Novel bakery and confectionery blends with URC technology - Taura
The company’s URC Inclusions uses Ultra Rapid Concentration technology to combine pure-concentrated fruit and vegetables with crisped rice, ancient grains and other ingredients for applications in premium chocolate, biscuits, cereals and snacks.
Potential blends
Mattias Van Uffelen, head of European sales at Taura told ConfectioneryNews.com that URC technology had been used in Europe for the past 15 years to turn fresh fruit puree into dried fruit pieces for biscuits and confectionery, however, Taura has recently utilised the technology to combine two ingredients for its URC Inclusions range.
“URC Inclusions is taking traditional technology but combining it with an extra ingredient,” said Van Uffelen.
He gave examples of combinations that could be used in confectionery, bakery and snacks.
He said orange pieces with dried carrot could give a contrast in colour while combining soft fruit pieces with a chocolate crunch would give distinct textures.
He added that food manufacturers could use functional ingredients, such as omega 3, to make novel combinations that could be marketed as offering health benefits.
Van Uffelen said there might be additional applications that have yet to be explored, such as combinations for chewing gum.
Cost
According to Van Uffelen, the price of the blend would depend on the ingredients used.
He said a mix using dried apple would be fairly cheap, while functional ingredients would drive up costs.
“Our products are not the cheapest in the market, but we look for convenience end products giving added value that would enable manufacturers to give a health message,” said Van Uffelen.
Manufacturers already using Taura’s concentrated fruit ingredients or formulations with raisons or nuts would be able to incorporate UTC Inclusions into existing processes with no additional cost.
However, Van Uffelen said new customers may need to adapt dosing equipment to be able to spread pieces over the application and extruders may be required.
He said around 5-10% of Taura’s customers had needed to adapt their processing system
The range, available worldwide, will be presented in different biscuit and confectionery combinations at Food Ingredients Europe in Paris later this month.
