Tate & Lyle has received the Food Ingredients Europe Beverage Innovation of the Year Award during the Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) 2013 exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany for its PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre.
The FiE Excellence awards, which take place every two years, rewards the major innovations in the food industry in seven categories and are judged by a panel of 10 industry experts.
The award winning ingredient was presented in the form of a raspberry lime tea drink, demonstrating that sugar and calorie reduction is achievable while maintaining body and taste through the addition of fiber.
The prototype was developed by replacing sugar with Tate & Lyle’s, no-calorie, TASTEVA Stevia Sweetener to provide the clean sweetness and fresh taste from a natural source adding PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre to maintain the right mouth feel and increase fiber content.
The company says PROMITOR Soluble Gluco Fibre provides transparent bulking and fiber fortification as it is highly soluble and has very little colour or taste, which makes it easy to incorporate in a wide range of products.
In 2012, the ingredient won the Institute of Food Technologists or IFT Industrial Technology Achievement award, honoring outstanding development and significant advance in the application of food science and technology to food production.
The ingredient is part of Tate & Lyle’s health and wellness portfolio which, along with other fibers such as STA-LITE Polydextrose and PromOat Beta Glucan, has been developed to address consumer concerns about a lack of fiber in their diets.
In a consumer survey by Harris interactive and Tate & Lyle in 2009, 40% of European consumers rated fiber as an important benefit when purchasing products and 72% willing to pay more for fiber-enriched products.
Tate & Lyle says the fiber content in PROMITOR is also likely to appeal to health conscious consumers.
