Healthier snacks

Confectioners are under constant pressure to make their products healthier. Especially those products aimed at children.

Unfortunately, fortifying products with vitamins and/or minerals often has a negative impact on taste and consequently no repeat purchases are made.

Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University believe they may have found a way to ‘sneak’ nutrients into children’s snacks.

The researchers have been testing extruded snacks made from fruit powders against popular brands Quavers and Wotsits and found that the nutrient content was considerably higher.

And in taste tests with schoolchildren in Manchester, the fruit snacks scored a creditable four out of five.

Staff researchers Valentina Stojceska and Andrew Plunkett, and student Ruth Potter – who chose to research the project for her final year dissertation – asked children at Broadoak Primary School, in Swinton, to rate the appearance and taste of the samples on a scale of one to five. The tangerine and apple flavoured snacks scored the most highly, with banana being the least favourite among the children.

Stojceska says, “This type of research could help fight childhood obesity and make snacking more healthy.

“While it is too early to say what commercial opportunities this might present, there is currently very little information about this field and it will give direction to manufacturers in terms of producing this sort of snack.”

Extruded snacks are those which are cooked, pressurised and then pushed out of a die which produces the particular snack shape. It is a short time, high temperature and low cost technology.

The fact the snacks can be produced in a short time, at low costs is likely to appeal to manufacturers.

This research could lead to the first fruit based extruded snacks intended for children on the UK market.