Ingredion has launched two multifunctional rice flours, Homecraft Create 835 and 865, as part of its expanding rice ingredients portfolio. The company notes that these unique rice flours can enable food manufacturers to achieve the same range of functionalities as functional native starches, including process tolerance and texture stability while carrying the ultimate consumer-friendly “rice flour” label.

The new rice flours are designed to suit even the most challenging of applications, including soups and sauces. Alongside a clean-label listing, they also support both a gluten-free and a natural positioning, Ingredion notes.

Clean-label heritage
The medium and high process tolerance is unique to the Homecraft Create 835 and 865 rice flours, presenting new opportunities for food manufacturers. They provide scope to formulate and manufacture clean-label products that are consumer-friendly, such as creamy soups or low-fat and gluten-free sauces with an authentic texture.

Although these multifunctional rice flours do not gel, they can deliver superior texture stability over shelf life, Ingredion adds. The unique creamy texture and neutral flavor profile they deliver add to the versatility of this ingredient across a variety of applications, such as savory soups, sauces and ready meals.

Janin Zippel, Product Manager, Pulses and Rice at Ingredion EMEA, explains: “With our clean-label heritage, we are fully aware of the ongoing scrutiny of food labels by consumers. We know they want recognizable ingredients and you can’t get much more familiar than rice and flour, so it made sense to expand our existing Novation rice starches by developing a range of complementary rice flours.”

Zippel notes that the company is particularly excited about how these flours extend clean-label opportunities into new areas by combining superior texture stability over shelf life with the ability to withstand tough processing conditions, including high-shear.

Their unique properties allow manufacturers to develop gluten-free sauces with an authentic texture and mouthfeel, according to Zippel, who says the flours may also enable the removal of fat, therefore boosting a products’ nutritional profile to meet consumer preference.

“Ingredion Research shows that rice flour outranks wheat flour and cornflour as a consumer-preferred ingredient. It is this unique combination of acceptability and functionality that make Homecraft Create flours such a versatile ingredient for our industry,” Zippel adds.

High awareness for rice
Ingredion reports that new proprietary research reveals there is already high awareness of using rice as an ingredient among consumers.

Overall, 51 percent of those surveyed are familiar with its addition to food products such as bread, soups and sauces. It is perceived as a natural, healthy ingredient and as a “good” carbohydrate that provides long-lasting energy. In addition, 78 percent of consumers accept rice flour in soups, sauces and ready meals. No other tested texturizer ranked higher.

Homecraft Create 835 and 865 are multifunctional flours that provide excellent texture stability over shelf life in demanding applications such as soups, sauces or ready meals, Ingredion states. Their small granule size and organoleptic properties provide a creamy texture.

In addition, they provide improved wheat flour-like opacity in gluten-free, low-fat and low-protein applications, such as soups and sauces. Their neutral flavor profile supports flavor release in food products.

“Consumer awareness of what goes into food and how it is produced is growing,” Zippel continues. “These multifunctional rice flours mean that applications that were previously unable to benefit from a ‘rice flour’ listing, such as soups and sauces which undergo demanding processing conditions, are now able to do so.”

Perceptions of the flours as healthy, natural ingredients, alongside their gluten-free properties, also mean they are particularly well aligned to today’s consumer food trends, according to Zippel.

“We have drawn on our existing clean-label expertise to develop new rice-based products that both meet the needs of manufacturers in terms of recipe formulation and ease of processing and those of consumers seeking familiar and healthy ingredients,” Zippel concludes.