Do we know what we eat? The new 'clean labelling' trend.

More and more people are becoming aware of their diet and the impact it has on their health. It is therefore important for consumers to be able to interpret a product's label and understand what ingredients it is made from.  This change in consumer habits has led to the emergence and rise of a trend known as "clean label". 

This clean labelling implies that when manufacturing a food product, natural, healthy, easily identifiable ingredients should be used and additives and complex labelling should be avoided.

It is a great challenge for the food industry, as it must be able to reformulate its recipes by adapting them to labelling that is as simple and natural as possible, but without compromising the sensory quality of the product, safety and without affecting the cost as much as possible. 

With this in mind, Hispanagar is making its food agar available to the industry. This is an algae extract that allows the texture of the final product to be modified, according to the manufacturer's needs, without altering its colour, smell and taste.

This naturally occurring vegetable gelling agent can replace other additives with a texturising or emulsifying function in recipes and in turn facilitate the aforementioned clean labelling. 

If a product contains E406, the consumer is unlikely to associate it with agar agar and this generates mistrust. But if it is labelled as agar agar, the reaction will be the opposite, positive, as it is a well-known ingredient with a very good reputation.

If you are looking to develop new recipes or reformulate existing ones and want to try agar agar, do not hesitate to contact the sales department for advice.