ColdBake technology helps to retain food nutrient properties

A new ‘disruptive’ technology has been developed by Northern Ireland company Carritech Research for producing entirely new ranges of sweet and savoury ‘baked’ foods, capable of carrying heat sensitive ingredients that provide health, nutrition and medicinal benefits.

The company’s patented ColdBake technology and know-how is based on a novel combination of process technology and formulations. For the first time, it is now said to be possible to produce snacks, biscuits and other crunchy foods that appear and taste as though they have been baked, yet which contain nutrients or medicines that would otherwise be destroyed in conventional baking or snack production.

ColdBake

ColdBake enables crunchy or chewy ‘carrier’ products to be produced typically at close to human body temperature, thereby preserving the functional properties of temperature sensitive ‘payloads’ nutrients or medicines contained within them. By this approach, Carritech is able to develop honeycomb-textured nutrient-enriched products that appear and taste as though they have been baked, but without using normal baking temperatures.

Concept prototypes include snacks, breakfast cereals and sports nutrition products. Carritech is currently in discussion with manufacturers across a broad range of sectors to commercialise the technology. The company is also launching a crowdfunding campaign to attract the funding to take the application of this novel technology to the next level.

Aurora Ceres Partnership

Steve Osborn, principal consultant for food and beverage with The Aurora Ceres Partnership, is working with Carritech on the development of this technology.

Osborn is chairing Food Manufacture Group’s one-day food innovation conference: ‘New Frontiers in food and drink’, which takes place today (March 17) at etc.venues, in St Paul's, London.

For more information, visit www.newfrontiersinfoodanddrink.co.uk.