9 minute read
Commercial Baking: Clean labels give bakeries a clean break
A clean break for bakeries
How clean-label goods with simple ingredients are maintaining popularity and profit. “I’m going to start eating cleaner.” Author: Liz Goodwin
+It’s a common mantra at the turn of a year or when summer approaches, and the word ‘clean’ is one that consumers focus on in multiple ways. ‘Clean label’, the food movement that preaches products without artificial chemicals, continues to rise in popularity with shoppers, and it’s proving that short ingredient lists (especially with names the common person can pronounce) pay off. But as trendy as the movement is, it still has many questions surrounding it, including the most basic: What exactly is a ‘clean label’, and who decides whether something is ‘clean enough’ to make the cut?
Although there is no universal rulebook on what is required for a product to be considered clean label, a general rule of thumb is that the ingredient list needs to be short and relatively simple. This usually means nixing preservatives and artificial colors and flavors, while still keeping the same taste and texture consumers love. Although it’s a tall order for bakery producers, it’s a force to be reckoned with in the grocery aisles: 48% of global consumers say they make proactive health and wellness choices on a regular basis, according to NielsenIQ, and 77% of consumers expect product labels to be more specific and transparent.
Gone are the days when uber-clean products were a niche market; it has been propelled into the mainstream and is now more of a standard than a specialty.
Jennifer Halliburton, Corbion
Global Bakery Insights senior manager, has spent much of her career figuring out how to conquer clean label. She said that in a world where the rules are ambiguous, it’s best to let bakers and snack producers create their own path in the clean label space.
“I approach it as partnering with customers to understand how they want to look at the label for their own differentiation,” she said. “A big trend in formulating is ‘choice goal,’ and clean label is huge at choice goal, though I don’t put a hard definition out on the topic.”
A choice goal is a consumer behavior concept that is critical to pinning down ways to get your product noticed. IGI Global defines a choice goal as a benchmark that people want to attain during product selection, which can in turn determine their satisfaction with the decision-making process. For example, if a consumer has a goal to be more conscious of ingredient lists in their snack choices, a clean label product would gain the attention (and the dollar) of that shopper. They will feel good about the purchase because it met their goal, and hopefully, come back for more.
A common way for brands to get themselves into many consumers’ choice goal categories is by being open about what’s in their product. Despite the ambiguity around clean label’s true definition, one thing is crystal clear: A straightforward label strengthens the chances of a consumer deciding to press ‘add to cart’.
“For some, clean label is just about transparency,” Halliburton said. “They want to know where products come from and what they do. They don’t want to feel like they’re being tricked or that there’s something heavier in there.”
One brand that taps into the ‘transparency tactic’ is Waterville, ME-based Maine Crisp Co. The clean label and gluten-free crisp brand uses buckwheat flour in its products, allowing for a balanced taste that doesn’t require extra flavoring agents.
“Our product’s clean label helps us successfully straddle the gluten-free market, where our flavors stand out, and the artisanal crisp market, where our gluten-free certification is a differentiator,” said Karen Getz, founder and president of Maine Crisp Co. “We’ve recently found that store buyers, customers, and nutritionists look at our label and are happy to see that we use buckwheat flour instead of rice, starches, and gums as binders, so we will continue to emphasize that in our marketing strategy.“
While ingredient openness is becoming gospel for so many food producers, one retail outlet is often deemed the pioneer of the clean label movement: Whole Foods. The health food giant that offers an organic option for nearly everything has a list of more than 230 ingredients — including hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup, and sweeteners such as
aspartame, sucralose and saccharin — banned from the products on its shelves.
When it comes to developing a clean label product, earning a place in the aisles of Whole Foods’ serves as a golden ticket.
Two key categories that Whole Foods focuses on, which are particularly relevant to the baking industry, are preservatives and sweeteners. The grocer states on its website that preservatives undergo consideration on a case-bycase basis, “weighing the benefits and the drawbacks.” The company allows things like citric acid and cultured dextrose but bans benzoates and three sorbate varieties: calcium, potassium and sodium, all common preservatives in baked goods. Without these elements, shelf life is shortened, so bakers have to figure out how to either go without preservatives and make a shorter shelf life profitable or replace them with clean label options.
According to a report from Allied Market Research, the natural food preservatives market is predicted to reach USD 1.07 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 3.7% from 2019 to 2026. The top contributors to the market included salt, an ancient and cost-efficient preservative, and citric acid, found naturally in citrus fruits and widely used as an acidifier in foods. Even seaweed and other algae-derived ingredients have been popular contenders in the natural preservative market for antibacterial and mold-inhibiting qualities.
The other category ripe for clean label innovation is sweeteners. Consumers are increasingly turning to natural sugars rather than chemical ones; in fact, Statista reported that by 2026, the natural sweetener market is projected to reach USD 28 million — up USD 5.5 billion from 2020. Popular options include stevia, monk fruit extract, agave, honey, tapioca syrup and brown rice syrup.
Riceworks, a clean label brand owned by the company Wholesome Goodness, is no stranger to clean sweeteners. The parent company has banned 158 additives and chemicals and uses only non-GMO ingredients. The brand makes savory rice chips and omega-3 bars, the latter of which brings a sweet taste without any added sugars like fructose. In general, if it ends in a ‘tose’, it doesn’t belong on a Riceworks ingredient label.
“Not all sugars are created equal,” said Rick Letizia, Wholesome Goodness’ co-founder, president and COO. “We use natural sugars in our bars such as natural fruit. And now you have a new category [on the ingredient label] that says ‘added sugars’ because you have naturally occurring sugar in items like a tomato or something. So now, you really have to look at what kind of ingredient is driving sugar content.”
These kinds of formulation challenges can be tough, but can also present opportunities. “It can present some confusion, but it also allows bakeries to figure out what’s really going to be the most compatible with consumers in a purchasing event,” he said.
Once a bakery has nailed down the right formulation, the other (sometimes equally challenging) piece is marketing the product. Since there is a lack of clear guidelines on how to define clean label, front-of-pack claims can be a bit tricky. Even the word ‘healthy’ has hurdles to navigate. In a statement published by the FDA in May 2021, the organization announced it was beginning to update the ‘healthy’ nutrient content claim for food labeling, something that has a big impact on the clean label movement that falls under a health and wellness halo. The updating process is part of an overall plan to provide consumers with more information about what they are eating, otherwise known as the Nutrition Innovation Strategy.
This is one of the many regulatory concerns that food producers face when navigating the clean label space. Letizia knows firsthand how important these factors are when deciding
Jeff Posner, CEO, Wholesome Goodness
what to put on the packaging of a product. “There are a lot of regulations coming out that are getting very restrictive with what you can put on the front of a package,” he said. “The FDA is really trying to stop what they believe is misleading labeling. A lot of the language is changing, so the FDA is cleaning that up and we are following along with that, only putting the major type of ‘clean’ claims that you can make on the packaging.”
Letizia and his colleague Jeff Posner, the CEO of Wholesome Goodness, are navigating this by focusing on what they include rather than what they exclude. This allows them to make those more ‘clean-cut’ claims such as gluten-free, celiac-friendly, free of cholesterol, non-GMO ingredients and 0 grams trans-fat, but they also put a spotlight on the inclusion of better ingredients. Other highlights include 15 grams of whole grains, a simple callout of ‘better-for-you’ attributes.
“We’re truly better-for-you, and that is what we aspire to be,” Posner said. “It can’t be solely defined by eliminating the bad stuff. There’s got to be a corollary that we are including the good stuff, which is really at the core of our concept that is nutritional density. So you have to think about how you will communicate that to a consumer.”
One way that the brand sets its baked omega-3 bars apart is with its signature ‘O3MG powered’ branding. The registered acronym stands for omega-3, multigrain and gluten-free, and the symbol helps set the bars apart from the competition. “It was done for consumer communications marketing purposes, and our analogy was like how a computer is powered by Intel,” Posner said. “Our bars are nutritionally powered by O3MG. And that’s something on which we can really build brand equity. It speaks to the consumer, and we are considering a line extension of our chips to be O3MG as well. So that means adding ingredients whether they be quinoa, chia seeds or flax. We think omega-3 is where the consumer is going.”
And as consumers increasingly shop online, it’s critically important for a brand to differentiate itself against the plethora of options.
“With omnichannel and online, this idea of having front-ofpack callouts and how you can find products is becoming more important,” Halliburton said. “How do you talk about the function or the elements of a product differently so that it does show up when traditional shopping is changing?”
As clean label enjoys its time in the culinary limelight, all signs point to even more acceleration for the market. Emerging alternative ingredients that can help bakeries make cleaner products appear to be rolling out almost daily as baking companies increase their demand for clean, label-friendly ingredients.
“It’s a space that is going to continue to evolve,” Halliburton said. “It’s going to be important to consumers when they think about what they need from food and food security.”
Content provided by Commercial Baking magazine (Avant Food Media)
