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A complete guide to making healthier products that sell

11 Dec 2022

Nutrition
Health & Well-Being
Article

Healthier goods, happier customers, higher sales

Healthier products aren’t just good for consumers' health and well-being; they’re also good for your business. Our latest Taste Tomorrow research shows that healthier alternatives are in high demand for consumers worldwide. 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 the consumers. 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 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 consumers (58%) are looking for food options 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. Doesn't sound like an easy thing to accomplish? That's where our century-long expertise come into play. We can help you satisfy this consumer demand and create products that support consumers’ 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

There are no good and bad nutrients, however there are some type of nutrients people who follow a Western-type diets tend to overconsume. Fats are one of them. Eating an excessive amount of fats, especially saturated fats, leads to calories overconsumptions, weight gain and expose people to several health issues and weight gain. High levels of saturated fat can lead to a build-up of cholesterol and an increase risk of cardiovascular diseases. Reducing fat levels where possible is a huge benefit to consumer health. We have several products that can help you reduce the amount of 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 Passionataa 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

The second nutrient that many people worldwide tend to overat is sugar. We know sugar in high quantities is bad for our overall 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, yet full of taste.

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 is also available in the sugar-reduced version which contains 30% less sugar than the original version. No need to adapt the process or recipe, it’s incredibly simple to use too. 

Our custard cream mix, Cremyvit Sugar-Reduced, which contains 30% less sugar then the average custard cream, can help lower the sugar content of your pastries. 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. Moreover, the vitamins and minerals in sourdough bread are more easily absorbed by the body, and the body can also make better use of them.

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 powder wheat bran sourdough ingredent, Sapore Baiota, helps bakers to achieve great-tasting sourdough baked goods 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 is based on wheat bran, which helps it obtain a high fiber content. When dosed between 5% - 10%, Sapore Baiota allows production of breads with 6g of fiber per 100g of end-product.

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 are healthier and tastier. 

Our Taste Tomorrow insights showed that 73% of consumers regard wholegrains as a healthy and tasty addition. Softgrain and Sproutgrain allow you to combine 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-use fruit fillings, contains up to 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 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?

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