Formulating With Whole Grains

Since its release, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans have helped increase the use of whole grains in food products and made consumers more aware of the benefits of whole grains as a source of fiber, minerals and vitamins. In the guidelines, USDA encourages Americans to consume at least half of all grains as whole grains, and increase whole grain intake by replacing refined grains with whole grains.

Another force is also increasing awareness of whole grains—the National School Lunch Program. New school-food rules require that at least half the grain foods served to children be “whole grain-rich." Whole grain-rich foods may contain less than 100% whole grains, but generally contain at least 51% whole grains. The National School Lunch Program requires that, by 2014, all grain foods served must be whole grain-rich.

“With this guaranteed school market now available, reformulation efforts are gaining even more momentum," says Cynthia Harriman, director, food and nutrition strategies, Oldways and the Whole Grains Council, Boston. “Products retooled for the schools will spill over into other markets, making more good whole-grain products available to everyone."

Despite USDA recommendations, most consumers are not eating enough whole grains; however, the food industry is working to modify this trend.

“Dietary advice helps, as does a mechanism for reliably identifying whole grains, but there's a third part to the equation, too," Harriman says. “In order for consumers to go back to the store and buy that product again, the product needs to be delicious and affordable. Manufacturers have made huge headway in reformulating products to contain more whole grain, while retaining the flavors and textures that consumers love."

Consumer confusion

FDA's definition of a whole grain includes cereal grains that consist of the intact, ground, cracked or flaked fruit of the grains whose principal components—the starchy endosperm, germ and bran—are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact grain. This definition allows whole grains to be processed in many ways, such as being crushed, cracked, chopped, rolled and ground into fine particle sizes, as long as all the parts remain undamaged and in proportion.

On the other hand, the definition of a whole-grain food is much less uniform. Schools have their definition of whole-grain-rich, while the FDA has another definition for use of the whole-grain health claim (51% of all ingredients are whole grains and those whole-grain ingredients have to contain at least 11% dietary fiber). The Dietary Guidelines and the Whole Grains Stamp, created by the Whole Grain Council, advise looking for foods with at least 8 grams of whole grain. Statements, such as multigrain, also can cause confusion, because consumers might not know the grain content unless it is clearly stated.

“Overall, it looks like where we are headed is that a whole-grain food will have at least half or more of the grain ingredients as whole grain," says Beth Arndt, Ph.D., director, R&D, ConAgra Mills, Omaha, NE. “The industry is really looking hard into this, because in the end, consumers look on the product label for cues on how to tell."

Even if consumers don't understand the definition of a whole grain or a whole-grain food, seeing “whole-grain" wording on a package is meaningful for them.

“Demand will continue to grow if consumers can clearly identify whole-grain foods and understand what that means," says Jeff Casper, M.S., R&D manager, Horizon Milling (a Cargill joint venture), Minneapolis.

Growing whole grains

Consumption of all whole grains is increasing as more whole-wheat products are being developed. Whole-wheat flour remains the most popular whole grain used in food products, followed by whole-grain corn, oats, rye and barley.

“In bakery products, wheat remains the primary grain source because its functionality is so important to achieving the volume and texture we have become accustomed to in bakery products," says Brook Carson, M.S., technical product manager, ADM Milling, Decatur, IL. “Additional grains have found their way into bakery products and have provided new and interesting flavors and textures. There is a huge opportunity for growth for whole grains as meal centers or side dishes. A variety of whole grains are being used in pastas, pilafs and salads."

 

Examining the Complexity of Keeping Food Supply Safe

Food-safety audits and inspections are a key component of the nation's food-safety system for both domestic and imported foodstuffs; however, recent failures in ensuring food safety bring into question the effectiveness of solely using audits as the only preventative measure, according to a new paper published in the journal Food Control.

Lead researcher Doug Powell, a food-safety expert at Kansas State University, contends there may be a disconnect between what consumers think food auditors are doing to ensure a safe food supply and what they actually are doing.

"Food auditors provide a snapshot of production practices. However, buyers often believe auditors are performing a full verification of every product and process of food production," he said.

According to the paper, many food-safety outbreaks involve firms that have had their food production systems verified and received acceptable ratings from food-safety auditors or government inspectors. One such occurrence was the Salmonella outbreak linked to the Peanut Corporation of America in 2009 that sickened more than 500 and killed six people. The recall involved more than 3,900 peanut butter and peanut-containing products. According to media reports, a third-party auditor was responsible for evaluating the safety of those peanut products.

Powell said there are many limitations with food-safety audits and inspections, but with an estimated 48 million Americans sick each year foodborne illnesses, the question should be how best to reduce the number of sick people.

"Audit reports are only useful if the purchaser or food producer reviews the results, understands the risks addressed by the standards and makes risk-reduction decisions based on the results," he said. "So companies who blame the auditor or inspector for outbreaks of foodborne illness should also blame themselves."

Powell noted the biggest challenges to solving the food-safety issues we face currently are economic. "Making the nation's food supply safe usually costs money and an investment in human capital. While inspectors and auditors play an active role in overseeing compliance, the burden for food safety lies primarily with food producers. Inspection efforts, even if doubled, would not be enough to make sure every food item is safe," he said.

Morning Exercise Reduces Motivation for Food

Just 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise in the morning actually reduces a person’s motivation for food, according to a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. The findings seem to refute the assumption that a person can “work up an appetite" with a vigorous workout.

Researchers at Brigham Young University measured the food motivation of 18 normal-weight women and 17 clinically obese women over two separate days. On the first day, each woman briskly walked on a treadmill for 45 minutes and then, within the hour, had their brain waves measured.

Electrodes were attached to each participant’s scalp and an EEG machine then measured their neural activity while they looked at 240 images—120 of plated food meals and 120 of control images of flowers.

The same experiment was conducted one week later on the same day of the week and at the same time of the morning, but omitted the exercise. Individuals also recorded their food consumption and physical activity on the experiment days.

The 45-minute exercise routine not only produced lower brain responses to the food images, but also resulted in an increase in total physical activity that day, regardless of body mass index. Interestingly, the women in the experiment did not eat more food on the exercise day to “make up" for the extra calories they burned in exercise. In fact, they ate approximately the same amount of food on the non-exercise day.

“We wanted to see if obesity influenced food motivation, but it didn’t," the researchers said. “However, it was clear that the exercise bout was playing a role in their neural responses to the pictures of food."

Mobile Startup Pays Consumers to Scan Their Receipts

Probably the biggest obstacle to mobile commerce, be it for payments, shopping, deals or loyalty programs, has been merchant adoption. With every supermarket, retailer and grocery chain employing a different array of hardware and technology for their own loyalty programs and couponing rewards systems, tackling the merchant issue is not easily solved -- at least, not at scale.

In fact, many see it as the main hindrance to Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture from carriers AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless. It's also why some have high hopes for the recently debuted MCX, a mobile-wallet joint-venture undertaken by several retailers themselves, including Best Buy, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Target.

But for one startup, there is a clear and simple way to solve the merchant problem: bypass them entirely.

Endorse, run by founder and CEO Steven Carpenter, is a mobile app and loyalty platform, built on extracting data from photos of receipts. Consumers browse the deals and rewards either before or after they shop, go to their local supermarket to … well, do what people do at supermarkets, and upon conclusion, scan the receipt.

Users then select the deals that apply to their purchases, and Endorse identifies the match, applying the coupon or deal brokered directly with the CPG companies. No coupon clipping, no more giving your phone number to the cashier because you lost the little card they gave you, and no more fighting over expired coupons or fine print limitations.

By making couponing a more user-friendly experience, Endorse hopes to become a gatekeeper to a wealth of very actionable data, even on retailers that keep their own data close to the vest. Then it can pass that on to partners, as well as target more desirable deals to consumers in the future. Right now, PopChips and several PepsiCo brands are offering deals on the platform.

"Right now, most brands don't have access to cross-retail product-level purchase data," said Mr. Carpenter, because the retailers don't share it. They might get snapshots, but they don't get longitudinal data -- one user's purchase habits over a period of time."

Knowing that a given consumer who buys "X" is also likely to buy "Y" can be empowering information, especially when viewed over a period of time and for multiple merchants.

Mr. Carpenter said privacy was designed into the app so that personal information is never shared with marketers. Incidentally, Pew just released a report on the topic of mobile privacy, noting that many adults shy away from apps that demand too much personal information. In this case, however, it may be well worth the tradeoff, as the more the users use the app, the more tailored it will be to their specific needs and preferences.

For the moment, Endorse still cuts users a check after hitting the requisite minimum of $25 in rewards, though digital payment is almost certainly on the horizon.

The 12-person company has raised $4.25 million in funding from SV Angel as well as Accel Partners, where Mr. Carpenter was entrepreneur-in-residence.