As consumers become more health conscious, bakery, confectionery and other food manufacturers are looking for ways to incorporate ingredients that can deliver health benefits, without compromising the taste or performance of their product. This trend is particularly noticeable in the chewing gum market, where huge strides have been made in the development of sugar-free gum, which can also contain active ingredients or health-giving benefits to meet consumer demand for more healthy food.
Microencapsulation looks set to be the tool of choice to achieve this, and is an ideal solution for use in a range of modern chewing gum applications. It is the process by which tiny particles of flavour, or active ingredients, are surrounded by a shell or coating of a protective material, which allows them to pass through processing, storage, cooking and even digestion, to deliver their properties when the coating is broken down. Microencapsulation can therefore enable the delayed release of ingredients and flavours which provides manufacturers with the ability to achieve longer lasting taste in chewing gum.
Why encapsulate?So, why encapsulate? Essentially, raw ingredients are reactive chemicals. When they get together, a reaction will occur. The addition of heat can accelerate this reaction.
Microencapsulation can prevent these chemical reactions and protects key ingredients from environmental conditions that could spoil their effectiveness. So it can be used to protect ingredients from heat, low pH, oxidation, light, and flavour loss. It can also mask undesirable flavours and prevent interaction with other ingredients. It can improve delivery of the required effect, increase stability and shelf-life, reduce production losses and so increase plant capacity, and cut transport costs.
In a recent Frost & Sullivan report, it was suggested that the demand for encapsulation was growing at 10% year on year, driven by the need to fortify products with health ingredients and by consumer demand for novel products.
It is believed that encapsulation of ingredients was first attempted in the late 1940’s to allow bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar to sit happily together in a dry cake mix, without a reaction taking place.
To find out more about how this innovative technique can be used by chewing gum manufacturers, to help them gain a competitive advantage in this growing market sector, I recently paid a visit to TasteTech, a leading player in the microencapsulation business, which is located in Bristol, in the south-west of England. TasteTech commenced trading in 1992, having been set up by Roger Sinton, with several of his former colleagues from the flavouring industry, to develop the little known microencapsulation technique for use in the flavouring and ingredients market. The company quickly became a pioneer in the field.
Over the last 15 years, the TasteTech team has helped to solve many food processing and manufacturing problems for its customers. Sadly, in 2007, Roger Sinton died suddenly, following a short illness. Janis Sinton, who had worked alongside him since the company was formed, agreed to take up the reins to ensure that the future direction of the company continues to be based on its founding principles. Today, all TasteTech’s equipment is still designed in-house and built locally to ensure that it meets the specific processing requirements for the company’s microencapsulation processes.
Since Janis took over the running of the company it has undergone a period of review and reorganisation to help ensure that it continues to focus on its strengths, and to make sure that it continues to offer the best possible products and service to its customers, now and in the future.
Janis was kind enough to take time out from her ambitious expansion plans, (she tells me that the company is on target to double its turnover over a five year period!) to show me around the facility and to explain about the role of microencapsulated ingredients in chewing gum applications, which, she says, is the most important market for TasteTech and is an area that is really tailor-made to take maximum advantage of microencapsulation.
About TasteTech
Today, TasteTech is an international microencapsulation company with up to 75% of its output being exported. During our conversation, I discovered that, in addition to its work with the chewing gum industry, the company also works extensively in other areas of the confectionery market, in the bakery market, and other areas of the food industry too.
We talked about some of the main trends in the flavourings market, and Janis identified one of the main drivers as being the demand for natural ingredients and the need for 'clean labels', shelf-life extension, and lower cost in use. “To ensure that we can offer the natural products being demanded today, we have carefully reviewed our range of nature identical flavourings and now offer a wide selection of natural alternatives,” Janis told me.
Next, we took a tour of the facility, starting in the warehouse area which houses many of the dry ingredients, as well as holding a healthy stock of finished product. This enables the company to supply many of its standard product ranges on a just-in-time basis.
We moved on to the process facility and I was impressed by the cleanliness and lack of any strong aromas around the plant. “We have just achieved the BRC Global Standard,” Janis proudly told me. “Our facility meets all the requirements of this stringent standard and we felt that it was necessary for us to prove this to our customers.”
Developed by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), a UK trade organisation that represents the interests of UK retailers, the BRC Global Standard for Food was created to establish a standard for due diligence and supplier approval. The standard covers a comprehensive scope of product safety areas, as well as the legal and due diligence responsibilities of both the supplier and the retailer. It is particularly suitable for companies supplying food products to UK retailers, regardless of the product or country of origin. Indeed, in most cases certification to this standard is a pre-condition for supplying to UK retailers.
The principal requirements of the standard are the adoption and implementation of a HACCP system, a documented and effective quality management system and a control of factory environmental standards, products, processes and personnel.
The microencapsulation processesThe TasteTech encapsulation facility consists of three processes which provide a variety of CR (Controlled Release) options, based on the encapsulation properties of a variety of carrier systems. By forming a coating around the internal ingredients, a barrier is created to protect or separate them from the external environment until required. Release can be triggered by a change in temperature or by mechanical release such as chewing.
• The CR300 encapsulation system offers the lightest fat encapsulation of powders and results in a finished product that is between 80% to 97% ingredient with the remainder being encapsulation material. The ingredient is fluidised in a temperature-controlled environment while the lipid coating is applied by atomisation to produce a dry, free-flowing, granular powder, which is suitable for use in many applications.
• The CR100 encapsulation system results in a finished product that can consist of up to 60% encapsulation material. This process sees the flavouring and/or ingredient being introduced to a custom-designed coating. This mixture is atomised in a temperature-controlled environment, which produces fine, dry, oil-soluble particles.
• Finally, the CR200 process converts difficult to handle ingredients into fine, free flowing powders. Active ingredients – such as citric acid or menthol – are added to free-flowing agents and/or stabilisers and are then pressed through a proprietary hybridisation process to produce a microfine powder, which is suitable for use in a wide range of applications.
Other areas of the facility that we visited during our factory tour included a spray drying system, which involves the atomisation of a liquid feedstock into hot air to produce a fine, dry, water-soluble powder. Typically, the feedstock consists of a flavouring ingredient, modified starch and water. TasteTech has many years of spray drying experience and believes it produces some of the highest quality spray dried flavourings available today.
Finally, we saw the liquid compounding system, which is primarily used for flavourings that are tailored to the requirements of individual applications. Liquid flavourings can be produced in batches, in safe and hygienic surroundings utilising all permitted solvent systems, including Ethanol.
Benefits for chewing gum
Following our trip around the plant we sat down to discuss some of the major benefits of microencapsulation in chewing gum applications.
“We have worked with many gum manufacturers, and so understand the need to increase the longevity of the flavour in the chewing gum. Today, consumers expect the flavour in their gum to last up to 20 minutes, and encapsulation technology offers the best way to help manufacturers to meet this requirement,” Janis told me. She went on to explain just some of the benefits of the company’s CR100 and CR200 offerings in gum applications.
As mentioned earlier in this feature, CR100 is a fine powder system which offers encapsulation of liquids or powders. It is often used to encapsulate intense sweeteners and food acids, as well as flavourings and key ingredients such as sodium bicarbonate, ascorbic acid, vitamins and caffeine, where it can be used to mask bitter flavours. The uniform-sized spheres are fine enough to avoid a gritty texture, which would not be acceptable in gum applications, and the active ingredient is released slowly as the gum is chewed, and not before.
The CR100 encapsulation process can offer the following benefits:
• Functional improvements such as increased longevity of the active ingredient or flavouring in the chewing gum system
• Sweetness and acidity are normally quickly lost as gum is chewed. TasteTech’s CR100 sweeteners and CR100 acids can extend chewing gum palatability in the mouth
• The gum base is well known for adsorbing liquid flavourings and CR100 microencapsulation creates an effective barrier between the gum base and flavouring, thus reducing flavour loss into the gum base
• CR100 microencapsulation enables the bitterness of some ingredients, such as caffeine, to be masked by their slow controlled release during chewing
• Active ingredients, such as sodium bicarbonate, can be protected by the barrier CR100 microencapsulation provides, ensuring that the active ingredient is in excellent condition for the customer
• Normally incompatible ingredients can be used within the same product
The CR200 process also has many benefits in gum applications. It can, for example, be used to produce a menthol powder with a gum arabic base, which solves many of the problems associated with handling menthol crystals. It can stabilise finely divided powders and provides huge benefits in chewing gum applications, preventing recrystallisation of menthol, which is traditionally a difficult ingredient to work with. It also presents the menthol in a fine, stable powder form, which offers a much larger surface area for the release of flavour. The CR200 menthol powder system offers at least four times the flavour strength of spray dried alternatives.
In chewing gum applications CR200 menthol can, therefore, provide manufacturers with a very stable menthol powder which can cost-effectively replace spray dried alternatives. It can also be used in the coating system of chewing gum, and can be used directly in recipes without the need for any of the costly or hazardous processing techniques that are necessary when using standard large menthol crystals.
CR300 can be used as an alternative to CR100 where a larger particle size or faster release are required, such as in pressed gum.
Liquid flavourings offer immediate impact in chewing gum and can provide intense refreshing taste from the first chew. It is often a good choice in liquid filled gums, which are becoming increasingly popular today.
For applications where liquids would not be suitable, because it would adversely affect the consistency of the gum base, spray dried flavourings on a gum arabic carrier can offer a good solution. They are ideal for use in pressed gum applications, helping to increase flavour without overloading the gum base with liquid.
Flavourings as you like them
During my visit it became evident that the TasteTech team are proud of their ability to be able to provide tailor-made chewing gum flavourings for customers, from traditional peppermint through to the newer, more fashionable, flavouring ideas such as chocolate. The company is constantly undertaking its own research and development work to ensure that it is able to meet every challenge presented to it by the chewing gum industry. Indeed, my day with TasteTech left me in no doubt that the company would be able to handle any chewing gum flavouring requirements thrown at it, with its knowledgeable flavourists and technologists always on hand to help companies produce the perfect flavour for a particular project. If required, TasteTech is also happy for its customers to visit the facility to help mix their own ideal flavours! www.tastetech.com