NIZO – Unimills: Innovating low-fat, low SAFA, delicious ice cream

NIZO supported Uni Mills in developing the innovative Cremex products, enabling ice cream manufacturers to create healthier, creamy products with approximately half the saturated fat content compared to coconut oil. Also, the use of Cremex products will now make it possible to make creamy ice creams with 0% trans fats.

Unimills, a supplier of tailor-made vegetable oils and part of Malaysian plantation giant Golden Hope group, has launched Cremex, a new group of healthy fat formulations for ice creams with low saturated fat levels and excellent creamy taste. The new Cremex products include the Cremex100, Cremex 200 and Cremex 300 series with saturated fat levels as low as 40%. Today, most ice creams on the market are based on either coconut oil with a saturated fat level of 92% or dairy butter with 63% saturates and 4% trans fats.

According to Unimills, consumers are increasingly in search of products that have a positive effect on their health, without making concessions with regard to taste and enjoyment. To fulfil these needs, ice cream manufacturers are shifting their product portfolios from pure indulgence to healthier alternatives. The innovative Cremex products fit well in this trend and allow ice cream manufacturers to make healthy creamy tasting products with a saturated fat level of about half compared to coconut oil. Also, the use of Cremex products will now make it possible to make creamy ice creams with 0% trans fats.

Dr. Gerhard de Ruiter, R&D Manager of Unimills B.V.told FoodIngredientsFirst that both pilot and factory scale trials are currently being performed in the facilities of some of its customers to test our new Cremex products. “We expect to see the first products on the market around the next ice cream season, as it takes quite some time to adapt formulations”, he added. “These products do not require any additional labeling on the packaging and also do not require any adaptations to ice cream processing lines, so could be introduced relatively quickly”, he pointed out.

Dr. Alexander van der Klauw, General Manager of Unimills B.V.: “The new Cremex products are the first result of the new collaboration between our mother company Golden Hope Plantations Berhad (GHPB) from Malaysia and the Dutch Food Valley organizations led by NIZO food research. It shows the success of the new Unimills strategy focussed on innovation and responsibility and strengthens the position of Unimills as the preferred supplier of tailor-made vegetable oil based ingredients”.

On June 29, 2006 a 4-year contract was signed between the parties. The key-note speaker of the “Health and Progress”-seminar, held along with the signing ceremony of this contract, was the leading fat nutritionist Prof. Dr. Ronald Mensink from Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He reviewed the scientific facts of trans fatty acids and certain saturated fatty acids on cardiovascular risks. He explained that the cardiovascular risks are reduced most effectively when these are replaced by unsaturated fats.

Dr. Roland Wientjes, Business Development Manager of NIZO food research: “On pilot scale, we have made several series of ice creams using our standard 8% fat recipe with coconut oil and the new Cremex products from Unimills, without the addition of any flavour. The use of state-of-the-art analytical techniques such as MS-nose and GC-MS combined with sensory evaluation by our trained ice cream expert panel, resulted in understanding the fundamental mechanism behind the taste perception of ice cream.“

Dr. Gerhard de Ruiter said “The fundamental knowledge generated in this collaborative scientific research programme allowed Unimills scientists to develop the new Cremex ice cream oil formulations with high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and excellent taste. Unimills filed several patents to protect this new technology and will continue to further develop new ice cream fat products.”

(Source: www.foodingredientsfirst.com)