This month marks Fibre February, a Flour Advisory Board initiative encouraging people to check their fibre intake, find out whether they are getting enough fibre in their diet, and discover ways to enjoy more.
During 2020, many people re-evaluated their lifestyle as COVID-19 brought a renewed focus on health and wellbeing.
This led to many people exploring foods that support a healthy lifestyle and shifting their buying habits accordingly. This wellbeing trend is hardly new, in fact it is an area that continues to grow. However, studies show that people in Britain are still struggling to get their recommended daily amount of fibre to support such a lifestyle.
Fibre is a key part of a healthy diet. It can help prevent coronary heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. It can help balance out cholesterol levels, it’s important for digestive health, and it can support weight loss by helping people feel fuller for longer.
Whilst consumers can do more to pick products that have a higher fibre content, food manufacturers can aid this choice by making products that have a higher fibre content. For many bakeries, making small changes to recipes can make quick and easy improvements to the fibre content of products.
Here are three quick wins for achieving high fibre claims.
Get the wholegrain
There are three main types of fibre: insoluble fibre, soluble fibre, and resistant starch. All three are found in wholegrains. This makes adding wholegrains to recipes one of the best ways of adding fibre to baked goods. To get the highest level of fibre content, the bran needs to be retained.
Wholegrains don’t just add fibre content, they can also be used to add flavour, texture and a visual element to baked goods. With our diverse ingredients portfolio, we can help you by creating simple, high-fibre bakery blends that combine wholegrain products with other ingredients that are naturally high in fibre. We can also add pre-biotic fibres, such as chicory root fibre, to help achieve high fibre claims.
Increase fibre with super seeds
These tiny superfoods pack a real fibre punch and a little can go a long way in increasing daily fibre intake. Chia seeds in particular are a fibre heavyweight, with one tablespoon delivering 5g of fibre.
In today’s market, consumers are less surprised to find seeds, and even lentils, beans or vegetables, in their bread, cereals or snacks. From bakery items and toppings to snack foods, crackers and breakfast cereals, seeds and pulses provide a flexible fibre boost. Top fibre containing seeds such as brown and golden linseed, sunflower, pumpkin, poppy and chia seeds can all be used to add fibre while pulses such as peas, beans, lentils, and chickpeas are often added to baked goods for their protein content also boost fibre content.
High fibre flour
Beta Glucan is often used as a food thickening agent and is a source of soluble dietary fibre that is commonly found in cereal grains such as wheat, barley, rye and oats.
It has been shown to lower cholesterol levels in the blood and slow down digestion, which helps to manage the body’s blood sugar levels.
For food manufacturers seeking to bolster fibre claims, switching flour to a product with a higher fibre value will enable them to do just that. Barley has for many years been a core product here at Silvery Tweed and we offer a high beta-glucan barley flour – Hi Sol to help our customers add fibre to products.
Increasing the fibre content in products people eat every day can help boost Britain’s fibre intake and support healthier lifestyles.
Fibre plays an important part in a healthy and balanced diet, and innovation in cereals, bread and baked goods remains a good way of helping people increase fibre intake. For more information about #FibreFebruary, head to the Flour Advisory Board website. For creative ideas for high fibre blends, get in touch with our team.