Back to Basics: Q&A

Where?is the?food and beverage?ingredient?landscape?headed?next??Consumer desire for ingredients that resemble?natural?foods?and?offer rich nutritional?benefits?are key factors driving change,?says Jim Gratzek , a food science and technology faculty member at the University of Georgia and?director of UGA's Center for Food Product Innovation and Commercialization (FoodPIC).??

During his more than 30-year career?in food and beverage product development, Gratzek?has?kept his finger closely on the pulse of ingredient trends.?He’s?worked?with?soups, sauces, dairy, alt-dairy, fruits, vegetables, and snacks?in settings ranging?from?startups to major?corporations. Since?joining?FoodPIC?in 2022,?he’s?helped companies?take?new products from conception?and consumer research?to?shelf-life testing and?launch.??

Food?trends come and go,?Gratzek?says,?but?he expects today’s focus on deriving functionality and great taste from real foods—what he calls an “anti-ingredient trend”—is here to stay. “A?movement is afoot to formulate smarter,”?he says,?“and?to do this, we need to be on top of our chemistry, but in a new,?natural way.”?Read on to learn more.??

What?is trending in new?ingredients right now????

Clean label is where it continues to be?‘at,’ and this means?a desire for?more functionality with ingredients that people perceive as?real?food.?For example, a change from?using, say,?xanthan gum to?using?citrus?fiber would be seen as?positive,?as people?understand?what?‘citrus’?and ‘fiber’?are.?But?‘xanthan gum’? Not so much.?A change?from?sodium?acetate to?vinegar is a true winner. Gums,?buffering?salts,?preservatives—the things that the more seasoned food scientists among?us?grew up with—are falling out of favor.?I’ve?used these?all my career. They work?and?they’re?great,?but?I would argue that the trend is?moving in a different direction. If there are ways to?modify?protein such that?phosphates?are not needed,?then that will be a better consumer path.?Would-be ingredients that address living longer are another trend. Anti-inflammation is the one area?I’d?personally bet on given what we are seeing and hearing.??

What?do you think is?driving?this??

Even while we continue to rely on nationally?distributed products, consumers?still want something that is not a concoction or?an?industrial outcome.?There’s?a lot of cynicism about what we do, and big food continues to be vilified.?There’s caution and skepticism among consumers—and among?young upstart companies because?they’re?following?the?consumer’s lead.?I think this?is the biggest factor driving?[ingredient]?decisions.?We?worked?on a project recently?[at?FoodPIC]?involving?something that had a chemical-sounding name.?I?can’t?mention the company or the?ingredient, but I can share that there was an about-face?well?into the project,?and a decision?was made?not to proceed?even though,?functionally,?we were?nearly there. This?is the reality now.??

What opportunities?do?innovative ingredients offer for new product development—and what challenges do they pose??

The opportunities?include?cleaner labels,?new functionalities,?and?health claims that are real.?Cleaner labels are becoming table stakes.?Consumers want to buy food that they think they could make in their own home—and that trend’s not going away.?I had a mentor?who?used to say,?‘If you’re explaining, you’re losing.’?This underscores the importance of?common language?on labels. Yet while labels are shrinking,?function?is not.?What?we’re?looking for today is function through?‘non-ingredients.’ By that I mean achieving potential health benefits through real foods such as mushrooms, beets, oats, avocados, berries... Other?challenges?include?cost?and?lack of product developer experience and know-how.?When using something new, unlike the things we know, the learning curve starts all over again. The easy decision is,?however, not the best?decision.??

On?that note,?what’s?the learning curve for food scientists??

The role of food scientists and food design?is more important now than ever because you really?have to?understand?all?the things we learned about in school—all the basic chemistry.?Our chemistry has to be sharp—because what we’re trying to do is use the natural chemistry of foods without using chemistry.?This requires us to?keep on learning.?I’ve?been at this a long time, and?I’m?still learning every day. ?

Can you share?an?innovative ingredients?success story?from?your work?with?FoodPIC???

We have been working with elderberry farmers?in?Georgia and northern Florida. Their ingredient?tops the?charts in antioxidant power, and the consumer trend behind it—immunity—shows no signs of stopping.?We helped?an?entrepreneur?process and bottle a?simple?juice?with one ingredient.?People are buying it for immunity?and the extremely high antioxidant levels that elderberries?offer.?? ?

Given?your take on innovative ingredients, where do you see the future?of food?heading???

I’m?expecting the local food movement to explode.?Farmers markets. Local, small-scale?production. Building entire brands with?simple ingredients. Could this be the?future of food? I?really?hope so.??

Join Jim?Gratzek?on Monday, July 15, at 1:45 p.m. in Chicago for the IFT FIRST Featured Session?F&B Ecosystem of the Future: Harnessing the Power of Innovation, Collaboration, and Diverse Thinking,?where he and an interdisciplinary panel of experts from academia, industry, and non-profit organizations will?explore?the?unprecedented?challenges?facing the food and beverage ecosystem?and how leveraging collaborative partnerships are shaping the future to navigate disruption in this dynamic landscape.

Are you coming to IFT FIRST??Members save big?on registration.?Reserve?your spot today!?

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