Consider Every Angle

Over in the SupplySide Community in the Food and Beverage Community, we have been discussing obesity over the last couple of weeks—and particularly what the food industry has done to unwittingly foster the epidemic and what we should do to help the situation. Many a finger has been wagged at so-called “Big Food” in recent years primarily for doing our jobs well—creating products that people love and buy often.

But the time is right to consider every possible health-and-wellness angle on a food as it takes shape on the bench, whether that’s the perceived negatives like total fat, sodium and calories, or boosting the positives, like total servings of fruit and vegetables in the food, logical levels of fortification, etc.

When it comes to added calories, I think much room exists to cut the number of grams of sugar in a food through creative design, including use of combined natural zero-calorie sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit and brazzein.

For sodium, one of the coolest approaches to cutting levels I’ve heard of lately is use of vinegar—something that could be a viable option for a number of different foods. Rounding-out the entire flavor profile can also do much to help reduce sodium levels.

And when it comes to fat, options like natural fibers, hydrocolloids and even some fruits and vegetables can help formulators cut levels. Many new oilseed products also sport improved nutritional profiles, with zero trans and lower saturated-fat levels.

Many of these approaches can fall into “natural” territory, which appeals the label-reading crowd. And that leads me to a second consideration—that many of these improvements to products should not translate into big, shouting, callouts on the label. Subtle messages are likely OK as long as they’re targeted toward the desired demographic, but people don’t want to hear anything about the negative perceptions of foods (such and such a fat level, etc.). And they don’t want to hear about low sodium (in their mind, that translates as B-L-A-N-D). But if the Nutrition Facts can best the competition and the food delivers on flavor (strong hedonic appeal while falling within logical nutritional guidelines), repeat purchases will ensue.