Spanish nutraceuticals firm Natraceutical is promoting a patented olive powder to the European food industry this week, said to both impart olive flavour and significantly raise the antioxidant content of foods.
The ingredient, previously on display at the IFT in Chicago this summer, is processed from whole olives, rather than an extract or the leaf of the plant.
"This means that it is also very high in fibre," Adam Lee, business development manager at the firm, told NutraIngredients.com.
The product can be applied to breads, pastas, soups, snacks and condiments and mixes very well with other ingredients, he added. It is also easy to formulate into capsules.
Food makers looking to boost the health profile of a product will also benefit from a 4 per cent total antioxidant content, including the polyphenol hydroxytyrosol, thought to be responsible for the potent activity of olive oil. The ingredient also features vitamin E and 10-15 per cent oleic acid.
"We are also doing research into the powder's ability to improve shelf-life in foods," added Lee.
Natraceutical supplies caffeine to a number of leading food and beverage firms but it also produces plant extracts such as valerian and natural theobromine. This year it has announced a series of new patents for nutraceutical ingredients.
"It's not that we're moving away from caffeine production, rather we have really increased our R&D spend and are working on more innovative, patented products," explained Lee.