Focus on clean-label ingredients: Batten  down the hatches

As consumers continue to demand ‘natural’ ingredients, processors must prepare for the clean-label challenge, reports John Dunn

A giant Battenberg cake made of pink and yellow bricks has just been shortlisted for the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square in 2012. The original Battenberg was created to mark the marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. Artist Brian Griffith reckons his brick cake is a link to a British past that has slowly crumbled.

But Andrea Martinez-Inchausti, assistant director, food policy, at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is less concerned about the crumbs than the Battenberg's clean-label credentials and the effect that replacing artificial colours and additives with 'natural' ingredients will have on the food industry.

"A lot of our members have been looking at using natural colours to try to get a similar colour to the artificial colours used before. For example, the Battenberg cake is very UK- specific. And it has been that colour for a very long time. So manufacturers were concerned about toning down the pink they felt the consumer was not necessarily going to respond in the right way. But the consumer did."

So the Battenberg is safe! But just how safe are sales of other foods when manufacturers attempt to replace artificial ingredients with natural ones? How will consumers react to changes in colour, taste, texture or shelf-life in their favourite foods when food manufacturers go 'clean label'?

Rising consumer interest

Nicole Patterson, principal consumer analyst at Leatherhead Food Research, says there has been rising consumer interest in all-natural products and so retailers and supermarkets have driven manufacturers to reformulate foods and provide more information on ingredients to consumers.

However, she warns that consumer interest and perceptions of 'natural' ingredients vary widely, depending on consumer grouping and geographic location. As a result, she says, manufacturers' interpretations of clean label vary. Another worry for manufacturers, she says, is that consumers are refusing to compromise on taste.

There is also no standard definition of what clean label means, says Martinez-Inchausti at BRC. "At the moment individual retailers have their own lists of ingredients they are trying to remove or avoid in the production of their food. But, as a trade organisation, I have seen a lot of members' internal memos and I would say there is a 95%, if not higher, commonality in those lists. There really is a lot of commonality in the understanding of what consumers are not familiar with or are not comfortable with or would rather avoid.

Proposed definition

In an attempt to clear the air about what clean label means, one ingredients supplier, National Starch Food Innovation, has come up with its own definition. Essentially it suggests a three-step approach. It says clean label should mean free from chemical additives; simple ingredient listing; minimally processed. In other words, chemical additives should be removed or replaced; ingredients should be recognisable and should not sound chemical or artificial; and foods should be processed using traditional methods that are understood by consumers.

Laura Goodbrand, European marketing manager, wholesome ingredients, at National Starch Food Innovation says the definition follows extensive consumer research in the US, UK and Germany to find out what consumers were looking for across a number of different food categories, from ready meals to snacks and breads and on-the-go foods.

She says the proposed definition of clean label got a very positive response from food manufacturers, food developers, retailers, and the big brands when it was presented at the Clean Label Europe conference in Amsterdam in June. "They were very positive that someone was taking the initiative and giving some guidance. But equally there was mixed comment from ingredient manufacturers who felt our definition was quite limiting. Things like lecithin and pectin would fall outside our definition in some applications.

Clean label challenge

"Clean label is a challenge," says Goodbrand. "You can't simply pull one ingredient and put another one in. Each ingredient is part of a matrix. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. You can remove one piece and cut it down and replace it. It will fit but it's not going to be as snug as it was before. So it's about finding out how ingredients interact with each other to get that jigsaw as tight as it can be when you are taking pieces out and chiselling them down to have a different profile."

Ulrich & Short supplies functional clean-label ingredients. According to joint md, Adrian Short, even within the same retailer there can be different views as to what clean label means. "For example, we have clean-label tapioca starches that are not chemically modified and are declared as tapioca starch. Now you could talk to people in sauces and dressings at one particular supermarket and they would say: 'We're not having that because it's got tapioca starch. That's not simple enough, we want to be able to say cornflour.' Then you could talk to people in bakery at the same supermarket and they would accept it. So there are even varying opinions with the different categories within an individual supermarket." It can be quite confusing for the food manufacturer, says Short. Another, more important problem, he says, is that clean-label products are more expensive to produce than chemically modified ones. "There is a cost impact in some cases a high one upon the recipe formulation. Clean-label starches are higher cost, for example.

"We can pretty much clean up most labels. But the manufacturer and the supermarket have to accept that in some instances there has to be a compromise. You can make a clean-label product that is very nice and has a good shelf-life but it might be different from the original one. There will be a change."

There is hope

But there is hope. Campden BRI is currently finalising a member-funded research project looking at clean-label emulsifiers in baked products and clean-label colours in beverages and icings. The aim is to see what is out there and how well they work. Sarah Chapman, in the food manufacturing technologies department, says the report is due out in the New Year. "We have some beverages under test at the moment and some icing. It should give us and our members more understanding of the problems so we can help our members better."

However, it is much easier to launch a new product with a clean label than to reformulate an existing product, suggests Chapman, because the consumer hasn't got a preconceived idea of what its looks like, tastes like, or what the shelf-life is. "The more you have got to remove the more difficult it is. They all have an effect and taking one out affects everything else. "That is why we always say that if you are going clean label it is worth doing the whole thing together. Don't just do one thing at a time piecemeal. It is easier to reformulate the whole product at once. You can look at all the issues rather than just doing one and then starting on the next.

"Our advice is to know where you are going. Set your goal posts at the start and know exactly what you are working to achieve, and then see where the potential issues will be and where it is going to be difficult for you. Are there areas where you could compromise? What are your processing criteria? Could you change your processes, how do you manufacture the product? Can you change your packaging? If you don't want to use antioxidants, can you protect your product from oxygen and light so you don't need antioxidants? It is all about fact-finding and planning before you go into the kitchen and start to take your product apart."

Leatherhead Food Research is also launching a collaborative study on natural ingredients. It will look at the market for natural colours, flavours, preservatives, sweeteners, antioxidants, and emulsifiers. It will identify consumer perceptions and what work is being done in each area by the food industry. The aim is to have the study completed by November.

Dr Paul Berryman, chief executive, says: "We will review the data on future trends on natural foods and ingredients in the US and Europe. We will then do trade research to look at all the different developments taking place. We will interview suppliers of ingredients to ask about differences in purchases of natural ingredients as opposed to the synthetic additives.

"Then we will look at consumer perceptions of clean labelling in the UK, France, Germany and Italy and the US. We want to see if the perceptions are different in different consumers groups and different countries. Industry participants will also have the opportunity to add two closed questions of their own to the survey. The final report will look at the implications for manufacturers. What it all actually means for them and any strategic issues they might need to consider for the future." And just when you thought you had got clean label cracked! Recent research from the Instituto Auxologico Italiano in Milan has found that computer-generated images of food can trigger the same response in humans as real food. The studies with anorexic and bulimic patients found that a virtual reality (VR) trip to a computer-generated restaurant with VR versions of six foods generated the same responses in the patients as the real stuff.

Poor Lara Croft. Does that mean she and Super Mario and other computer games will now have to go clean label too?

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