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 | | RETURN OF THE ANCIENT GRAINS | | | International Food Ingredients | | 10/07/2008 | | | Packaged food and beverage markets are seeing a growing influx of new products featuring grains that were favoured by civilizations thousands of years ago. According to Datamonitor’s Productscan Online database of new products, new food and beverage products featuring a short list of ancient grains have doubled since 2005.
Some 515 new food and beverage products were introduced worldwide in 2007 featuring ancient grains such as quinoa, spelt, kamut, amaranth and chia. This represents a doubling of the 257 new products featuring these grains in 2005 and a nearly five-fold increase over the 112 new products that used these grains in 2004.
The popularity of whole grains is opening the door for more novel, flavour rich and lesser known types of grain. Moreover, the use of less processed ancient grains addresses the concern that today’s foods are over processed. According to Datamonitor, 63.2% of US and 58% of European consumers surveyed in 2006 said that it was either “important” or “very important” to reduce consumption of processed foods.
The newest star to emerge in the world of ancient grains is chia. Chia is back in the spotlight today because of a renewed appreciation of the health properties of the easily-digestible seed. Chia is high in omega-3 fatty acids, contains an impressive amount of vitamins, minerals and fiber, and is high in easy-to-digest protein.
World markets can expect more ancient grain-based products as ingredient suppliers are rising to the ancient grains challenge.
www.productscan.com. | |
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