The Dutch starch giant said its Eliane C200, containing 99 per cent amylopectin, can give a competitive advantage to nut manufacturers constantly focused on developing new shapes and textures in that it provides high expansion characteristics
Declared as potato starch, the supplier said it thus also adheres to the industry’s clean label demands.
Avebe market development manager, Vincent Melenhorst, said that another benefit for snack producers in switching to Eliane C200 from standard instant starches was the greater coating cohesion allowed with a resulting knock-on reduction in waste at the production, packaging and transport stages.
“Through reformulation efforts, we have developed a starch with smaller potato granules that enables better ‘tack’ so there is no wasting of coating mix, while the coating firmness results in fewer crushed nuts in packs,” he said.
Applied at the pre-dusting stage, Melenhorst told this publication that Eliane C200 offers one-to-one replacement of conventional instant starches.
Trialled in-house and tested on an industrial level with selected mid-scale and larger-scale nut producers, the market development manager stressed that there is no need for manufacturers to modify coating recipes or equipment.
When asked about price differential with commonly used coating starches, Melenhorst argues that on a direct price comparison, it would be costlier but looking at overall savings in terms of waste and breakages reduction, the new addition to the Eliane is “competitively priced.”
The strongest markets for this type of fried coated nut include Western European countries - the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia in particular, while markets such as Turkey are showing increasing demand, he added.