Company: Cargill

Website: www.cargill.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Consumer demand for recognizable ingredients continues to grow, pushing food and beverage manufacturers to seek alternatives to less familiar ingredients. In response, Cargill has launched a soluble rice flour, SimPure 92260, that exhibits similar taste, texture and functionality as maltodextrin, an ingredient commonly used as a bulking agent and flavor carrier. As an ingredient, "soluble rice flour" is also more appealing for label-reading consumers.

“Traditional rice flours aren’t very soluble at all—certainly nowhere near the fully soluble nature of maltodextrin,” explains Ali Weideman, commercialization strategy manager for Cargill. "Using its proprietary technology, Cargill overcame this hurdle, creating the first highly soluble rice flour. Equally important, Cargill research confirms that consumers view ‘soluble rice flour’ positively as an ingredient.”

SimPure soluble rice flour provides similar viscosity attributes, bulking agent functionality, and sensory profiles compared to 10 DE maltodextrin, enabling simple, one-to-one replacement in a variety of applications, including reduced-sugar bakery products, dairy, powdered beverages, convenience foods, sauces and dressings, snacks, cereals and bars, seasoning mixes, and as a flavor carrier. In some applications, SimPure soluble rice flour offers the added advantage of improved mouthfeel. For example, in powdered chocolate milk beverages, Cargill’s sensory testing found prototypes made with the soluble rice flour were perceived as creamier than the maltodextrin control.

“Consumers continue to be drawn to simple, familiar ingredients they view as less processed and better for their health,” Weideman said. “As a global leader in food ingredients, we’re keenly aware of these marketplace demands, and we support our customers with the market insights, technical expertise and a deep ingredient portfolio they need to develop food and beverage products that deliver on consumer expectations for taste, texture and label appeal.”