Food Beverages And Hospitality October 2018

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The Hurdles of 'Clean' and Better-for-You Snacks
Better-for-you snack manufacturers must clear production hurdles to chase opportunities.
In the realm of better-for-you snacks, formulation
challenges arguably outweigh production
difficulties, as Bob Clark, vice president of
marketing for Herr Foods, contends. The
Nottingham, Pa.-based manufacturer of Herr's
potato chips and other salty snacks puts herculean
effort into developing new products that not only
leverage consumers' latest notions about health
and wellness, but also taste great, he says.
Nevertheless, for startups rolling out everything
from quinoa cookies to sea-salted popped
edamame chips and for established manufacturers
cautiously debuting “clean label” products, the
operational obstacles are many. The shift toward
more natural-sounding and nutrient-dense
ingredients, the elimination of many preservatives
and other feared substances and the pressure to
meet new labeling requirements and sundry
certification standards can lead to massive capital
expenditures and process changes.
It's no wonder that mission-driven entrepreneurs
and big companies alike are turning to contract
manufacturers that focus on the dietetic and freefrom
snack markets. To ensure smoother entry
into the evolving sphere of clean labels, many
conventional snack food processors also rely on
guidance from ingredient and equipment
suppliers,
“It's a different space, so there is definitely a
learning curve,” says Rieschl, who frequently
advises manufacturers on how to work with
Cargill's pea protein isolates and other alternative
ingredients in extruded snack products.
Plant-based protein pressures
Given the current rage for plant-based proteins,
much of the innovation in extruded and expanded
snacks involves incorporating not just pea protein
but also chickpea, lentil and other pulse flours into
products that are more nutritious than typical
cheese or corn puffs.
But manufacturers need to be aware of the
operational hurdles before venturing into this
space, cautions food scientist and engineer
Massoud Kazemzadeh, founder of Clara City,
Minn.-based contract manufacturer Kay's
Processing (www.kaysprocess.com) and its
b r a n d e d c o u n t e r p a r t , K a y ' s N a t u r a l s .
Kazemzadeh, who previously taught at Texas
A&M University and finalized the engineering of a
twin-screw high-pressure extruder for Bühler,
custom-designs the extrusion equipment he uses
in his plant.
“It's much easier to puff a carbohydrate like starch
than to puff or expand a protein,” he notes,
explaining that the volumetric mass density of
protein macromolecules ranges from 1 million to 2
million Ds compared to about 100,000 to 300,000
Ds for carbohydrates. Kay's Processing's twinscrew
extruders deliver pressures of up to 3,500
psi, while traditional extruders typically attain
pressures of 800 psi to 900 psi, according to
Kazemzadeh.
www.kingsinfomedia.com
October - 2018
Focus Food Beverages & Hospitality
15