Limagrain Ingredients has revealed a rebrand and regrouping all its functional flours under one new brand, Innosense. With a customer-centric approach, Limagrain has created a clean identity and five collections that “better support its customers in their functional ingredient search.”

The company says its functional flours are the result of the synergy between cereal knowledge and the mastery of its hydro-thermal processes.

Since Unicorn Grain Specialties joined Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients in 2018, Limagrain Ingredients maintained and strengthened its position in Europe for functional flours under the brand names Westhove and BiTex.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Elise Grolieres, marketing manager, says the demand for functional ingredients is expected to grow in the coming years.

“Our functional flours are 100% clean label flours, with no chemical treatment and a flour declaration on-pack. And they still provide great functional properties to the food formulation: whether our customers are trying to improve their products’ texture, have better processability, improve the nutrition, and all of that without using additives, there’s an Innosense functional flour for that.”

Limagrain says its functional flours are the result of the synergy between cereal knowledge and the mastery of its hydro-thermal processes.Pandemic pressures
Innosense flours compromise between reaching the right taste and texture and having a clean label formulation. “In addition, COVID-19 has heightened expectations in terms of health, naturalness and ‘good for you’ products. Thus, this additive-free naturalness trend is growing.”

Accelerated by the pandemic, consumers are looking for clear labels, they want food brands that they can rely on, and ingredient lists with fewer items on them, affirms Grolieres. 

Increasing transparency to meet evolving ethical, environmental and clean label consumer demands is crucial to product development. This is evidenced by Innova Market Insights’ Top Trend for this year “Transparency Triumphs.”

Notably, the consumer lifestyle trend toward cleaner living is broadening and heightening expectations around what constitutes a clean label.

“Eighty-five percent of consumers say that information on what’s in their food is of major importance to them, 59% say that they want to know wher their food comes from and how it’s made. But having all of that in mind, the food we buy has to be good and tasty,” explains Grolieres.

“This is one of the main drivers of the demand for our Innosense functional flours. With this range, transparency, innovation and sensory input are put at the heart of our ingredients developments.”

According to Grolieres, demand for functional flours is rising in many food applications, including bakery, pastry, ready-meals and snacks. 

Honing in on functionality 
Innosense flours compromise between reaching the right taste and texture and having a clean label formulation.Limagrain’s 100% clean label functional flours are touted to meet key challenges of the food industry: optimization of texture, nutrition and processes, starch replacement or carrier solutions. 

• Texturiser

Limagrain’s Innosense Texturiser collection contains functional flours dedicated to any texture challenge, including more viscosity, stability, crunchiness, crispiness, or unctuosity. 

• Nutrition

Boosting the nutritional profile of products contributes to a healthier diet and is possible in many ways. Limagrain’s functional flours enhance a product’s fiber or protein content and contribute to a “low in” formulation to better answer the personalization expectations.

• Process

Every process is different and requires specific attention. The Innosense Process collection of functional flours is “the perfect solution” for processing challenges: cost savings, better flowability or dough processability, with a good microbiology control.

• Carriers

This Innosense carriers collection is specifically designed to meet the highest requirements in terms of microbiology, humidity level, particle size and so on for the dilution of sensitive raw materials such as enzymes and aromas. The Innosense carriers collection ensures good flowability and protects employees’ health by limiting dust to a minimum.

• Masa

Expert in masa flour for more than 30 years, the Innosense Masa collection taps into texture, taste and processability functionalities for Tex-Mex products.