The development of new food lines with functional ingredients is revolutionising the food industry, the everyday act of eating and the concept of healthy eating.
By 2020, the global functional food market is expected to be worth approximately
165 billion, but the market is forecast to grow at 2.71% per year and will continue to do so until 2026, according to a report published by Mordor Intelligence.
The starting point cannot be defined with absolute precision, but the new technological adventure of nutrition certainly has a unique scenario, starting in the R&D&I departments of companies committed to research and innovation and unfolding in the sector depending on the type of product.
Companies that, in response to market demands, and through research and technology, incorporate functional ingredients that modify the initial composition of raw materials to increase their nutritional quality, in general, and to achieve more beneficial food solutions to satisfy, in particular, an increasingly diverse demand.
Companies such as Molendum Ingredients, a subsidiary of the Dacsa Group, are specialists in providing ingredients for a more balanced and complete nutrition.
The functional ingredients that Molendum offers to the food industry, without additives or preservatives, allow the reformulation of food products, the design of new manufacturing processes and tailor-made solutions according to the needs and objectives of the client, while offering personalised support in the development of new food lines to its partners.
Specifically and as an example, Molendum offers various heat-treated flours, whether pre-cooked chickpea or white corn; stabilised rice flours or pre-gelatinised wheat, rye, spelt or lentil flours, perfect for making batters that generate a good protein intake; functional foods for breakfast; for mid-day reinforcements or snacks, such as snacks; dietary supplements or, of course, for making Baby Food with a higher nutritional quality, of course, but also with greater food safety.
In addition, Molendum offers the industry, in various presentations, its Pésol Pea, the texturised protein, dry or wet, made from peas and subjected to mechanical extrusion processes. A perfect protein for those who choose to eliminate or reduce the consumption of animal protein in their diet for health reasons, personal conviction or sustainability.
We are talking about products made from top-quality, plant-based raw materials to satisfy a market that, rather than demanding, demands foods with extra nutrient content for a diet that combines highly topical concepts: food that is functional, healthy, personalised and, let us not forget, sustainable.
Functional ingredients are at the heart of the food innovation process because companies in the sector, driven by a growing interest in contributing to the promotion of health through food, are relentlessly demanding them.
A demand that drives the development of research into new lines of functional foods that are refined, day by day, in the search for healthy combinations of minerals, proteins and all kinds of nutrients that contribute to increasing, in a decisive way, the benefits of the simple act of eating.
