EDGE Ingredients Gelling Citrus Fiber

Processed foods are under pressure to clean up labels while maintaining quality texture and taste. Promanently used texture ingredient Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose (HPMC) is now under high scrutiny as non-clean label nor minimally processed. Thus this requires food technologists to use the best ingredient “tools” at their disposal. Arguably, vegetarian foods target more discriminating consumers who have more stringent expectations. Therefore, technologists who formulate vegetarian foods require the same suite of performance ingredients as other foods. Perhaps even more.

Overall, the U.S. food industry is forecasted to grow at a steady 2.9% CAGR through 2022. It’s challenging to find trustworthy numbers, and growth between categories varies greatly, however, vegetarian/vegan foods are growing at rates reported between 8 – 34%. No matter what the reported CAGR is for vegetarian foods, the growth rate for this segment is in excess of processed foods.

For instance, the global meat-alternative market may reach $5.2 billion by 2020, demonstrating a massive interest in animal-free protein products. This growth is booming in all markets, with the US and European markets expected to grow at >8% annually with Asia exceeding that.

EDGE’s whole food fibercolloid FiberGel 200, in addition to being an excellent and cost-effective binder for veggie burgers and one that can "replace" HPMC,  also has a friendly name for ingredient declarations.  This appeals more to consumers compared to typical alternative binders. It also enables food technologists to achieve better textures and achieve their price points because of its excellent cost-in-use.