As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent increase in label-conscious consumption, many retail brands have continued or even accelerated their reformulation and development programs.

FoodIngredientsFirst speaks to key manufacturers on the topic of strategies to clean up label declarations while improving nutritional functionalities in F&B formulations and meeting the heightening label regulations across Europe.

“Clean label reformulation work can seem daunting, especially when formulators are faced with the task of removing multiple ingredients,” says Erin Radermacher, senior technical services specialist at Cargill.

“I see a lot of formulas with redundant ingredients – sauces with multiple starches, gums and emulsifiers. An easy first step is to identify wher functional overlap may exist and eliminate the redundancy.”

Radermacher notes that if formulators add multiple ingredients at once, they fail to fully understand all the functions each individual ingredient brings to the formulation. “Instead, we make assumptions.”

“Inevitably, formulators will spend more time on the back end, trying to piece together each ingredient’s role,” she notes.

Cargill currently offers a toolbox full of label-friendly texturizing solutions, including starches, pectin, lecithin and pea protein.

Replacing malic acid with a natural option
Raisins manufacturer Sun-Maid was working to reformulate a line of sour raisin snacks to meet consumer demand for natural and non-GMO food options and seleced Univar Solutions for this purpose.

For its raisin snacks to qualify as free from artificial flavors, the team at Sun-Maid needed to replac the product’s current acidulant, malic acid, with a more natural option. 

While malic acid can occur naturally, it is produced commercially via a synthetic process. Sun-Maid’s R&D group turned to Bo Li, an application development specialist for food ingredients at Univar Solutions, for help.

Bo and the Sun-Maid team identified citric acid as the potential solution. Citric acid is produced by the fermentation of agricultural products like corn and sugar cane and is considered natural. 

Working closely during the formulation process and testing, the teams produced four updated versions of Sour Raisins. 

All four flavors, strawberry, mixed berry, watermelon and grape, carry both claims of no artificial flavors and non-GMO.

“Consumers have noticed the new formulations, as sales for the new formulations have outpaced that of the previous products,” Univar notes.

Cutting carbon footprint with enzymatic reformulation
Through reformulating with enzymes, taste and nutrition company Kerry helps enable the production of environmentally-friendly food and beverages while also reducing production costs.

“To give one tangible example, by using enzymes, a cracker manufacturer increased line efficiency to 90 percent, reduced their food waste by 20 percent, decreased energy and water consumption and improved product consistency to achieve the desired brown color and crisper texture,” says Caoimhe McQuaid, EU account manager at Kerry.

Another area ripe for process efficiency, cost savings and sustainability improvements is brewing.

“Beer production is an extremely resource-intensive process, during which a tremendous amount of water and energy are used, and a considerable amount of waste is generated,” McQuaid details.

“Enzymes and processing aids complement the natural brewing process by reducing the net impact of raw materials; making the individual process stages more efficient; and lowering the volume of waste generated during production.”

The cumulative benefits can result in CO₂ emission reductions of 41 percent, energy savings of 19 percent and significant savings of up to €1.70 per hl (US$2.04) in production costs, Kerry outlines.

Switching out preservatives for natural bacterial inhibitors
Food safety is the key concern for manufacturers and consumers alike and therefore highly effective natural preservation ingredients are essential in clean label formulations.

“Preventative measures like creating sub-optimal conditions for microbial growth are important and next to that vinegar has been proven to be a very effective microbial growth inhibitor,” says Eelco Heintz product and innovation manager at Niacet.

“Studies comparing the vinegar-based preservatives with other organic acid based preservatives like lactates, demonstrated the enhanced inhibiting effect of vinegar on Listeria growth, in a cured deli-style turkey application.”

Another advantage of using effective vinegar-based preservatives, such as Niacet’s ProNiaturèl solution, is that shelf-life is extended due to the suppression of the growth of microbial spoilers like mold, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria.

“ProNiaturèl preservatives are available as free-flowing powders. The benefit of using a powder preservative is that the product is easy to handle compared to a solution,” adds Heintz.

“Next to that, ProNiaturèl is very pure, which results in a cost reduction of both storage and transportation, but also allows for the preservative to be applied at lower dosages.”

Less effective preservatives like ferments may be cheaper by weight to purchase compared to vinegars.

“However, a smaller dosage of vinegar based preservatives like ProNiaturèl would be required to ensure a long shelf life; compared with the relatively high dosage required for other ferments,” Heintz highlights.

COVID-19 spurs race to reformulate
As a growing body of scientific evidence ties obesity to a higher risk of serious complications or death from COVID-19, these concerns have been magnified. 

“Perhaps the best example lies in the UK, wher links between obesity and poor COVID-19 outcomes prompted the government to introduce a raft of regulations it hopes will help people lose weight,” remarks Philippe Chouvy, business development manager sweetness at Cargill.

“With medical and scientific communities focused on sugar, it’s no surprise that regulatory bodies in Europe and around the world are following suit. Front-of-pack nutrition labeling schemes are one approach governments are wielding to limit sugar consumption.”

In Europe, two such efforts continue to gain traction: Nutri-Score and the UK’s Traffic Light. 

Introduced in France in 2017, Nutri-Score is a composite label, with all a product’s nutritional information brought together in a single score, ranging from A (the presumed healthiest) through E. 

“It’s not just front-of-pack labeling putting pressure on beverage makers. Sugar taxes are also gaining momentum,” highlights Chouvy.

“While these added levies have plenty of detractors, the World Health Organization recently touted Portugal’s tax as a key factor in reducing sugary beverage sales.”

Other regulations impacting European beverage manufacturers include rules around sugar- and calorie- reduction claims. Products must deliver a 30 percent dro in sugar content to carry a sugar-reduced claim, for instance. 

“Energy-reduced claims are also possible, provided a product reduces calories by at least 30 percent as compared with the original drink,” adds Chouvy. “It must also indicate the characteristics that reduced the beverage’s total energy value.”