High fibre breakfast cereals have traditionally been closely associated with bran - and, in particular, wheat bran, says Martin Tatlock, business development manager with ingredient manufacturer Roquette. "There are many products on the market with 'bran' in the title and consumers would choose these when they want more fibre, but would not necessarily choose them for taste."
In other words, in the minds of consumers, high fibre breakfast cereals equal bran.
This might seem to be stating the obvious, but when you look at the dynamics within the cereals category, it's a pertinent observation.
"Overall we're seeing a decline in bran-based cereals, which are regarded as a product for older people. Also, whilst most cereal innovation today balances health and taste, bran only really delivers on health," explains Julian Cannings, product developer with own-label cereal manufacturer Dailycer.
This suggests that wheat bran has had its day as a new product development (NPD) strategy, but does it mean fibre has too?
Not necessarily. Tatlock says manufacturers and consumers need to break the automatic association of fibre with bran; fibre comes in many forms and there is a whole new world of soluble and insoluble fibres to be explored.
"As science progresses and fibres and low digestible carbohydrates have become more understood, fibre is now recognised as more than roughage or bran," says Tatlock. "Soluble fibres have a key role to play and it is accepted that we do not eat enough. Ideally it should be in balance with insoluble fibre in the diet."
One of the key challenges in adding fibre is maintaining the palatability of the cereal. Roquette claims its wheat soluble fibre Nutriose can boost fibre content without spoiling the sensory enjoyment. Nutriose ferments slowly in the gut and is said to have excellent digestive tolerance compared to other soluble fibres, even when consumed in big quantities. Meanwhile, Danisco will launch a new prebiotic fibre cereal at Hi Europe in Paris this autumn.
National Starch Food Innovation (NSFI) is another ingredients firm that believes cereal manufacturers could be missing a trick.
"There is still enormous potential for NPD in cereals that combine proven nutritional claims with flavour and texture," says European regulatory compliance manager Julie Scott.
NSFI's answer to this potential is Hi-maize: a resistant starch that can replace starch or flour in cereals without compromising flavour, texture or appearance, according to NSFI.
Hi-maize is a key ingredient in three cereals manufactured by Specialty Cereals in Australia and distributed in the UK by Britannia Health Products: Ultra Bran, SoyTana and Vita-Pro.
The latest ingredients firm at the fibre party is Tate & Lyle, which launched its Promitor dietary fibre range at last year's Food ingredients Europe (FiE) exhibition. The range includes a resistant starch and a soluble glucose fibre that is suited to application in breakfast cereal coatings, according to Frank Sarracino, manager, food ingredients technical service.
"If you're coating a cereal with a glucose syrup sugar mixture you can replace the glucose syrup with the glucose fibre and it will work in the same way, but the coating will have a lower calorie count: only two calories per gram instead of four," he says.
In theory, the inclusion of such ingredients makes perfect sense: not only do they boost the fibre content of cereals, they do so without any negative impact on taste. But you only have to look at the cereals fixture in any major supermarket to see that cereal manufacturers aren't falling over themselves to include them.
Counting the cost
Dailycer's Cannings blames cost: "We have worked with such ingredients. For example, we've used oligofructose from chicory root in cereal bars and inulin in flakes to lower the sugar and increase flavour. We found inulin dissolved well, cooked well and the technical support was excellent. But most industrial fibre ingredients are cost-prohibitive. Branded manufacturers might be able to afford them but our market - private label - is cost-driven so we can't always pursue this option."
Another problem, he says, is that consumers want products that are naturally high in fibre, not 'fortified' or 'enriched'.
This point was backed up by a poll by Harris Interactive for Food Manufacture in April/May. It found that only 13% of consumers were in favour of fortifying products with fibre. The elderly were particularly against this suggestion, with just 8% of over-55s in favour.
The idea that consumers only want fibre in breakfast cereal if it is from natural, familiar sources has been picked up by cereal producers at the premium end of the category.
Cheryl Bouchier is a product developer at Dorset Cereals. She says: "Our strapline is 'honest, tasty and real', so we don't add any fibre other than what is present in the natural fruits and cereals we use. We use dates, raisins, apricots, nuts, barley, oats, wheat and spelt - all of which have an intrinsic fibre content - and we find that does the job for us. All our mueslis, porridges and flakes carry a 'high in fibre' claim and we haven't added anything."
It's a similar story at Pertwood Organic, whose range of organic mueslis, barley flakes, maple flakes, granola and porridge oats are sold in Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda.
"We don't use any of the prebiotic inulin type ingredients," says the company's general manager, Chris Walford. "We try to use ingredients that are as natural as possible and don't like using augmentations of that sort. Porridge oats are very rich in fibre and the barley flakes we use are made from a special variety of waxy barley that has a very high insoluble fibre content."
Pertwood doesn't make any on-pack claims regarding health or fibre. "I get cold feet because the rules keep changing about what you can and can't say, and a company of our size doesn't have the resources to justify the sort of claims bigger manufacturers make."
Most functional fibre ingredients aren't really designed for inclusion in batch muesli mixes anyway - they are intended for use as, say, flour or sugar replacers in more processed products, such as extruded breakfast cereals. That said, there's still little evidence to suggest that the larger manufacturers are making use of the sophisticated fibre enrichment options at their disposal; instead, NPD activity seems to be centring on heart health, oats/cholesterol lowering and ongoing reformulation to improve products' overall nutritional profile.
What are the big boys up to?
At Weetabix, for example, the big story has been Oatibix and Oatiflakes. Quaker, meanwhile, has just expanded its ready-to-eat cereal range, Quaker Oat Crisp, with a chocolate-flavoured variant which is said to contain 70% wholegrain and 30% less sugar than the current leading diet brand.
But that doesn't mean that fibre-rich ingredients are off the menu. It means that their role in breakfast cereals is changing.
Dailycer's Cannings believes the future of fibre could lie in dual claims. "There are so many claims on cereal packs now that a high fibre claim has to compete with wholegrain, heart healthy and cholesterol lowering, among others. Virtually every cereal makes some sort of claim, so it's doubtful whether high fibre as a stand-alone claim will sell - I think cereals need to be high in fibre as well as something else."
The fact that many of the fibre ingredients available today are more than just fibre boosters supports this view. NSFI, for example, is keen to emphasis that Hi-maize's benefits go beyond the fibre-rich proposition. "Hi-maize strengthens the body's digestive defences by promoting a healthy digestive system and delivering probiotic activities. It may also help to control blood sugar highs by improving glycaemic response," explains Scott.
Perhaps the key to harnessing the value of such ingredients is to focus primarily on the additional health benefits they offer and secondarily on their fibre content. Consumers may not have had their fill of fibre but they may regard it as a given that breakfast cereals will contain it, making it difficult for firms to sell a product on the basis of its fibre content. FM