Texture Without the Calories

All signs indicate Americans are tired of identifying bad carbs and watching fat grams. They are returning to the basics of dieting: monitoring caloric intake. This signals an increased need for products that deliver the original eating experience without the calories.

“There are two approaches most formulators take when attempting to lower the calorie content of a food and beverages,” says Susan Gurkin, bakery category manager and technical applications manager, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Minneapolis. “They will often remove sugars and replace them with alternative sweeteners, or remove fats and replace them with water, or a combination of both.”

Sugar provides four calories per gram; fat provides nine. But removing the fat and sugar is not a simple proposition, especially when it comes to maintaining a high-quality texture in the finished product.

Maintaining mouthfeel

Food formulators know all too well that sugar and fat provide most of the palate-pleasing textures Americans crave, as well as excessive calories. Their removal or reduction requires the addition of myriad ingredients that assist in recovering the rich texture synonymous with calories.

“Sugars and fats play a very important role in the consistency and flavor of food products,” says Aida Prenzno, laboratory director, Gum Technology Corporation, Tucson, AZ. “The first step in developing low-calorie products is to find the right set of food additives that will mimic the mouthfeel of the original product without adding extra calories.”

Gurkin explains that a product’s mouthfeel “relates to the product’s physical and chemical interaction in the mouth. The ingredients in the formulation determine the structural and sensory characteristics of the product, and texture will change when any of the key components change.”

Helpful hydrocolloids

Hydrocolloids are one of a food-product designer’s most-valuable texture tools, as they can improve mouthfeel and lubricity, manage water content, emulsify beverages, build viscosity, contribute elasticity, and extend shelf life by improving finished-product stability. Because they are used at very low levels in most formulations—although as carbohydrates they follow the 4-calories-per-gram rule—they contribute virtually no calories to the final product.

“Gums do a great job of mimicking fat when hydrated, which allows for the removal of fat in various food systems without compromising texture and mouthfeel. The end result can be a lower-calorie food,” says Mark Purpura, senior food scientist, Advanced Food Systems, Somerset, NJ. “Gums can be used alone or in synergistic combinations.”

Designing healthier dairy

For example, Advanced Food Systems offers a proprietary blend of milk and cream powders, starches, gums and flavors that replaces dairy cream. “We have a system to replace heavy cream and a different one to replace half-and-half,” says Purpura. “The ingredients provide all the taste, texture, color and mouthfeel of their ‘real’ liquid counterparts, just without all of the fat and calories.” The ingredient is available in powder form, making it convenient for distribution and warehousing purposes.

Applications include everything from pumpable cream-style bakery fillings for low-calorie éclairs, to creamy soups and salad dressings. “It can be used for a total or partial replacement of dairy cream,” says Purpura. “Partial replacement allows marketers to still make a ‘made with real dairy’ claim.”

The company has developed a proprietary dry blend of hydrocolloids that hydrates in milk, resulting in a product that resembles heavy cream. According to Purpura, using the ingredient “in nonfat milk instead of heavy cream can cut the fat of some applications by 70%. This, in turn, provides a significant reduction in calories without sacrificing that dairy creaminess consumers crave.”

Gum Technology offers a similar line of milkfat substitutes. Its dairy-fat replacer contains cellulose gel, konjac gum, sodium alginate and xanthan gum. “The alginate reacts with the calcium present in milk to form a gel network,” says Prenzno. “The cellulose gel and the xanthan help introduce air to create a rich and creamy product with excellent overrun. It can be used at a rate of 0.2% to 0.5% to replace the milkfat in mousse-type products.” Such dairy desserts are typically based on heavy cream and are calorically dense. Replacing some of the cream with a hydrocolloid system lowers calorie and fat content.

Ice cream is another product that traditionally relies on a high-fat content for texture. “In ice creams, reducing sugars or fats will increase the freezing point and, therefore, create a harder consistency,” says Prenzno. “Gums help to bind the moisture and control the ice-crystal size, stabilize the product during freeze/thaw cycles, and add creamy texture and suspension.”

Better-for-you baked goods

The dairy-fat replacer also allows for replacement of up to half the fat in some bakery products without impacting the structural integrity or sacrificing the desired high-fat mouthfeel, explains Prenzno. Depending on the application, usage levels range from 0.l% to 0.5%.

Konjac gum plays an important role. Many in the hydrocolloid business believe that konjac is underutilized in the food and beverage industries.

“Years ago, there were quality issues associated with konjac, but today’s processing of this highly concentrated glucomannan makes it an ideal hydrocolloid for many low-calorie formulations,” says Alan Harpell, senior research scientist, FMC BioPolymer, Philadelphia. “Konjac is highly viscous; it works in synergy with other gums and is thermally stable if treated correctly.”

FMC developed “lite chocolate cake” made with konjac flour. “The konjac allows for a fat reduction from 14% to 5% fat, yet still allows for uniform air-cell structure and freeze/thaw stability,” says Harpell. “This ingredient also includes xanthan gum. Together, they allow for up to a 65% fat reduction, and an accompanying reduction in calories, while maintaining desirable eating qualities, flavor and slicing properties.” A 35-gram serving of the prototype cake contains 90 calories, 1.7 grams fat and 14.6 grams carbohydrates. The same-size serving of traditional chocolate cake has 130 calories, 5.0 grams fat and 21.0 grams carbs.

TIC Gums, Belcamp, MD, offers a solution to lowering calories in baked goods such as muffins, biscuits and other cakelike products by cutting about 15% of the fat out of the formula and replacing it with a flavorless, colorless gum blend. The combination of cellulose, guar and xanthan “helps retain moisture and lubricity,” says Jeremy Higley, food scientist, TIC Gums.