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Beta-glucans can win over hearts in a beat

Beta-glucans offer an excellent way to boost snacks with added dietary fibre and heart health benefits. By incorporating this plant-based ingredient, products can qualify for approved health claims. Make hearts glow with joy and explore how to bring these advantages to life!

Consumers around the world increasingly recognise the link between heart health and their overall well-being.¹ For instance, 7 in 10 European consumers are interested in heart-healthy products, even without specific health concerns.² This creates a strong opportunity for manufacturers to offer snacks with approved health claims.

One simple and cost-effective way to achieve this is by incorporating beta-glucans from barley into recipes. These viscous, soluble, and fermentable dietary fibres are scientifically proven to support heart health, while also enabling fibre enrichment and related health claims.

Beta-glucans generate a high viscosity, which makes the food thicker and slows its passage through the gastro-intestinal tract. This delays the uptake of glucose from food, lowering the blood glucose response.³ In addition, the high viscosity lowers the uptake of bile acids and thereby reduces blood cholesterol concentration⁴, helping to cut the risk of coronary heart disease.

Snacks enriched with these functional ingredients provide advantages not only for consumers but also for producers. With more than 120 scientific studies demonstrating the beta-glucan health effects from cereals, official bodies including EFSA, the FDA, and Health Canada have approved corresponding health claims.⁵

The BENEO-Technology Center developed multiple recipes with beta-glucans that can carry high fibre and EU health claims, like ‘Barley beta-glucan has been shown to lower/reduce blood cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease’. This claim can be used for foods that provide at least 1g of barley beta-glucan per quantified portion. The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3g barley beta-glucan. One of those developed recipes are mouth-watering multi-grain biscuits. Not only do they offer health benefits, but also a desired texture and great taste.

BENEO, a leading producer of functional ingredients, offers barley beta-glucans in the form of Orafti^® β-Fit, a clean label, non-GMO, vegan-friendly wholegrain barley flour with a beta-glucan content of 20% on dry matter. Orafti^® β-Fit can be used in a wide variety of applications. Some snack solutions can include baked goods like biscuits, muffins, cookies, and cakes as well as extruded cereals. Also, in dairy and dairy alternatives it can serve as a clean label texturiser.

BENEO’s Customer Technical Support Manager, Dr Isabel Trogh, sheds even more light on this versatile ingredient: “Orafti^® β-Fit is a cost-effective ingredient that offers technical advantages alongside health benefits for consumers. As well as having a neutral colour and taste, it is pH and temperature stable. When reformulating recipes with Orafti^® β-Fit, in some cases, small adjustments, like adding a bit more water, might be necessary. But most applications allow for a simple 1:1 replacement of the original flour ingredient, e.g., wheat flour, with our wholegrain beta-glucan rich barley flour.”

Discover the full recipe of our multi-grain biscuits with Orafti^® β-Fit and get inspired for your next product innovation!

References

1. FMCG Gurus Heart Health Surveys 2021
2. FMCG Gurus Understanding Heart Health in 2021

3. AbuMweis S, Thandapilly SJ, Storsley J, Ames N (2016). Effect of barley β-glucan on postprandial glycaemic response in the healthy human population: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Functional Foods, Vol. 27, 329-342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2016.08.057
4. AbuMweis SS, Jew S, Ames NP (2010). β-glucan from barley and its lipid-lowering capacity: a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 64(12), 1472-1480. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.178
5. US: 21 CFR §101.81 ; CAN: Summary of Health Canada’s Assessment of a Health Claim about Barley Products and Blood Cholesterol Lowering, July 2012; EU: Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 of 16 May 2012; Commission Regulation (EU) No 1048/2012 of 8 November 2012; [EFSA Journal 2009; 7(9):1254; EFSA Journal 2011;9(6):2207; EFSA Journal 2011;9(12):2470)].

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