Functional food ingredients include sugar alcohols, dietary fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, phospholipids, active peptides and proteins, Chinese herbal medicine with dual medicinal and food properties, animal and plant extracts, and more. Compared to ordinary food ingredients, functional food ingredients can provide various unique physiological functions to food. The emergence of functional food ingredients fully satisfies consumers' demand for pursuing health value and the development needs of functional foods, rapidly becoming the most promising area in the food ingredient industry.
Low-energy, sugar-free foods versus functional polyols
As people's living standards continue to improve, the excessive consumption of high-energy foods has led to an increasing number of patients with diabetes, obesity, and other conditions. Low-energy, sugar-free foods have become a hot topic and a key focus in the international food market. However, because most consumers are accustomed to the pure sweetness provided by sucrose in traditional foods, it is difficult for them to adapt to the taste of low-sugar or sugar-free products. On the other hand, polyols can replace sugar on a 1:1 basis during food processing without requiring major adjustments to the process. Therefore, in the production of functional foods, companies generally use polyols as bulk sweeteners to meet consumers' flavor requirements.
Functional polyols are obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of corresponding sugars and belong to the category of functional sweeteners. They are an important type of functional food ingredient, including sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, erythritol, and more. Many ingredient manufacturers in the market have introduced such products, and HSF Biotech's PhytoSweet™ Sweeteners represent a typical example of this product line. It includes a range of sugar substitutes such as erythritol, maltitol, allulose, and stevia.
The functions of polyols mainly manifest in three aspects: they do not affect insulin levels in the human body's metabolic pathway, making them suitable for producing specialized foods for diabetic patients; they are not favorable substrates for oral microorganisms (especially Mutans streptococci), and some polyols, such as xylitol, can even inhibit the growth and reproduction of Mutans streptococci. Long-term consumption of polyols does not cause tooth decay; and the metabolic characteristics of certain polyols are similar to dietary fiber, possessing some physiological functions of dietary fiber, such as preventing constipation, improving the intestinal microbial community, and preventing the occurrence of colon cancer.
Dietary Fiber vs. Probiotic Foods
Observations of dietary patterns reveal that people are consuming increasing amounts of animal-based foods while decreasing their intake of plant-based foods. This has led to a reduction in daily fiber intake, which can be addressed through the consumption of probiotic foods that contain dietary fiber.
Dietary fiber has a broad range of physiological functions. Its ability to absorb water and expand in the gut creates a high-viscosity solution or gel that generates feelings of fullness and reduces appetite, making it useful for weight loss in obese individuals. Additionally, dietary fiber stimulates bowel movement, improves gut health, and reduces the incidence of colon cancer and hemorrhoids. It also controls the activity of lipase, blocking fat digestion and eliminating undigested fats from the body, leading to a lowering of serum cholesterol and blood lipids. Furthermore, dietary fiber can be partially or completely fermented by beneficial bacteria in the colon, producing a large amount of short-chain fatty acids, regulating intestinal PH, improving the growth environment of beneficial bacteria, and leading to the rapid expansion of beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacteria. This is important for inhibiting the growth of putrefying bacteria, preventing intestinal mucosal atrophy, supporting the intestinal mucosal barrier function, maintaining vitamin supply, and protecting the liver.
Infant Food vs Unsaturated Fatty Acids
Research suggests that certain populations, such as premature infants, individuals with essential fatty acid deficiency, and newborns lacking breastfeeding, should receive appropriate supplementation of unsaturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids are essential for the human body and come in various types, each with its own physiological functions. Short-chain unsaturated fatty acids are necessary for normal physiological metabolism and serve as one of the main sources of energy in the body. On the other hand, long-chain unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid) are crucial components of the brain and nerves. Adequate levels of DHA and ARA contribute to the development of the visual and nervous systems. Furthermore, DHA and ARA play important roles in the synthesis of certain key hormones within the body.
As a functional food ingredient for use in infant food, polyunsaturated fatty acids are primarily used in maternal food products and as therapeutic drugs or health supplements to treat polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency and regulate blood lipids and cholesterol. Unsaturated fatty acids, especially polyunsaturated fatty acids, are sensitive to temperature, oxygen, and light, which can affect the flavor and quality of products. To prevent the occurrence of such issues, HSF Biotech uses self-developed special processing equipment in the production of DHA Oil. The processes strictly control contact with air, reduce metal ion contamination, control temperature and heating time, and minimize oxidation during processing. The type of antioxidants in the finished oil is determined on the basis of extensive experimental optimization, and aluminum bottles or aluminum foil bags are selected with excellent air tightness. Nitrogen filling or vacuum packaging and low-temperature storage are adopted.
In addition, HSF Biotech uses microencapsulation technology in the production of DHA powder, which is specially designed according to the special requirements of infant food production processes, making HSF Biotech DHA powder highly praised by customers for its good particle size, flowability, solubility, color, and odor, especially for its inherent quality such as food safety and stability. Furthermore, microencapsulation can effectively improve the odor of DHA, while enhancing its stability and extending the shelf life of the end product.
Nutrient-enriched foods vs. Micronutrients
Vitamins and minerals play an important role in maintaining human life activities and keeping the body healthy. They are essential elements for the human body, but most of them cannot be synthesized internally and need to be continuously supplied through food intake. Vitamins and minerals are widely present in nature, but the refinement of diets has led to a significant loss of these trace elements. The micronutrients obtained from regular foods consumed by individuals on a daily basis are no longer sufficient to meet the needs for maintaining a healthy body. Particularly for certain population groups, such as smokers who require 30-50% more vitamin C intake compared to non-smokers, infants, pregnant women, and individuals over the age of 30 who need special attention to calcium supplementation. Micronutrient supplements and corresponding nutrient-enriched foods can address this issue by providing consumers with balanced dietary nutrition on a daily basis.
A well-designed vitamin or mineral formula should not have a significant impact on the sensory attributes of food. However, in reality, certain vitamins do have color and flavor, such as when B-complex vitamins (such as vitamins B1, B2, B5, niacin, and B6) reach a certain dosage, they can result in bitterness. Additionally, beta-carotene imparts an orange color. In such cases, careful ingredient selection is necessary. During the design of fortified formulas, various situations may arise. Sometimes, the taste of micronutrients can be completely masked by other ingredients, while other times it cannot. In such cases, HSF Biotech will choose alternative ingredients with similar nutritional benefits but with minimal impact on the taste of the food, meeting the needs of the company. A range of different techniques will also be employed to minimize the impact of fortified nutrients on the original flavor of the final product.
To ensure the optimal functionality of vitamins or minerals, HSF Biotech also considers the interaction between various components in the premix, as well as the shelf life of the premix, food pH value, processing conditions, packaging conditions, storage conditions, and other factors. Particularly for ingredients with high hygroscopicity, extra attention should be paid by the company. Materials with high hygroscopicity can increase the moisture content of the premix and the final food, thereby intensifying the interaction between ingredients and affecting the efficacy of the nutrients. For nutrients that are prone to loss and degradation during processing, it is necessary to appropriately increase their dosage in the premix to ensure their stability in the final product.
Functional food ingredients are mostly discovered in the diets of the world's longest-living and healthiest regions and populations. Advancements in technology have allowed for the isolation and purification of functional components from these diets, which can be added to regular foods, carrying forward the traditions of healthy recipes for centuries. Whether from this perspective or from the strong growth of the functional food market in the past decade, the emergence of functional food and ingredients is an inevitable result of social development. Accompanied by the increasing awareness of consumer health and purchasing power, further research by scientific institutions on functional factors, the improvement of functional and safety evaluation systems, the translation of more technological achievements, and the soundness of relevant laws and regulations, it is believed that functional food and functional food ingredients will have greater room for development. The prosperity of the market is also imminent.
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