What's in Your Food?

We depend increasingly on shops rather than kitchen gardens for our food. More and more people are living busy lives in cities, with little time for the preparation of fresh food. Demand for food products which require little or no preparation is growing strongly, and processed food products are now extremely popular.

We use processed foods all the time. These include our breakfast cereals and orange juice, our lunchtime soup, the cereal bar that we eat in the afternoon and the pasta sauce that we use for our evening meal.

Most of these foods and beverages contain ingredients which make the products more convenient to use. They make the products easier to purchase, store and prepare; but they also make them tastier and healthier.

Feed, food and beverage ingredients cover the following types of product:

• Nutritional ingredients. These ingredients add nutritional or health benefits to the final product. They redress a deficit in ‘normal’ levels or enhance the product in specific ways. When nutritional ingredients are added to achieve a defined health goal (for example, to boost the immune system), they are called nutraceuticals. Vitamins, carotenoids and long-chain polyunsaturated acids (LC-PUFA) are amongst the most important nutritional ingredients.
  
  
• Additives. These substances are added to food to preserve flavor or improve taste and appearance. Food additives include antioxidants such as vitamin C, stabilizers and colorings.
  
  
• Enzymes. Food enzymes are used in a broad spectrum of applications such as dairy, baking, fruit processing, beer brewing and the manufacturing of other alcoholic beverages. Enzymes are proteins produced by all living organisms. They can be used for example to prevent haze in beer, preclude the formation of crystals in wine, or improve the characteristics of baked foods such as bread and cakes.
  
  
• Starter cultures and preservation systems are used in dairy products such as cheese and yoghurt.
  
  
• Functional food ingredients support health needs such as the management of weight or blood sugar levels.
  
  
• Taste enhancers and flavor ingredients. In savory products (e.g. soups, instant meals, sauces and savory snacks) ingredients such as yeast extracts are used to add flavor.
  
  
• Feed ingredients. Livestock and poultry are fed with diets based on optimum levels of vitamins, minerals and other feed ingredients. These specially mixed animal feeds allow animals enjoy optimum health while producing top-quality foods such as milk, eggs and meat.

DSM is a leading-edge developer and producer of ingredients for human and animal nutrition, beverages, dietary supplements and personal care products. Our ingredients play a key role in many of your favorite food and beverage brands. You won’t find our name on the packages, but our ingredients are in many of the products in your kitchen cupboard.

For more information about our feed, food and beverage ingredients, please visit: www.dsmnutritionalproducts.com and www.dsm-foodspecialties.com