Warming Up to Hot Breakfast Cereals - Part Two
By Kimberly J. Decker, Contributing Editor
Click here to read Warming Up to Hot Breakfast Cereals - Part One.
Adding Value With Vitamins
Rounding Out the Mix
To Your Health
Vitamin and mineral fortification gives hot cereals a significant value boost. But fortifying anything can present one of the biggest challenges, as the chosen nutrients, the matrix in which they appear, and the processing and storage conditions that it eventually sees all significantly affect how much consumers gain from that fortification.
For example, some vitamins, such as A, C, D and thiamin (B1), exhibit less stability than others - particularly to heat. Fortunately, hot-cereal fortification generally occurs after any heat processing and, according to Reed, "the nutrients are in a dry form, hidden from light and moisture, letting them remain very stable." But, hot breakfast cereals obviously get exposed to some heat, and even too much microwaving can destroy some heat-labile vitamins. The main difference between hot cereal and RTE cereal fortification lies in the processing - most hot cereal processing occurs in the consumer's home. "A hot cereal such as 'old fashioned' oats undergoes minimal heat processing prior to consumer preparation and longer heat processing during consumer preparation," Reed says. "Therefore, this product will require higher vitamin overages to ensure that the nutrients are found in the end product."
Product designers should pay attention to how nutrients perform in the food itself, observes Sam Sylvetsky, director of sales, Fortitech Inc., Schenectady, NY. "A few years ago, General Mills came out with a highly fortified oatmeal, and there were special, coated vitamins that had to be used to keep the riboflavin, or vitamin B2, from turning the whole product yellow." Similarly, iron - in the form of ferrous sulfate - can promote rancidity in the grains' oils. "Instead of choosing ferrous sulfate, ferric orthophosphate or another less reactive form should be chosen," Reed says. Some of the nutraceuticals gaining popularity, like carnitine and choline, are hygroscopic enough to absorb moisture that contributes to degradative interactions.
To help combat these reactions, ameliorate unwanted flavor effects, and prevent vitamin loss and degradation, product developers regularly use encapsulation and coating systems. Typical commercial coatings available fall into three basic categories: waxes, fats and cellulose-based compounds, each having its pros and cons. While the fats provide ample protection, they melt at relatively low temperatures, around 1608 to 1658F. So, pouring boiling water into a hot breakfast cereal mix may damage any fat-based encapsulation system. "On the other hand," Sylvetsky notes, "the water's not at boiling temperatures for very long." Though waxes withstand much higher temperatures, they cost significantly more and are difficult to work with. Cellulose-based coatings might not melt at all, making them seem ideal for high-temperature applications. However, when placed in water-soluble matrices, water can seep into them and possibly dissolve any water-soluble nutrients held within.
Even with the minimal processing, hot-breakfast mixes still spend plenty of time on the shelf. That shelf life, combined with the preparation methods used, makes encapsulation a handy way to preserve potentially ephemeral vitamins and minerals. But apart from encapsulation, processors still must add vitamin and mineral overages to meet the nutrient claims listed on the package.
After determining overages and encapsulation systems, Sylvetsky and Reed agree that formulators should meter a dry pre-mix of encapsulated vitamins and minerals into each individual cereal packet. "Due to the low usage rates of most nutrients and the potential toxicity problems associated with the risk of heterogeneous finished products, pre-mixes are definitely the best method for adding micronutrients," Reed says. Usually, processors dilute the nutrient pre-mix to an even and workable addition rate with calcium phosphate, maltodextrin, starch, flour or another inert substance.
Working closely with a nutrient supplier can help product developers find their way through this maze of interactions and stability issues. Their experience in dealing with how nutrients behave in different ingredient matrices gives them an edge. Processors might not realize on their own that the high fat content in some grains, particularly oats, necessitates adding natural antioxidants - often a form of vitamin E the human body doesn't recognize.
In the future, Sylvetsky sees cereal makers adding more different types of fortification ingredients, such as nutraceuticals, to cereals. So, fortification pre-mixes soon might include ginseng and ginkgo biloba, in addition to good old vitamin C and iron. Though most grain-based hot breakfast cereals need no extra fiber fortification, some manufacturers choose to boost their products' fiber levels even higher via fortification. For example, Minneapolis-based Novartis Nutrition's Resource® line of supplements now boasts two hot cereal products - a maple-brown sugar oatmeal and a creamy farina cereal - that contain Benefiber®, a new fiber source that brings each cereal's total dietary fiber levels up to 4 grams per serving without flavor changes.
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In addition, hot breakfast cereals call upon a host of other functional ingredients to achieve the flavor and textural characteristics consumers desire. Creaming agents, for example, find extensive use in fruit-and-cream products. Normally based on dried caseinates, whey protein concentrates, fats and non-fat dried milk, these give the hydrated cereal a creamy taste, texture and appearance. Heating the caseinates even increases the cereal's viscosity, and provides emulsification power. Some other emulsifiers help with rehydration. "To the extent that fat is in the creamer, the emulsifiers also will help keep it from getting a film on top," Moeller notes. Stabilizing gums, such as xanthan and guar gum, perform essentially the same role. Any fats that find their way into hot breakfast cereals do so usually just to enhance the product's flavor and texture, often via their role in the creaming agent.
So, given these ingredient profiles, what kind of people buy hot breakfast cereals these days? "There are a number of different targets, actually," Moeller says. Adults concerned about heart health make up a significant portion of the hot breakfast cereal market, but on the other hand, the emergence of hatching dinosaur eggs and chocolate sandwich cookie bits in oatmeals indicates they aren't just targeted to health-conscious adults. "There's a fun factor you can tap, and that's what we want to do," notes Moeller. Kids love the flavors and add-ins, and if it gets them to eat their breakfast, all the better. And, of course, the very nature of hot breakfast cereals endears them to the "good old-fashioned" comfort foods market - nothing goes better with a cold morning than a hot bowl of cereal, instant or not.
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SIDEBAR:
To Your Health
Those concerned with health definitely should head for the hot cereals at breakfast time, given the well-known health benefits of increased grain consumption. Studies indicate that the insoluble fiber in grains might help prevent colon cancer by diluting intestinal contents, and decreasing the contact that the intestinal mucosa makes with any carcinogens in food. By absorbing bile salts, the soluble fiber in grains changes cholesterol metabolism such that the body excretes the substance more rapidly. As the body excretes the bile salts associated with soluble fiber, it diverts remaining cholesterol to the synthesis of more bile acids to replace what it lost. Furthermore, this scarcity of intestinal bile salts prevents the body from building the membranes it needs to send fats and cholesterol into the bloodstream. The overall effect: a potential reduction in overall cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein levels in particular, and therefore a reduction in heart-disease risk.
The general public first began hearing these claims over a decade ago, when oats and oat bran became the panacea ingredients that manufacturers wanted on their ingredients list. Like most other "magic" foods, however, they soon became yesterday's news and had to withstand backlash from researchers who doubted their efficacy. But these substances have proven themselves more than just a flash in the bowl, and are making health news again. Current studies still show that consuming soluble oat fiber, particularly beta-glucans, can significantly reduce blood-cholesterol levels.
In the wake of these findings, FDA approved in early 1997 a petition from Quaker Oats Company to claim that the soluble fiber in whole-grain oats, when consumed as part of a low-fat diet, helps reduce heart disease risk. The oatmeal industry has known this for a while, but the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990 set up the protocol by which processors can get official government permission to make such claims, says Ted Moeller, interim director, hot breakfast R&D, Quaker Oats Company, Chicago. "The NLEA allowed for this type of claim to evolve, but you had to petition the government to do that. And we were the ones that petitioned," he says.
Foods must contain at least 2.5 grams of fiber per serving to earn status as a "good source" of total dietary fiber, according to NLEA. Twice that amount is needed to carry the label "excellent source." Convert these figures to account for beta-glucan content, and a product must have 0.75 gram or more of soluble oat fiber, or beta-glucan, per serving to qualify for high-fiber claims. This roughly equals 25% of the 3-gram daily amount research has shown can help lower cholesterol levels. While oats have gained much press surrounding these health claims, they can, in fact, share the spotlight with a host of other grains that provide consumers with the complex carbohydrates and fiber that experts agree Americans should consume more often.
Kimberly Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a bachelor's degree in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California-Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and enjoys cooking and eating food in addition to writing about it.
• Photo: Quaker Oats Company
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