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Sugar-free coated confectionery: Maltitol magic
April 2004
Dr Yves Le Bot
Reproduced courtesy of Food Marketing & Technology magazine
Nutritional and health concerns have led to rapidly increasing interest in sugarless confectionery. In this segment consumption of coated products is growing particularly fast, especially chewing gum in the sugarless pellets sub-segment. Thus between 2000 and 2002 - scarcely two years - coated chewing gum's share of the sugar-free chewing gums sales in the US grew from 21% to 29%.
The two key factors making coated confectionery so desirable to the consumer are crunchiness and flavor release. But producing sugar-free coatings that meet taste and texture expectations traditionally associated with sugar is only one of the challenges manufacturers must rise to: productivity, process and coating time are no less important.
As a premium polyol, MALTISORB® crystalline maltitol's characteristics make it the ideal candidate to meet those consumer requirements: it offers unbeatable crunchiness and excellent flavor release. And by allowing faster and easier coating than any other polyol, MALTISORB® also meets manufacturers' expectations.
Crunchiness
The outstanding crunchiness that consumers seek in a coated confectionery when eating it involves two aspects: (1) the initial level of crunchiness at the time of production; and (2) the stability of crunchiness over time, which may be influenced by packaging and climate.
Excellent crunchiness from the word go
The initial crunchiness of a coated product is closely linked to the comparative weights of coatings and centres; to coating moisture content; and to the type and purity of the polyol used for coating. Of all polyols, MALTISORB® crystalline maltitol offers the best crunchiness, because of its intrinsic physico-chemical properties, in particular solubility and crystalline form.
Keeping crunchiness crunchy
At the same time successful crunchiness also depends on how it keeps, irrespective of climate and packaging. This feature is directly linked with two critical parameters: the hygroscopicity of the polyols used; and the formulation of the centre.
- The hygroscopicity of various polyols traditionally used in chewing gum coating has been compared at 20°C and 40°C, two temperatures representing two typical geographical areas of consumption. Results show that MALTISORB® crystalline maltitol is the less hygroscopic polyol for this application, making it the best coating for crunchiness stability, even in humid conditions.
- Other factors of influence are the formulation of centre, coating syrup and dry charge.
To restrict moisture exchange between coating and centre, water activity must be kept between limits. Chart 3 clearly shows that a sorbitol / LYCASIN®-based centre combined with a maltitol coating is the most appropriate solution: water activity is well-balanced, contributing significantly to increased shelf life . The other formulations incur the risk - if Aw is too low - of moisture being attracted from outside through the coating, whereas if Aw is too high, migration from the latter towards the coating can occur. In both cases the result is a loss of crunchiness during storage
Sweetness and flavor release
The success of sugar-free coated confectionery products also depends critically on achieving excellent organoleptic qualities. In addition to crunchiness, sweetness and flavor release are the two most important factors for this application. Both are closely linked with the solubility rate of the sweetener. Of all the polyols, MALTISORB
® has the solubility curve closest to that of sucrose, thus enhancing the sweetness profile and flavor release of coated products. Moreover, its sweetness is closely similar to that of sucrose - the preferred sweetener of reference for many years now- in terms not only of taste, aftertaste and mouthfeel but also of intensity. This means it is possible to avoid the addition of intense sweetener. Other polyols with a lower sweetness value, such as isomalt, require the addition of an intense sweetener, resulting in undoubted differences in taste.
LYCOAT® : An easy and efficient process
Time saving is an important goal for the coating operation. By optimising coating sequences it is possible to achieve coating times equivalent to those of sucrose. A further development is Roquette's an innovative LYCOAT
® technique. In conjunction with MALTISORB
® crystalline maltitol, this makes it possible to coat with dry charge addition more quickly than with any other polyol. As a result pellet centre weights can be increased from 1g to 1.5g within less than 3 hours.
The process conditions are such that there is no need for accurate control of coating syrup temperature. The quality of coated confectionery produced with the LYCOAT® technique is as good as that of confectionery coated with the traditional hard coating process.
To help customers move forward to their scale-up and thus reduce development time and costs, Roquette has invested in a fully equipped 120m2 pilot plant, with comprehensively controllable hygrometric characteristics. The equipment includes a fully automatic DRIACOATER 1200 coating pan, whose capacity - up to 60kg - allows close simulation of actual chewing gum manufacturing conditions. Together with its wide-ranging expertise in the fields of rheology and electronmicroscopy, Roquette offers this new equipment for the benefit of customers involved in the development and scale-up of chewing gum and coating processes.
A forgiving process
Even in the case of an uneven surface or of a poor start-up in the coating operation, it is easy with MALTISORB
® crystalline maltitol - contrary to other polyols - to smooth the surface during maltitol coating and still obtain a very good product. With other polyols a lack of smoothness at any stage of the process cannot be rectified.
Whatever the ingredients, customer and manufacturer expect certain characteristics of coated confectionery to remain invariable, particularly in respect of crunchiness and taste. Sweetness, high solubility and non-hygroscopicity make MALTISORB® an ideal candidate for coated confectionery defined by both the excellence of its organoleptic properties and its stability. What is more, by using maltitol in conjunction with Roquette's special LYCOAT® coating technique, significant process optimization can be achieved, saving time while improving quality.
Author : Dr Yves Le Bot PhD is Global Confectionery Market Development Manager at Roquette Frères - 62080 Lestrem (France)
For further information contact
E-mail: foodbusiness@roquette.com
Or Tel: + 33 3 21 63 36 00
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