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September 2001
The Functional Confection Connection
By Lynn A. Kuntz
Editorial Director
No facet of the food industry seems able to avoid the functional foods
tide. The next category poised to ride the wave is confectionery products,
good-for-you sweets and dietary supplements in candy form. “From
a convenience standpoint, as we all become more and more cognizant of
the fact that many of these substances are to our benefit, we keep looking
for ways to incorporate them into a wide variety of materials so that
consumers are given options more attractive than pills and capsules
each day,” says John Urbanski, vice president, technical sales
and services, Wilbur Chocolate Company, a Cargill Foods Company, Lititz,
PA. “Instead we can plan a balanced meal that includes what we
look at as normal foods. People are looking at confectionery products
as a more and more attractive means to do this.”
It’s not a big leap. The history of nutraceuticals in candy and
gum form goes back at least to the ancient Greeks, who chewed mastic
gum to clean their teeth. From before the 14th century, European apothecaries
used licorice to soothe coughs and colds. Back in this country, the
Smith Brothers started making candy-like concoctions to stave off coughs
in the mid-1800s, and before the turn of the century, Beeman’s
touted pepsin gum as a digestive aid.
These types of products have seen a resurgence over the last several
years, positioned mainly in the supplement aisle, but occasionally in
the candy aisle, enhanced with vitamins, minerals, herbs and other health-enhancing
ingredients. In addition, not only fortified products can wear a cloak
of health, but even products that have been considered integral food
ingredients for years can enter the class. No one really considers Hershey’s
Almond Joy® a health food. But the almonds, for example, might help
lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL), plus they contain antioxidant flavonols
quercetin and kaempferol. And then there’s chocolate.
Chocoholics rejoice
It’s difficult to resist chocolate and with good reason —
despite all the old wives’ tales about chocolate causing acne,
migraines, etc. — it’s actually chock-full of beneficial compounds.
And though the high fat and calorie content means the average person
should avoid making an entire meal of it, chocolate, as well as cocoa
powder, can be more than a treat for the sweet tooth.
While it’s not enough to account for the satisfaction that a big
bite of chocolate brings, chocolate does contain low levels of mood-altering
chemicals such as methylxanthines, a group of water-soluble compounds
that include caffeine, theobromine and theophylline, and phenylethylamines,
a class of chemicals that contains amphetamines. However, unless you’re
a night owl, the best reason to munch on chocolate just might be its
flavonoid antioxidants. A 40-gram serving of chocolate contains 400
mg of flavonoids, and the darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants.
The primary group of antioxidant flavonoids is the procyanidins, which
includes epicatechin and catechin, the same type of compounds that have
been identified in tea as health promoters.
Processing can decrease cocoa’s antioxidant levels; especially
those processes that remove the astringency — often a result of
the naturally occurring polyphenol flavonoids. Longer cocoa-bean fermentions
lose more polyphenols. Higher roasting temperatures decrease the polyphenol
content, as does the duration of the heat exposure.
Alkalizing also can have a negative impact on polyphenol
levels. Mars Incorporated, McLean, VA, has developed a proprietary cocoa-bean
process to maintain more of the natural polyphenols, and company products
made this way now carry the name Cocoapro™.
Cocoa may help reduce blood clots by relaxing the inner surface of blood
vessels, keeping blood pressure down, and preventing hardening of the
arteries. Research from Dr. C. Tissa Kappagoda, professor of medicine,
University of California School of Medicine, Davis, indicates that chocolate
compounds promote this effect by increasing nitric-oxide concentrations,
which relaxes blood vessels.
Chocolate’s antioxidants seem to promote other heart-healthy effects.
They may reduce LDL oxidation, reducing the formation of plaque on artery
walls, according to research headed up by Joe A. Vinson, Ph.D., Department
of Chemistry, University of Scranton, PA. In the December 1999 Journal
of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vinson and colleagues found that
chocolate flavonoids have a greater effect than vitamins such as ascorbic
acid in limiting the oxidation of cholesterol in LDLs and very-low-density
lipoproteins.
Super chocolates
With all these benefits at the start, it’s not surprising that
many product designers are looking to up chocolate’s nutritional
ante. Chocolate or compound coatings have long been an important element
in increasing acceptability of nutrition bars. But for a more authentic
candy example look to SmartChocolate®, a line of organic chocolate
infused with natural botanicals, sold by The Functional Foods Co., Roseville,
MI.
Candymaker Tom Morley Jr. teamed up with Jimmy Schmidt, chef/ proprietor
of The Rattlesnake Club, Detroit, to formulate a line of four SmartChocolate
bars. These are based on organic chocolate — in keeping with the
duo’s belief in sustainable agriculture — with truffle centers
infused with botanicals that reflect the products’ names: Serenity
(St. John’s wort, kava kava and ginseng with a dark chocolate truffle
center); Memory (gingko biloba, ginseng and yerba mate with a dark chocolate
truffle center); Energy (ginseng, guarana, gotu kola, yerba mate and
green tea with a coffee truffle center); and Passion (damiana, ginseng,
sarsaparilla and gotu kola with an almond truffle center).
“Jimmy is an herb consumer himself and began to think of chocolate
as a delivery system for the herbs,” says Morley. “First and
foremost, we wanted to develop a product with great taste and then looked
at the herbs as a value-added element.” The flavor target was a
European, premium-style chocolate, with “higher cocoa solids, a
much more full-bodied flavor profile,” he says.
Herbs do present flavor challenges, but with some careful flavor crafting
they can be overcome. “With the energy bar, which uses the most
significant level of ginseng, it’s got an earthy kind of brown
flavor that can be tough to work with. We found that by adding a natural
coffee to the truffle center that carries the herb, it balanced out
that spike very nicely. With the kava we found a higher percentage of
dark chocolate in the center, along with a little milk chocolate helped
to smooth that flavor out.” Damiana melded pleasantly with an almondy
amaretto-like profile.
Other chocolate options
Another possibility to improve the nutritional profile of chocolate
is adding long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid
(EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), omega-3 fatty acids derived from
a fish (menhaden) or a DHA-rich marine algal (Schizochytrium) source.
These ingredients also have been approved for use in other candies and
gum. Researchers are finding a broad range of potential health benefits,
including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as improved
maternal health, immune system health and healthy infant neural development.
Eight international food nutrition organizations recommend an intake
of 200 to 2,000 mg per day of omega-3, DHA and EPA, and some researchers
suggest a daily consumption of about 3,000 mg per day. Says Mary E.
Van Elswyk, Ph.D., R.D., vice president of scientific affairs, OmegaTech
Inc. Boulder, CO: “The typical American intake is approximately
75 to 100 mg per day of DHA plus EPA, which is below the level OmegaTech
believes useful, and below the beneficial level supported by clinical
and epidemiological work.”
Researchers at OmegaTech have successfully made chocolate-based confections
fortified with DHA. “Chocolate is a widely accepted and consumer-friendly
product, as such, it is an excellent vehicle for delivering meaningful
levels of essential nutrients such as DHA,” says George Stagnitti,
director of application at the company. “DHA Gold oil is easy to
incorporate and neutral in flavor in confectionery products. Key criteria
sought in the use of chocolate were maintaining the organoleptic qualities
of the product, ingredient compatibility and overall product stability.”
OmegaTech has tested DHA fortification in confectionery products at
levels that range from 60 mg DHA per piece to 600 mg DHA per piece.
“These are relatively low levels of addition compared with certain
confectionery ingredients and have minimal physical impact upon the
overall confectionery formulation,” Stagnitti points out.
Researchers at Cargill haven’t stopped there. They have been working
on a wide range of fortified chocolate products with a broad appeal
to functional-foods designers: protein, fiber, calcium and magnesium,
vitamins, polyphenolic flavonoids and sterol esters.
The protein work’s goal encompasses protein fortification with
whey or soy isolates without some of the negatives frequently encountered
in high-protein proteins, says Urbanski. He says they have been able
to successfully incorporate enough protein to achieve a level of 25%
in coatings and inclusions. “Cocoa liquor naturally has about 14%
to 15% protein, in cocoa powder that elevates to as much as 22% to 23%,
but is not necessarily a terribly high-quality protein,” he explains.
“It does serve as a boost to the total protein available, although
it depends on the type of product you’re trying to make. For instance,
if you are looking for the 6.25-gram soy-protein claim, it’s obviously
not going to count for you. But if you’re working with a 90% soy
protein isolate, achieving those levels in a single serving of around
50 grams isn’t that hard to do.”
But protein-fortified chocolate can be a boon to those working on bars.
“By cramming all of the protein components into the bar center
itself, they occasionally face water- activity problems,” says
Urbanski. “The flexibility of putting some of that protein into
the fatty matrix on the outside or a chocolate chip on the inside, gives
them the ability to control that a little better.” This technique
virtually enrobes the protein so it has less of a tendency to soak up
water.
As for vitamins and minerals, again the ingredient for fortification
matters. Calcium carbonate seems to be “the most efficient in terms
of calcium delivery,” says Urbanski. “We found that you can
make a bar that delivers the full RDA by doing things like manipulating
the particle size and working it in at an early stage in the process;
you won’t get a chalky mouthfeel at all. Vitamins can be tough
if there’s something that needs to be covered up from a flavor
standpoint, but with a little formulation doctoring for flavor, it’s
not impossible to get something that tastes good.”
Across the candy counter
It’s not just chocolate. Other confectionery categories have caught
the nutraceuticals wave. Around the world, shoppers can find mints such
as Canada’s Warp Mints, a “high-octane” mint with ginseng,
gingko, and guarana, or Swiss Ricola’s sugar-free GreenMint lozenges
with green tea extract. In the States, one might pick up Pfizer’s
Adams division (Warner-Lambert Consumer Group) fruit-flavored yogurt
chews, Body Smarts, fortified with vitamins A, C and E, oligofructose
(25% DV per 40-gram serving) and calcium (30% DV). For another sweet
calcium supplement, pop a couple of Viactiv™ Soft Calcium Chews
— recently purchased by McNeil Nutritionals (Port Washington, PA)
— in orange cream, caramel, milk chocolate or mochaccino flavors,
and get 50% of the calcium DV (500 mg) per chew. Or they might just
opt for a simple, back-to-basics, herb-flavored drop like Shaker Country
Meadowsweets, a line of botanical herbal confections, sold by Hillside,
NJ-based Hillside Candy, with flavors from Rosemary Tangerine to Lemon
Anise to Ginger.
The functions of these added nutrients and botanicals vary. For example,
Ricola says that green tea “promotes general physical well-being,”
and acts as a breath freshener “thanks to the dried, unfermented
tea leaves.”
Many companies sell zinc lozenges to alleviate the duration and severity
of common cold symptoms, but the only really effective form is zinc
gluconate, says Robert Boutin, executive vice president, Knechtel Laboratories,
Division of Knechtel Research Sciences Inc., Skokie, IL, with a level
ranging from about 15 up to 30 mg zinc per lozenge as the usual dose.
“One of the problems with zinc gluconate is that it has a bad taste
and gives you a metallic astringency in the mouth, plus it’s expensive.
Sometimes people want to substitute zinc citrate; it’s fairly cheap,
it doesn’t have the astringency, but the problem is it’s so
insoluble it doesn’t do anything. So people buying it aren’t
really getting an effective product.”
Hardly anyone wants to eat the recommended number of fruit and vegetables,
but product designers who want to sweeten delivery of some of the phytochemicals
found in them might incorporate specially designed extracts. “At
present, the jury is still out on the precise levels of phytochemical
moieties which confer health benefits,” says Yosuf Chaudhry, food
scientist, GNT USA Inc., Tarrytown, NY. “However, the recommended
dietary guidelines suggest that a person should eat 3 to 5 servings
of vegetables and 2 to 4 servings of fruits a day. In that case, a person
would take in approximately 5 to 6 mg of mixed carotenoids and 20 to
50 mg of anthocyanins; both of which vary widely as they depend upon
the types of fruits and vegetables.”
The company offers Nutrifood® products, standardized extracts from
fruits and vegetables that contain anthocyanins, flavonoids, polyphenols
and carotenoids. For example, adding 3 grams of Nutrifood Complex to
a serving gives 33.0 mg total anthocyanins, and 1.1 mg total carotenoids.
Chaudhry suggests adding the products to chocolate center fillings,
and sugar-, pectin- and gelatin-based confectionery products. In a high-
heat process, such as a typical hard-candy cook, “the change (in
the nutrient content) will be insignificant, with the exception of some
heat-labile vitamins and minerals. Our experience has shown that levels
of phytochemicals sustain a negligible loss.” He does recommend
a neutral to acidic pH for the ideal system.
In general, if the level of the active ingredient is low enough, Boutin
finds that the formulation changes will be minimal if at all. However,
if you look at fortifying a chew with high levels of calcium, for example,
you can have problems. “The calcium wants to act as a crystal initiator
or nucleator,” he says.
“The challenge in mineral fortification is balancing physical properties,
such as solubility, with physiological properties, such as bioavailability,”
notes Stu Gelbard, president, Barrington Nutritionals, Harrison, NY.
“One of the most popular forms of calcium, for instance, is neither
soluble nor considered highly bioavailable, so developers are forced
to investigate new forms of the desired minerals.”
Sweet somethings
While sucrose has its place in functional candies, many sweetener alternatives
provide specific health benefits. Alternative sweeteners might be used
for calorie control, for products designed for diabetics, and/or for
dental health.
Polyols, or sugar alcohols, are derivatives of sugars that, unlike traditional
sugars, are only partially metabolized, then slowly absorbed in the
small intestine, says Ron Deis, director, product and process development
at SPI Polyols, Inc., New Castle, DE. “This results in several
advantages, for example, polyols do not increase blood-glucose or insulin
levels, allowing diabetics to better balance their diet,” he says.
“Because they are only partially metabolized, the caloric value
of polyols ranges from 0.2 to 3.0 kcal per gram.”
Sorbitol has been used for decades in boiled hard candies, and candy
manufacturers have become familiar with its unique handling properties.
“Crystalline or liquid sorbitol are used in batch deposit manufacturing,
and maltitol syrup often is used in continuous depositing,” says
Deis. “Maltitol syrup contains over 50% maltitol, which is sweeter
than sorbitol. Sorbitol has a lower melt point than sucrose, and is
unique in that it crystallizes relatively fast. Set time can be controlled
by the type of sorbitol product used. Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates
(HSH) and maltitol syrups were developed a number of years ago, and
offer a wide range of polymer diversity to fit any type of candy manufacture
or level of sweetness desired.” HSHs do not crystallize, so they
make a good option for stable sugar-free candies.
Deis cautions that, upon storage, hard candies can pick up moisture
and undergo what is called “cold flow,” resulting in the formerly
shaped candy piece becoming a flat mass after packaging. “Cold
flow can be controlled either by packaging or polyol selection,”
he recommends. “Higher-molecular-weight HSHs will help to control
flow, or the HSHs may be blended with isomalt.”
Deis says that: “Product developers should look to the unique properties
each polyol can provide, and consider that they work better in combination
than by themselves.” For additional information, he suggests accessing
a polyol comparison chart at http://www.spipolyols.com.
A sugar-free milk chocolate that matches the taste and quality of its
sugared brethren can be difficult to design. But Danisco Sweeteners,
Copenhagen, Denmark, may have hit on one solution. While researchers
have successfully replaced sucrose in chocolate, standard lactose-containing
milk powder was harder to replace. The company’s researchers came
up with a spray-dried milk powder substitute with all the components
of skim-milk powder, but the lactose replaced with sweeteners, such
as lactitol. The milk powder substitute is marketed by Danisco Sweeteners
under the brand name Minolac®.
Chew on this
One area where polyol sweeteners clean up is in gums formulated to improve
dental health. Dental gums first appeared in the United States in March
1998 with Church & Dwight’s Arm & Hammer Dental Care Baking
Soda Gum. The manufacturer claims it can reduce plaque as much as 25%,
and provides clinical support. Warner-Lambert’s Adams division
makes Trident Advantage.
Polyols, also known as sugar alcohols, are non-cariogenic; they resist
metabolism by oral bacteria. These can break down sugar and starch into
acids that may promote cavities or erode tooth enamel. The FDA has approved
the use of a “does not promote tooth decay” health claim for
labeling sugar-free foods containing polyols. “In fact, xylitol
is anticariogenic and may also have other health benefits as well,”
notes Deis. Xylitol also helps develop a refreshing flavor because it
produces a perceived sensation of coolness as it solubilizes in the
mouth due to its negative heat of solution.
Whether gum, chocolate, lozenge or other sweet product, Boutin sees
nutraceutical candies as an opportunity for candy manufacturers to enter
a very profitable market that utilizes both technical expertise and
underutilized manufacturing capacity. However, “some look at the
complexity of producing the products — like making sure the actives
are evenly distributed, record keeping — and shy away from the
business,” he says. “But I try to remind them that they are
looking at an entirely different price point than regular candy and
that an extra penny or so of work may be well worth it.”
Stagnitti envisions tremendous growth potential for functional or nutraceutical
confections. “The key driver for growth is in the development of
consumer awareness with respect to the benefits offered by essential
nutrients such as DHA,” he says. “Next, functional confectionery
products must deliver fully upon consumer expectation and provide clinically
tested and proven benefit and value to the consumer.”
While marketers need to enter this market with caution — one of
the cardinal rules of parenting is to teach children that medicine is
not candy — there are still benefits to be had by manufacturers
and consumers alike. And the best route to those benefits is espoused
by Morley: “At the end of the day we need to let good science prevail.”
3400 Dundee Rd. Suite #100
Northbrook, IL 60062
Phone: 847-559-0385
Fax: 847-559-0389
E-Mail: contactus@foodproductdesign.com
Website: www.foodproductdesign.com
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