Michelle Schwenk, Food Scientist
Michelle has worked with Tate & Lyle, Decatur, IL, for 10 years. She holds a master's degree in food science from the University of Illinois and is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Association of Candy Technologists and the Institute of Food Technologists.Michelle has published articles on sugar-free products, innovative processing techniques and starch in confections. Before joining Tate & Lyle, Michelle worked for Crest Foods, Ashton, IL, a dairy stabilizer company.

Perhaps it is because comfort foods, for me, are becoming more important, or maybe because it is my husband’s favorite dessert, or perhaps it’s because I am just old enough to remember images of Bill Cosby’s smiling face telling me how delicious it is, or how easy it is to make. Whatever the reason, I like pudding. I like all kinds of pudding— tapioca, vanilla, butterscotch—and we have it frequently at my house for a snack. That is why I was excited last year when we decided to show a pudding cup enhanced with an excellent source of fiber for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Expo.

The first challenge was to identify a co-packer willing to do a special run just for us. We ended up choosing one in the upper Midwest. At the plant, my goal was to adapt a formula of pudding. The co-packer was already aseptically packaging, and substituting the existing sweeteners with PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber at a level to achieve an excellent source of fiber. My plan was that this formula would be easy for them to run (it would be their existing formula) and demonstrate how easy it is to convert an existing formula to one that has lower sugar, lower calories and fiber.

We replaced the existing sweeteners with PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber and it ran just as expected, with no problems. The parameters were the same, the processing was the same, and the finished product was just as delicious as their regular product.

So, the goal was accomplished, and at IFT we showed an aseptically packaged pudding that had an excellent source of fiber. To verify the fiber level, we sent before and after samples for fiber analysis by AOAC method 2001.03, and the fiber levels were the same before and after processing, meaning none was lost in the aseptic process.

The pudding has a one-year shelf life, and so what we didn't give away at IFT, we shipped back to our lab. When they are out of date, I admit I will miss my occasional snack of the delicious pudding, assuming any cups are still left. All in all, it was a great experience, and a great prototype.

Michelle Schwenk, Food Scientist
Michelle has worked with Tate & Lyle, Decatur, IL, for 10 years. She holds a master's degree in food science from the University of Illinois and is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Association of Candy Technologists and the Institute of Food Technologists.Michelle has published articles on sugar-free products, innovative processing techniques and starch in confections. Before joining Tate & Lyle, Michelle worked for Crest Foods, Ashton, IL, a dairy stabilizer company.

Several years ago, I was asked to be a part of a special new team at Tate & Lyle, the PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber team. I have been part of the process of identifying and commercializing this ingredient from nearly the beginning. I enjoy working on a product that helps the consumer and helps make products more nutritious.

PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber was a brilliant idea in its simplicity. Tate & Lyle wanted to make not just ingredients, but ingredients that helped people live better, i.e., wellness products. As we have always been carbohydrate experts, fiber was a natural next step. We have 100 years of experience in corn syrup processing technology and used it to make a corn syrup with a high level of indigestible bonds, or fiber.

I remember making an orange juice that had 20g of fiber in a serving. It was still delicious, though probably not commercially feasible. We pushed the limits of this new fiber ingredient and found very few. One example of using it in an existing application would be this whole grain cracker I am snacking on as I write this. It contains 5g of whole grains per serving, but it only has 1g of fiber. Substituting PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber could easily increase the fiber content without changing the label, or the cracker itself.

I knew from the start that we had something exciting and challenging as we had dialed-in functionality that would have nearly universal application. Working with this ingredient from conception to commercialization has been wonderful. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career, and it is even more special now that I am seeing products on the store shelf utilizing PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber to deliver health benefits to consumers.

Lisa M. Sanders is a nutrition scientist at Tate & Lyle, Decatur, IL, with an expertise in the area of fiber and wellness carbohydrates. She obtained her Ph.D. in nutrition science from Texas A&M University, where she researched dietary fiber in the prevention of colon cancer. 

The term “prebiotic” is relatively new, coined only in 1995 by researchers Glen Gibson and Marcel Roberfroid. Since that time, research in the area of prebiotics has seen a tremendous boom and continues to grow. But the science hasn’t quite reached the general public yet, and most consumers are unaware of prebiotics and their benefits. So, what is a prebiotic, and why are scientists and nutritionists so interested in these substances? In the most basic terms, prebiotics are food ingredients that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria that live in the large intestine. And why is promoting bacterial growth a good thing? Some of the bacteria in the large intestine are beneficial and actually give health benefits to the entire body. In just the past decade, the beneficial bacteria in our large intestine have been connected to a plethora of health benefits, including, enhanced immune responses, decreases in body fat, stronger bones, reduced inflammatory responses (such as in patients with inflammatory bowel disease), improved digestive health, enhanced satiety and anti-cancer benefits.

At Tate & Lyle, we have developed the PROMITOR™ line of fibers, including PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber and PROMITOR™ Resistant Starch, which act as prebiotics. In addition to promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria, these fibers are also fermented by the beneficial bacteria to produce substances that contribute to the health of the large intestine. We continue to work with leading researchers in the area of prebiotics to determine additional health benefits, such as enhanced immunity, digestive health and bone health.

As prebiotics make their way into the marketplace, Tate & Lyle is ready to provide you with the ingredients you need to give customers the benefits they demand, without compromising on taste. PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber and PROMITOR™ Resistant Starch provide a range of applications by which you can incorporate prebiotic fibers into your foods and provide value-added products to your customers.

Lisa M. Sanders is a nutrition scientist at Tate & Lyle, Decatur, IL, with an expertise in the area of fiber and wellness carbohydrates. She obtained her Ph.D. in nutrition science from Texas A&M University, where she researched dietary fiber in the prevention of colon cancer. 

More and more food companies are starting to formulate products with fiber. This is important as most individuals only eat about half of the fiber they need in a day. However, as people add more fiber to their diet, some may begin to notice some undesirable gastrointestinal side effects. If the side effects are severe or cause discomfort, individuals will often avoid high-fiber or fiber-fortified foods. Manufacturers need a fiber that will offer the health benefits consumers demand, without the undesirable side effects they don’t want. Tate & Lyle’s line of PROMITOR™ Dietary Fiber is a perfect solution. PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber and PROMITOR™ Resistant Starch are both very well tolerated. We have tested the tolerance of these fibers in a number of experiments:

1. A range of doses from 5-15 grams.

2. Acute and chronic intake for 2 weeks.

3. In different food products such as beverages, bars and bakery products.

4. At different times of the day, such as in the morning on an empty stomach and near a meal time.

Subjects in all of these studies reported mild to no gastrointestinal side effects.

So what makes these fibers so well tolerated? Part of the answer may be in how the human large intestine ferments the fiber. Among the products of fermentation in the large intestine are gases, such as hydrogen and methane. When a fiber is rapidly fermented, these gases build up quickly and could cause discomfort. PROMITOR™ fibers are more slowly fermented, resulting in slower gas generation and less discomfort.

Tate & Lyle’s range of PROMITOR™ Dietary Fiber is a great solution when looking to fortify with fiber to give consumers the benefits they want without the side effects they don’t.

Stacey K. Walton is a food scientist at Tate & Lyle with an expertise in beverage applications. She earned her Bachelors of Science, Masters of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has focused on food and beverage chemistry and sensory science throughout her education.  She has previously worked for ADM, PepsiCo Beverages and Foods, and Kellogg’s in various roles.

One formula in particular that I enjoyed developing was a pomegranate-flavored water fortified with an excellent source of fiber (5g fiber per 8-oz. serving). I wanted to create a base for a light flavor to showcase the fact that soluble corn fiber does not add any negative flavor attributes. So, I used a combination of citric acid and phosphoric acid to get a pH of 3.4. I also formulated with sodium citrate and potassium citrate to balance flavor, in conjunction with sucralose. Then came the fun part of screening flavors. I evaluated about 25 flavors in this base to see what might be most accepted, keeping in mind the original light flavor objective. I had fellow employees at Tate & Lyle taste a variety of flavors, such as pear, pomegranate, grape and apple. I narrowed down the flavor list from 25 to 10 and hot-filled each flavor in the base to determine if it would stand up to the heat treatment. After another tasting session, I decided the pomegranate flavor was the winning flavor and the formula was complete. I also did some stability testing to confirm that the fiber content would not change before and after the hot-fill process and over a 9 month shelf life. Since there were no heat stability or shelf life issues, we selected a co-packer to make 8 oz. bottles for us to hand out at the IFT trade show. We also had commercial labels developed for the bottles that would work with the co-packer labeling equipment. We had lots of great comments at IFT about this prototype, and even got a mention in The New York Times.

Stacey K. Walton is a food scientist at Tate & Lyle with an expertise in beverage applications.  She earned her Bachelors of Science, Masters of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She has focused on food and beverage chemistry and sensory science throughout her education.  She has previously worked for ADM, PepsiCo Beverages and Foods, and Kellogg’s in various roles.

When it comes to innovation in the beverage area, a common theme I hear from fellow food scientists is that they do not have new ingredients to work with. They say all companies have the same set of approved ingredients to work with, and there are only so many combinations you can come up with. At Tate & Lyle, we are continually working to scale-up new ingredients to enable innovation. An example of one of our latest ingredient launches is PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber. The average American diet does not consist of enough fiber, so fortification in beverage applications makes sense. Similar to the many calcium- fortified beverage products available on the market, I would expect that we will be seeing many more fiber-fortified beverages in the near future.

Some sources of fiber are difficult to formulate with for various reasons. They are not heat stable for hot filling, they contribute off flavors, or increase viscosity beyond what is acceptable. PROMITOR™ Soluble Corn Fiber makes a product developer’s job easy since it is heat stable for an extended shelf life across the beverage pH range. It gives a mild sweet taste to the product, and contributes a slight viscosity to the finished product. The best part is that it dissolves clear in a finished beverage. Tate & Lyle has developed starting formulas fortified with fiber in a variety of beverage applications, including juices and juice drinks, carbonated soft drinks, and flavored waters.

Tate & Lyle has an extensive group of food scientists to assist with any formula questions that might come up with soluble corn fiber or any Tate & Lyle ingredient. Product developers should take a look at what’s new at Tate & Lyle when brainstorming for new innovation beverage projects.