The term “functional fiber” has two distinct meanings. “Functional fiber” most commonly describes fiber ingredients with nutritional and health benefits. It is also the term given to fibers that confer novel physical behaviors to foods. This section will cover both these definitions of functionality in more detail.
Note: Part of some fibers’ nutritional and health benefits is their role as a prebiotic. Microbiome science (which covers prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics) is a complex subject only gently touched upon below. If you’d like a more in-depth analysis, please find our article on prebiotics.
Food scientists add fiber to recipes for textural modification, shelf-life extension, margin expansion, and enhanced healthfulness. While there are several applications for functional fiber, it has been a historically underappreciated R&D tool. In this article, we uncover the many ways fiber can be deployed in recipe development and explain some of the scientific underpinnings of its functionality.
Today’s shoppers demand grocery products that deliver on both taste and health. It is well understood that fiber is healthy, but did you know that fiber’s unique physicochemical properties can positively impact a food’s taste, texture, consistency, appearance, mouthfeel, body, and density?
Emulsions are formed when two materials that do not normally mix are forced together, with one material dispersing into the other as droplets. The maintenance of an emulsion is critical to the mouthfeel, taste, and texture of a product. For example, mayonnaise is an oil-in-vinegar emulsion, and whipped cream is an air-in-cream emulsion. Without these emulsions stabilized, these foods would be nothing like the ones we know and love.
Emulsifiers are materials that naturally rest on the surface of dispersed droplets in the process, stabilizing them. Corn-derived arabinoxylans are uniquely able to act as healthy, clean-label emulsifiers. The unique physical structure of AgriFiber SFC allows these fibers to work just so; they sit at the surface of emulsified droplets and keep the emulsion intact. This attribute makes this unique functional fiber among the cleanest-label stabilizers and whipping agents that can be used in countless food applications.
Managing water is another crucially important factor when developing various foods, including sauces, baked goods, dairy products, meat products, and plant-based alternatives. These products frequently require moisture control to deliver enjoyable textures with the body and density that consumers expect. Texture additives have become commonplace in recent years: Guar gum, locust bean gum, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, corn starch, and more are plentiful even at the most selective of health food stores. Hygroscopic functional fibers, or those that can absorb water, can behave just like some of these alien-sounding ingredients. AgriFiber’s insoluble fibers—MFC and MFO—can hold up to 30x and 12x their weight in water, respectively! (All without bizarre sounding names—just corn fiber and oat fiber.)
Many of the same attributes that make functional fiber adept at modulating texture make fiber an excellent ingredient to help food companies control waste and spoilage.
Staling is a significant cause of food waste. It occurs when water migrates from moist regions of heterogeneous foods into drier areas. As we all know from experience, this problem is particularly common in baked goods. The water-holding capabilities of functional fiber mentioned earlier help slow staling. For example, AgriFiber’s insoluble corn fiber (MFC) has been proven to increase the fiber content, improve the texture, and extend the shelf life of bakery items by slowing water migration. If that pastry stays delicious just a few more days on the shelf, that means a lot of savings and reduced waste for bakeries!
It’s time to see how the sausage is made! Well…sort of. We’ve all heard about meat fillers: Franken-ingredients that get added to processed or ground meats (both conventional and plant-based) to lower their cost.
These fillers are often unpleasant to think about and even more unpleasant to pronounce. Fortunately, functional fibers can serve as healthful clean-label meat extenders. AgriFiber’s insoluble oat fiber (MFO), for example, has been proven to give meat products with improved texture, a better nutritional profile, and a sausage-making process that’s far from shameful!
For years, the medical community has implored people to view food as medicine, and especially post-COVID, consumers are increasingly putting this advice into practice. This has manifested as a surge in foods containing added nutraceuticals, or food ingredients with touted nutritional and health benefits. When fibers with a targeted health function are added to foods, they are often referred to by our second definition of “functional fiber.”
The human gut is teeming with bacteria, fungi, and viruses crucial for sustaining human health. This ecosystem inside us and the metabolites they produce are called our gut microbiome. Scientists have identified several microbial species that are particularly advantageous for human health and have isolated certain foods that allow those bacteria to thrive. Those foods (certain types of dietary fibers) are referred to as prebiotics. For a more in-depth discussion of this subject, please jump to our article on prebiotics.
Fiber and bathroom jokes are birds of a feather, and for good reason! The first well-understood benefit of fiber is that it keeps people regular. While it may be a punchline, this feature of fiber is still essential for our health; as it turns out, stool bulking and regularity are no joke!
Oxidative stress results when unpaired electrons, which emerge from a process called oxidation and cause damage inside the body. Researchers have implicated oxidative stress in “many lifestyle-related diseases, such as aging, arthritis, atherosclerosis, emphysema, nephritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.” Oxidative stress is counteracted by antioxidants, which scavenge electrons. We get antioxidants through our diet, and some functional fibers are particularly proficient at delivering them. Arabinoxylans—specifically those extracted from corn like AgriFiber SFC—have demonstrated high concentrations of ferulic acid, a potent antioxidant.
Functional fiber has numerous possibilities for improving the acceptability of food products, reducing formulation costs, lengthening shelf life, improving batch yield, boosting nutritional profiles, and more. It may seem too good to be true…but it isn’t!
The information contained herein is considered to be accurate. However, no warranty is expressed or implied regarding the accuracy of the information, the results to be obtained from the use thereof, or that any such use will not infringe upon any intellectual property. We cannot anticipate all conditions under which this information may be used. We accept no responsibility for results obtained by the application of this information. Please note that none of the information herein is confirmed by any governmental agency, unless otherwise specified.
The term “functional fiber” has two distinct meanings. “Functional fiber” most commonly describes fiber ingredients with nutritional and health benefits. It is also the term given to fibers that confer novel physical behaviors to foods. This section will cover both these definitions of functionality in more detail.
Note: Part of some fibers’ nutritional and health benefits is their role as a prebiotic. Microbiome science (which covers prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics) is a complex subject only gently touched upon below. If you’d like a more in-depth analysis, please find our article on prebiotics.
Food scientists add fiber to recipes for textural modification, shelf-life extension, margin expansion, and enhanced healthfulness. While there are several applications for functional fiber, it has been a historically underappreciated R&D tool. In this article, we uncover the many ways fiber can be deployed in recipe development and explain some of the scientific underpinnings of its functionality.
Today’s shoppers demand grocery products that deliver on both taste and health. It is well understood that fiber is healthy, but did you know that fiber’s unique physicochemical properties can positively impact a food’s taste, texture, consistency, appearance, mouthfeel, body, and density?
Emulsions are formed when two materials that do not normally mix are forced together, with one material dispersing into the other as droplets. The maintenance of an emulsion is critical to the mouthfeel, taste, and texture of a product. For example, mayonnaise is an oil-in-vinegar emulsion, and whipped cream is an air-in-cream emulsion. Without these emulsions stabilized, these foods would be nothing like the ones we know and love.
Emulsifiers are materials that naturally rest on the surface of dispersed droplets in the process, stabilizing them. Corn-derived arabinoxylans are uniquely able to act as healthy, clean-label emulsifiers. The unique physical structure of AgriFiber SFC allows these fibers to work just so; they sit at the surface of emulsified droplets and keep the emulsion intact. This attribute makes this unique functional fiber among the cleanest-label stabilizers and whipping agents that can be used in countless food applications.
Managing water is another crucially important factor when developing various foods, including sauces, baked goods, dairy products, meat products, and plant-based alternatives. These products frequently require moisture control to deliver enjoyable textures with the body and density that consumers expect. Texture additives have become commonplace in recent years: Guar gum, locust bean gum, xanthan gum, tapioca starch, corn starch, and more are plentiful even at the most selective of health food stores. Hygroscopic functional fibers, or those that can absorb water, can behave just like some of these alien-sounding ingredients. AgriFiber’s insoluble fibers—MFC and MFO—can hold up to 30x and 12x their weight in water, respectively! (All without bizarre sounding names—just corn fiber and oat fiber.)
Many of the same attributes that make functional fiber adept at modulating texture make fiber an excellent ingredient to help food companies control waste and spoilage.
Staling is a significant cause of food waste. It occurs when water migrates from moist regions of heterogeneous foods into drier areas. As we all know from experience, this problem is particularly common in baked goods. The water-holding capabilities of functional fiber mentioned earlier help slow staling. For example, AgriFiber’s insoluble corn fiber (MFC) has been proven to increase the fiber content, improve the texture, and extend the shelf life of bakery items by slowing water migration. If that pastry stays delicious just a few more days on the shelf, that means a lot of savings and reduced waste for bakeries!
It’s time to see how the sausage is made! Well…sort of. We’ve all heard about meat fillers: Franken-ingredients that get added to processed or ground meats (both conventional and plant-based) to lower their cost.
These fillers are often unpleasant to think about and even more unpleasant to pronounce. Fortunately, functional fibers can serve as healthful clean-label meat extenders. AgriFiber’s insoluble oat fiber (MFO), for example, has been proven to give meat products with improved texture, a better nutritional profile, and a sausage-making process that’s far from shameful!
For years, the medical community has implored people to view food as medicine, and especially post-COVID, consumers are increasingly putting this advice into practice. This has manifested as a surge in foods containing added nutraceuticals, or food ingredients with touted nutritional and health benefits. When fibers with a targeted health function are added to foods, they are often referred to by our second definition of “functional fiber.”
The human gut is teeming with bacteria, fungi, and viruses crucial for sustaining human health. This ecosystem inside us and the metabolites they produce are called our gut microbiome. Scientists have identified several microbial species that are particularly advantageous for human health and have isolated certain foods that allow those bacteria to thrive. Those foods (certain types of dietary fibers) are referred to as prebiotics. For a more in-depth discussion of this subject, please jump to our article on prebiotics.
Fiber and bathroom jokes are birds of a feather, and for good reason! The first well-understood benefit of fiber is that it keeps people regular. While it may be a punchline, this feature of fiber is still essential for our health; as it turns out, stool bulking and regularity are no joke!
Oxidative stress results when unpaired electrons, which emerge from a process called oxidation and cause damage inside the body. Researchers have implicated oxidative stress in “many lifestyle-related diseases, such as aging, arthritis, atherosclerosis, emphysema, nephritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.” Oxidative stress is counteracted by antioxidants, which scavenge electrons. We get antioxidants through our diet, and some functional fibers are particularly proficient at delivering them. Arabinoxylans—specifically those extracted from corn like AgriFiber SFC—have demonstrated high concentrations of ferulic acid, a potent antioxidant.
Functional fiber has numerous possibilities for improving the acceptability of food products, reducing formulation costs, lengthening shelf life, improving batch yield, boosting nutritional profiles, and more. It may seem too good to be true…but it isn’t!
The information contained herein is considered to be accurate. However, no warranty is expressed or implied regarding the accuracy of the information, the results to be obtained from the use thereof, or that any such use will not infringe upon any intellectual property. We cannot anticipate all conditions under which this information may be used. We accept no responsibility for results obtained by the application of this information. Please note that none of the information herein is confirmed by any governmental agency, unless otherwise specified.