Addressing sustainable nutrition is central to the future of the food and beverage industry. Many companies are transforming their strategies to improve measures such as water use, carbon emissions, animal welfare, and food waste while also addressing societal challenges such as obesity and malnutrition.
However, addressing sustainable nutrition can often come with unique taste and mouthfeel challenges. The phrase “the least nutritious food is the one that goes uneaten” emphasises the importance of understanding taste science as a tool to achieve sustainable nutrition strategies. Sugar reduction and plant-based diets are two major focus areas of innovation in sustainable nutrition.
In this webinar, learn about:
-The science of flavour modulation and how it can help achieve sustainable nutrition goals
-How flavour modulation can account for taste and mouthfeel challenges in reduced sugar applications
-Strategies to understand and account for unique challenges of different plant protein sources
-How to bring this science to life in examples from the beverage market
Sustainable nutrition: sugar reduction
Producing one kilogram of sugar cane requires 1,110 litres of water and results in 0.42kg of CO2 emissions. This means that sugar reduction is not just important for improving health, but is also important in developing products that are better for the planet.
However, reducing sugar affects not only the sweetness of a beverage, but also its mouthfeel. Alternative solutions to sugar often come with detectable flavour off-notes. Learning how to account for each of these challenges in sugar reduction is essential to meeting the taste expectations of consumers.
Sustainable nutrition: plant proteins
The popularity of plant-based diets and use of plant protein is continually rising, leading to tremendous growth in markets like alternative dairy. This is both due to the health halo of plant-based foods, as well as the positive impact plant-based diets can have on the environment.
Different types of plant proteins are entering the market daily, but each plant protein comes with unique taste and mouthfeel challenges depending on the plant from which they are derived, where they’re grown, and how they’re processed. Understanding the science of accounting for challenges specific to each ingredient being used can be a great advantage in product development.
Our experts:
Massimo Barbeni, PhD, Vice President of Taste Innovation, Kerry
Massimo has over 30 years of experience in the food industry in the areas of R&D team management, flavour creation, development of research strategy for innovation in flavour chemistry, natural processes ideation and industrialisation. Massimo is co-author of 45 scientific papers and 9 patents and a member of the Board of the European (EFFA) and Italian (AISPEC) Flavour Companies Associations. He has a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry and a Doctorate in Analytical Chemistry at Science M.F.N. from the University of Turin, Italy.
Peter Lee, PhD, Manager of Taste Innovation, Kerry
Peter oversees research activities within Kerry’s Taste Innovation team. He has responsibility for developing new and novel flavour/taste molecules and flavour-related technologies specific to taste modulation to support the creation of unique taste solutions across a range of applications. Peter has a Master’s degree in Food Science from Louisiana State University and a Doctorate in Animal Science from Clemson University, USA.
