Two market leaders discuss using ingredient and manufacturing technology to help traditional products meet contemporary appetites and modern expectations.

In many emerging markets, consumers prefer the artisan products they have grown up with but with the convenience, quality, and prices offered by contemporary food manufacturers. Bakeries in Chile are being challenged to maintain the country’s long tradition of artisan breads while slimming the waistlines of its people by improving the healthfulness and quality of their baked goods.  This tale explores how two bakeries discovered that solving difficult problems, akin to making exquisite breads, is often found in simple solutions.

Two Leaders

MonPan is one of the most recognized bakeries in Chile. Part of the Campo Lindo group, MonPan’s advanced distribution system gives this bakery its competitive advantage. This system enables MonPan to manufacture and sell more than 40 tons of fresh baked goods every day. Some of its most successful products are high fat traditional breads such as hallulla and marraqueta. In Chile, traditional breads are offered at the lowest prices because of product identity regulations. Low price combined with customer preference for these types of products make traditional breads MonPan’s most popular products.

BredenMaster is a bakery that has embraced new technology to create a variety of frozen dough products that are baked at the point of sale across the country. With 500 employees and a 2,500 ton plant capacity, BredenMaster is a market leader in frozen breads, traditional breads, cakes and stuffed pastry products. They also have a secondary line of direct to market prebaked breads. One of BredenMasters strongest brands is “Pan Pierre,” a packaged bread that accounts for 15% of the national market and is a staple for many Chilean families.

Two Problems

MonPan has developed a recipe for success by matching consumer’s preferences for quality with a fair price. But just as MonPan has embraced more sophisticated manufacturing technology, the Chilean consumer has become more demanding. MonPan had found that besides quality and price, the healthfulness of a product was beginning to influence the purchasing decisions of Chilean shoppers. In an effort to maintain its place as a market leader, MonPan began searching for a way to improve the nutritional profile of its products. While trying to increase the healthfulness of its breads, MonPan also needed to maintain the traditional quality and competitive pricing that had contributed to its success.

BredenMaster attributes its success to large investments in manufacturing technology. In 2004 the company opened an 18,500 m2  facility with the capacity to store 3,000 pallets of frozen product. To most effectively use its new facilities, BredenMaster needed to extend the shelf life of its products. Closely following trends in the U.S. and Europe, BredenMaster would only consider all-natural solutions.

One Solution

While MonPan wanted to reduce the fat content of its breads, BredenMaster was looking for ways to increase the shelf life of its frozen and baked products. Both bakeries wanted to find a solution that would enable them to keep their price points and improve quality. Citri-Fi, an innovative new functional food ingredient, was able to provide the solution for both companies.

Made from orange pulp and mechanically processed with exclusively licensed technology, Citri-Fi is an all-natural, multi-functional food ingredient. Citri-Fi is used by bakers to increase margins, enhance quality, increase shelf life and yields, and improve nutrition and label declarations. Citri-Fi’s unique natural chemistry enables it to bind and hold more water through cooking, baking, freezing and product shelf life than other fibers. This functionality along with several other unique properties made Citri-Fi the perfect solution for both MonPan and BredenMaster.

MonPan was able to make its products healthier by replacing up to 50% of the fat in a variety of their breads with Citri-Fi and extra water without compromising cost or the organoleptic qualities of taste or texture. According to Mr. Helmuth Scheel, R&D Director with MonPan:

 “Citri-Fi is our key ingredient in the substitution of fat in our products. The most important aspect for us is that Citri-Fi is very easy to use and can be added into all products containing fat. Citri-Fi improves the nutritional quality of our products by decreasing total fat content as well as calories. Another important aspect is that Citri-Fi reduces water loss in frozen uncooked bread and bakery products by binding water and decreasing crystal particle size. Also, baking time is shortened when Citri-Fi (and water) replace fat in the formula.”

Helmuth discussed how the incorporation of Citri-Fi has no effect on the taste or appearance of their products. Originally intended for high fat traditional breads, Citri-Fi has now been incorporated into 50% of MonPan’s product line. Mr. Sheel was very pleased to find a cost and quality effective solution for the bakery that its customers embraced. “For our company, it is very important to offer healthy products to our consumers, while, at the same time, it is vital for us to reach the market with the highest quality possible.”

BredenMaster used the water holding functionality of Citri-Fi to increase quality and enhance shelf life. Jennifer Barter Fitzgerald, the Technical Manager at BredenMaster, described how Citri-Fi was able to help improve its products.

“One of the characteristics of this ingredient is that with it (Citri-Fi) additional water can be added to the product so less moisture is lost after the baking process. As a consequence, the shelf life of the product is extended since the baked goods remain moist for a longer period of time because the fiber strongly holds the additionally incorporated water.”

BredenMaster discovered that adding Citri-Fi and additional water increased quality and yields while improving nutrition. Ms. Barter elaborates, “Consumers are first interested in cheap products, and secondly, in healthy ones, but surely, if both qualities can be found in one product, that is the one they will take home.”

Citri-Fi

Citri-Fi products are primarily used to improve profit margins, quality, nutrition, and ingredient declarations. When food manufacturers and processors use Citri-Fi they experience the benefits of lower costs, lower cooking and baking losses, higher yields, reduced purge and syneresis, less ice crystal formation, improved emulsification and stabilization, enhanced palatability and texture, cleaner ingredient labels, fewer calories, and improved nutritional declarations. Food manufacturers enjoy these benefits by utilizing Citri-Fi's multi-functional properties to bind moisture, partially replace oil, fat, and eggs, and to emulsify and stabilize their products. Often Citri-Fi achieves several of these functions at once.  Citri-Fi is manufactured and distributed by Fiberstar, Inc.