Watson Blogs

What do red wine, green tea, turmeric, and cranberries have in common? They’re all packed full of polyphenols—antioxidant phytochemicals with enormous potential health benefits. More than 8,000 polyphenolic compounds have been identified, including the trending ingredients curcumin, resveratrol, and quercetin.¹ Learn what’s driving the growth of polyphenols in foods, beverages, and nutrition supplements and how to tap into this expanding market.

A MOOVING TREND

Recently, trends have emerged that encourage the population to completely eliminate dairy from the daily diet. Diets such as Paleo, Vegan, and the Whole 30 remove dairy from the diet because they claim that this elimination will aid in weight loss and improve digestion. However, dairy is essential to the health of Americans! The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) cover 3 “recommended eating patterns” all which include dairy.

Did you know the keto diet was the most frequently googled diet of 2018?¹ Due to promises of weight loss, improved energy, and the elimination of carb cravings, the keto diet has gained a devoted following. But due to its strict fat to carb ratio, consumers are turning to manufactured keto foods, beverages, and supplements to make it easier. Learn what keto followers are looking for and what you can do to tap into this growing market.

The results are in from the latest Center for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements.¹ The CRN’s national survey tracks consumer use of nutritional supplements, as well as consumer confidence in the supplement industry. Highlights include growing supplement use, the rise of turmeric, and leading consumer motivations for supplement use, including improved energy and bone health. Here’s what you need to know.

Though healthy eating is in, many Americans still struggle to achieve an adequate intake of all the essential vitamins and minerals. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, this includes vitamins A, C, D, and E, as well as the minerals potassium, magnesium, calcium, and iron.¹ Iron fortification can be a special challenge due to its taste and reactivity. Learn how options in bioavailability and microencapsulation can create successful iron-fortified foods and beverages that meet consumers' needs.

The global food premix market is forecast to grow at an impressive CAGR of 6.5% between 2018 and 2023, reaching $1.9 billion in 2023.¹While vitamins make up the largest share of nutrient premixes, other fortifications in demand include minerals, fiber, amino acids, and nucleotides. Here, we’ll examine the top reasons that demand for fortified foods and beverages is on the rise, with a look at demographics, regions, and popular products for fortification.

Functional beverages have become a vital part of the ready-to-drink landscape as consumers shift to better-for-you options. But providing health and wellness benefits like improved energy, sleep, immunity, or weight loss brings unique formulation challenges. Functional beverages require special attention to flavor to cover the bitter and off flavors often associated with functional ingredients. Learn how to flavor with fortifications in mind plus this year’s top flavor trends for functional beverages.

One in four U.S. consumers seeks food and beverage products with probiotics or prebiotics, according to market research firm Packaged Facts.¹ Consumer interest in improved digestive health, immune function, and increasingly, mental health is driving this trend to new heights and propelling innovation. Learn about ingredients and products that support digestive health and why Kroger picked “gut healthy foods” as a top trend for 2019.

The 80-million-strong millennial generation is like a perfect storm hitting the food industry. They hold huge buying power in today's market, and are expected to spend approximately $600 billion¹ in 2017.  And they have strong ideas about what they want (or don’t want) in their food. Their tastes are having a quick and dramatic effect on the industry. 

Biotin is a stable B vitamin that functions in the metabolism of macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, and proteins. Other names for biotin include vitamin B7, vitamin H, or coenzyme R. Biotin is a coenzyme involved in the creation of nucleic acids and fatty acids. Additionally, biotin is an important factor in the creation of fats, specifically for adequate fat production in the body. Even though biotin is responsible for the production of fat, it is not stored in the fatty tissues. In fact, biotin is a water soluble vitamin, nontoxic, and excreted from the body. Low biotin intake causes an adverse effect of fat metabolism. (1).

The United States population consumes well below the recommended amounts of fiber (1). The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines has recognized dietary fiber as a nutrient of public health concern (2).

According to health professionals, getting enough potassium can reduce your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.¹ Yet most American adults are falling short of the recommended daily intake. Research suggests that consuming an optimal amount of this crucial mineral may protect against a host of ailments including cardiovascular disease, muscle wasting, osteoporosis, and kidney stones. It can help to maintain healthy blood pressure and ensure proper nerve, kidney, and heart functions. In 2016, the FDA added potassium to the list of nutrients required to be listed on a food’s nutrition panel.

The average sodium intake is 3,440 mg each day. This is well over the recommended amount of 2300 mg per day. The recommended amount of 2300 mg converts to 1 teaspoon of sodium or 6 grams of salt each day.By contrast, 3,440 mg of sodium per day converts to 1.5 teaspoons of sodium, or 8.35 grams of salt. Needless to say, sodium is considered an overconsumed nutrient of concern for Americans. The Dietary Guidelines recommend Americans to decrease sodium intake in their diet. With the rise in obesity and sodium intake, researchers found a direct association between caloric intake and sodium consumption. The higher the food intake, the higher the sodium content of the diet (1).

The Dietary Guidelines of Advisory Committee (DGAC) identified added sugars as a “cross-cutting topic” of public health importance. In the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), the recommendation was to solely to limit the intake of added sugars. For the first time, the Dietary Guidelines are putting a number on the amount of added sugars recommended for consumption. In the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines, the recommendation is to consume a maximum of 10% of daily calories as added sugars. Americans ideally should be limiting this to 4-6% of calorie intake for optimal health.

Fatty acids are divided into 3 different types: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids have no double bonds, monounsaturated fatty acids have one double bonds, and polyunsaturated fatty acids have two or more double bonds. Saturated fats are solid and unsaturated fatty acids are liquid at room temperature. Foods are comprised of a combination of these fatty acids in varying amounts.

Here's a look at everything you need to know about what’s happening right now in baking—from spinach bread to charcoal croissants to crackers that resemble Swiss cheese. 

The first time I came across someone with Celiac disease was in college on a night out to a restaurant. I never heard of the disease and I rarely ever heard about gluten-free food. So as we were ordering food, hearing someone say they couldn’t eat most things on the menu was surprising to me, even a little annoying, because I couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. However, when I learned how painful and demoralizing it can be to have Celiac disease, it really made me rethink how important it is to for the victims to have food that is good for them to eat.

Did you know that in the past four years, the grocery store perimeter has experienced a growth rate of more than double that of the center of the store, with a CAGR of 3.8% for the perimeter, compared to 1.8% for the rest of the store?¹ Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and subsequent price cutting initiative in fresh foods indicates strong awareness of this trend.

What’s in a loaf? A basic loaf of bread contains four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt.¹ But if we stop there, we’ll have a European-style bread that goes stale in a day.² Bread that is mass produced and distributed needs a little help from food science to achieve machining tolerance, volume and texture consistency, and delayed staling.

Emojis are a great start if you are looking for something new to revamp your products.

Ascorbic Acid, or more commonly known as Vitamin C, is naturally found in citrus fruits and many vegetables. It is considered an antioxidant.

The baking industry has made huge leaps in the gluten-free trend. As people become more aware of their food habits, their demand for food they can safely eat has increased. Here at Watson, we have come up with a line of gluten-free mixes that can be used in restaurants and food service institutions.

July 26th is National Bagelfest day! Bagels are unique in the bread world for their hard chewy outsides and their soft, warm insides. There are so many varieties of bagels like the everything bagel, sesame seed bagel, blueberry bagel, etc. There are even rainbow bagels to keep up with food trends.