More Health - Better Taste - Food and Drink News

Consumers today place great importance on physical and mental health, take care with the food they eat and the lifestyle they lead and to take over more responsibility for their own wellbeing.

However, in our fast moving world it is not always easy to combine an active lifestyle with a balanced diet. This is why modern health products need to meet a wide variety of consumer demands at the same time. They have to be healthy and they have to have a specific and individual effect too, for example to build up the cardiovascular system, to promote a healthy digestion or to maintain mental and physical fitness. Of course, the main driver is the efficacy but the taste makes the difference.

The business unit Consumer Health at Symrise understands these consumer needs and develops solutions for healthy and tasty products. Now, it has pooled its functional botanical extracts under the umbrella brand Actiplants®. These extracts help, among other things, strengthen the immune and the cardiovascular system, or promote mental fitness. The functional ingredients can be used in a wide range of applications, for example in dietary supplements, and various food application areas.

Symrise has extensive research results showing the health giving properties of bilberries in particular as scientific work currently concentrates on Actiplants® Bilberry. This is a standardised extract from Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberries), which contains at least 25% anthocyanins and effects a variety of health giving properties. Apart from its anti-oxidant and immune-strengthening properties, this extract from bilberries can also support ocular health.

At the Vitafoods 2011 in Geneva, Symrise presents three functional product solutions, along with their standard portfolio of the Actiplants® range. These are Actiplants® Immune Bilberry, Actiplants® Immune Aronia and Actiplants® Cognitive Rhodiola, all of them standardized botanical extracts that support the immune system and can positively influence cognitive performance. Symrise will also present integrated solutions that offer both: function and taste. Especially masking solutions improve taste and lead to greater acceptance of the products by the consumer. The Symrise Optacool® product portfolio offers an long-lasting cooling effect, whereas products from the Optaflow® range activate the flow of saliva. Symrise has developed various encapsulation technologies to ensure that the product retains its flavor and interactions with the active pharmaceutical ingredients are minimized. At this year’s Vitafoods Symrise presents various tasty applications with standardized functional ingredients, such as cereal bars, instant drinks, compressed tablets and chewable tablets made from Actiplants® Rhodiola, Actiplants® Bilberry and Actiplants® Aronia. Not only do they carry an additional healthy effect but they also taste good. Further, products based on natural botanical ingredients can be tasted at the booth. In addition to that, various forms of pharmaceutical applications with enhanced flavor will be presented, such as effervescent tablets, compressed products, granulates and chewing tablets.