11 Dec 2022
Healthier goods, happier customers, higher sales
Healthier products aren’t just good for your customer’s well-being; they’re also good for business. Our latest Taste Tomorrow consumer insights show that healthier alternatives are in high demand for consumers. Read on to find out why you should be developing healthier products and how we can help you do it.
Why creating healthier products is so important
Making products as nutritious as possible is our responsibility to our consumers
First and foremost, we have a responsibility to the health of our customers. Diet is the single biggest lifestyle factor that affects people’s health, meaning that we, as food producers, play a significant role in the health and well-being of people everywhere.
That’s why, since the very beginning, Health & Well-Being has been at the heart of Puratos’s research and development activities. We aim to provide the most nutritionally wholesome bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients possible without compromising on taste, texture, quality, or safety.
See our commitment to better health to learn more about what we’re doing to create the most nutritional products possible.
Consumers want healthier options
Aside from our responsibility to consumer health, the single most compelling reason to develop healthier alternatives is that customers are seeking them. Our ongoing Taste Tomorrow consumer research shows that over 1 in 2 customers (58%) are looking for alternatives that support their holistic health. That’s quite a staggering statistic!
Our research also showed that 60% of consumers prefer not to compromise on taste when seeking out healthier alternatives and will consume less or opt for smaller portions to be healthier.
Here we can see two immediate ways to create healthier alternatives that consumers will want to purchase - smaller portions that constitute a healthier choice and creating products that support customers’ holistic health.
Read our top five ways for creating these types of products and learn which products we have to support that below.
5 ways to develop healthier products
1. Remove or reduce fat
High levels of saturated fat can lead to a build-up of cholesterol, which can cause various health issues. Reducing saturated fat levels where possible is a huge benefit to consumer health. We have several products that can help you reduce the amount of saturated fat in your baked goods.
The fat content of soft and sweet baked goods such as buns, brioches, and milk rolls can be lowered by up to 75% with our bakery mix, Intens Puraslim.
For patissiers and cake producers, we have our Passionata, a whippable topping for cake filling and decoration that is lower in fat than a traditional whipped topping.
Interested in our reduced fat products? Get in touch today.
2. Reduce sugar
We know sugar in high quantities is bad for our holistic health, but as a fundamental ingredient in baking, it’s hard to avoid. Making chocolate, patisserie cocoa and nut-based fillings, whippable toppings for decorations, fruit fillings, compound chocolate coatings, and custard creams with low sugar content has been a major challenge in the past - but not anymore! We’ve cracked the code of making these products and ingredients both sugar-reduced and sugar-free.
For example, our range of sugar-free chocolates has a superior nutritional value, reducing overall calorie intake between 10% to 15%; available in dark, milk, and white chocolate.
Our bestseller Belcolade Selection Noir with 55% cocoa offers a claim of 30% less sugar, and without the need to adapt the process or recipe, it’s incredibly simple to use too.
Our custard cream mix, Cremyvit Sugar-Reduced, can help lower the sugar content of your custard cream by 30%. This mix is perfect for tarts, danish pastries, and pies, and as a filling in éclairs and viennoiserie or in slices like cremeschnitte.
3. Use sourdough to offer better taste and health benefits
Sourdough’s rise in popularity continues to grow, and many brands are creating innovative products using sourdough beyond bread to capture this. From muffins to pizza to tortillas, brands are capitalizing on this powerful consumer trend.
Our Taste Tomorrow research shows that the main driver for sourdough’s popularity is superior taste, but perhaps a less well-known benefit is that sourdough can be a healthier alternative. New research shows that sourdough-fermented bread can be easier to digest, and when using sprouted grains sourdough contains more vitamin C and D too.
Our sourdough journey
We know a thing or two about sourdough with over 25 years’ experience developing our expertise in natural fermentation and baking cultures from all over the world. In 2013, we even opened the world’s only Sourdough Library that houses the world’s most extensive collection of sourdough starters.
We research and preserve the bread heritage in this Sourdough Library and re-introduce this tradition of sourdough baking with our own range of O-tentic and Sapore sourdough ingredients.
4. Go gut-friendly
There is a growing appreciation of the importance of taking good care of the gut for overall health. Our Taste Tomorrow research indicates that this link between gut health and overall health is well-established in the mind of consumers. We found that 72% of global consumers are interested in food products that improve their gut health, whilst 78% agree that improving their gut health has a positive impact on their immune system.
The products in our Happy Gut range all contain gut health-promoting compounds, such as specific types of fibers, helping you to win over health-conscious consumers with stronger gut health claims for your products.
Puravita Fibre + is the complete mix that lets you bake healthy high-in-fiber bread. Puravita Fibre + contains a natural prebiotic fiber that contributes to normal gut functioning. Only two slices of this delicious bread provide a quarter of the recommended daily intake of this prebiotic fiber.
Our dried wheat bran sourdough, Sapore Baiota, helps bakers to achieve great-tasting sourdough with the added bonus of a Gut Health claim (depending on regional legislation) through its fiber content.
Whereas regular sourdoughs are based on flour, Sapore Baiota ferments pure wheat bran to obtain its high fiber content. When dosed between 5% - 10% (and in combination with the right amount of whole meal flour and hydration), Sapore Baiota contributes to 6g of fiber per 100g of bread.
Interested in our Happy Gut range? Explore our gut-healthy products today:
5. Make the most of ‘power ingredients’
In the eyes of consumers, ingredients such as wholegrain, fiber, fruits, grains, and seeds improve the nutritional profile of bread, pastries, and chocolate. Incorporating these ‘power ingredients’ is a great way to make breads, cakes, and chocolates that offer more flavor and better health benefits.
Our Taste Tomorrow insights showed that 73% of consumers regard wholegrains as a healthy and tasty addition. Softgrain, our sprouts, wholegrains and seeds infused with sourdough allow you to make the most of the healthiness of wholegrains with the freshness and flavor of sourdough. Grains and seeds will also serve as a great addition to your chocolate products.
64% of consumers believe food with fruit fillings to be healthy. Topfil, our ready-to-us fruit fillings, contains 90% fruit and has no artificial flavors or coloring. Using this in products like patisserie and Danish pastries is a great way to offer products that consumers will see as a healthier alternative.
Want to learn more about our commitment to creating healthier products?
Explore the ten building blocks that make up our commitment to Better Health, as well as see our long-term objectives and performance over the past few years.
Interested in clean(er) label, organic, gluten-free, plant-based, or other ingredients associated with health & well-being?
