAL FOR BEVERAGES

Flaxseed gum may enhance the nutritional profile of beverages and could lead to a new range of novel drinks, according to new research from Canada published in Food Hydrocolloids.

The researchers, led by Marcela Alexander from the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, report that up to a level of 0.1 percent flaxseed gum, electrostatic interactions between gum and whey protein produced a stable emulsion.

“The results of this study will give practical information on how to incorporate this novel polysaccharide with a positive nutritional image in food beverages already fortified with proteins,” wrote Alexander and her co-workers.

However, with concentrations of flaxseed gum over 1.5 percent the researchers noted that the “microstructure, particle size, particle size distribution and low-shear apparent viscosity of the emulsion begin to change and become more affected by the presence of the gum”, they said. “These changes result in aggregation and phase separation.”

“This research demonstrated that the electrostatic interactions between flaxseed gums and protein-stabilized emulsions need to be controlled when designing novel acidic beverages containing these polysaccharides,” wrote the researchers.

“Our results show there is still much work to be done to fully understand and optimize the incorporation of these natural gums in food products,” they concluded.

NAFFS CALENDAR

May 28 – NAFFS Technical Meeting, Doubletree Hotel, Somerset, NJ

October 1-4 - The 92nd Annual NAFFS Convention, The Resort at Longboat Key Club, Longboat Key, Fla.