Product concepts for breakfast beverages

Beneo, a manufacturer of functional nutrients, featured its new product concepts for breakfast beverages at this year’s drinktec. Visitors had the opportunity to taste the company’s product ideas at the ‘New Beverage Concepts’ innovation platform and found out more about the nutritional and technical benefits of Beneo’s naturally derived ingredients.

Recent consumer research underlines the growing popularity of convenient and healthy beverages amongst European consumers. With its versatile product portfolio, Beneo believes it is well positioned to make the most of this ‘convenience’ trend. The company’s functional ingredients can easily be incorporated into liquid breakfast options, providing optimal nutritional value whilst maintaining taste and texture.

For those wanting a traditional start to the day with a twist, Beneo showcased a ready-to-drink coffee made with Palatinose and OraftiHSI (Highly Soluble Inulin). Palatinose provides full carbohydrate energy in a balanced way, resulting in a low glycaemic effect while the prebiotic fibre inulin can help to improve the digestive system.

Also developed is a fruit juice drink with Palatinose. Derived from sugar beet, the functional carbohydrate has a sugar-like sweetness profile and provides good solubility in liquids, as well as high stability under acidic conditions, making it suitable for various beverage applications.

Visitors to Beneo’s stand also had the opportunity to taste a lactose- and cholesterol-free strawberry flavoured fermented rice drink and a vanilla flavoured rice drink. Both drinks contain Beneo’s dairy alternative Nutriz, made from rice based ingredients that are 100% vegetable. The Nutriz product range is hypoallergenic, easy to digest and free of gluten and lactose. For the creation of non-dairy drinks that are perfectly white, smooth, stable and have a creamy mouth-feel, Beneo’s rice concentrate Nutriz M is the ingredient of choice.

Also on show was a chocolate-flavoured fibre shake with an indulgent, creamy mouthfeel using the ingredients Palatinose and OraftiHSI.

As consumers become more aware of the beneficial effects of higher fibre intake, solutions bridging the ‘fibre gap’ are bringing new opportunities to beverage manufacturers. Beneo’s soluble prebiotic fibres inulin and oligofructose are easily incorporated into beverages, promoting a healthy gut flora, while maintaining taste and texture.

Jens Böhm, marketing manager at Beneo, comments, “Convenience continues to be a major consumer trend that manufacturers are looking to satisfy with new, innovative beverage solutions. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and presents an opportunity for the beverage industry to create ‘liquid breakfast solutions’ that are convenient, yet deliver key nutritional benefits.”