Welcome to the Mindful Nutritionist. Today’s health-conscious consumers are increasingly demanding that ingredients are ‘Better for Me, Better for the Planet’. Food and beverage market trends indicate that tomorrow’s products will be a combination of holistic health and self-care, under-pinned by sustainability and delivered with the highest organoleptic properties of taste, flavour, texture and appearance.
The Mindful Nutritionist is better informed about what they need and routinely scrutinises ingredient lists to identify cleaner labelled products that offer reduced fat, salt and sugar, as well as positive dietary additions, such as fibre, protein and ingredients that enable free-from and flexitarian diets. This higher level of informed scrutiny extends to evaluating product safety issues, quality and traceability matters.
As the world learns to live with Covid, focus intensifies on boosting and maintaining health. Immune health is now a fundamental requirement for the health-conscious consumer, to help prevent disease or to assist recovery. Consider gut microbiota, and the significant role it is known to play in well-being, energy balance and immunity. Offering consumers easy ways to boost fibre intake can be achieved with functional ingredients such as soluble prebiotic fibres, which have additional benefits as effective fat- and sugar-replacers.
Self-care in all its guises, from supporting mental-health through to improving the way we look, have gained more importance for the mindful consumer. Beverage applications are a leading choice for self-care, and the formulation sweet-spot relies on having an ingredient partner that can identify the optimal combination of functional-health ingredients, natural-flavours, sweetening-systems and texturisers.
Clean-labels are essential in providing the health-conscious consumer with information, and therefore confidence, in their chosen products. Clean-labels can be achieved in innovative ways, for example using enzymes, which are processing aids, in dairy products. These can unlock the nutritional potential and functionality of milk, and optimise the performance and profile of dairy products. The concept of clean-conscience is beginning to supersede clean-labelling, as it goes beyond what is good for the body and reflects what is also good for the planet, the provenance of ingredients and their environmental sustainability.
Delivering sustainable and nutrient-dense functional products, across the core categories of snacks, beverages, bakery and dairy, is becoming a prerequisite for a successful product launch, and is not without its challenges. Fortunately, Univar Solutions Food Ingredients’ Discovering Wellness series, which commences with an online culinary demonstration, ‘Set the table’ with Univar Solutions Food Ingredients and Bingham & Jones, taking place on June 8th 2022, aims to inform and inspire formulators, buyers, and brand owner alike to meet the needs of the Mindful Nutritionist.
Univar Solution Food Ingredients Online Discovery Series:
Set the table with Univar Solutions and Bingham & Jones:
Selection of NEW recipes for full healthy and nutritious menu including starter, main course and dessert.
June 8, 2022. Register Now
