Consumers today are very discerning. Rightly so. Health, Wellbeing and Longevity are major drivers underpinning consumer choice, but consumers also want to enjoy what they eat and drink and they need to also be convinced that the products they choose to consume meet their objectives, ‘ring true’ and resonate with expectations.

This is where a ‘Clean label’ comes in – unfortunately, it is true to say that the health and wellness food sector is littered with products that are built on the promise of purity, yet fail to deliver this when consumers start to peruse the label. Ingredient labelling is a good thing – it ensures that consumers are well aware of the choices they make and this is not to say that all ingredient inclusions on the label are ‘bad’ – far from it…but, it is rather disconcerting when a brand is pronounced to be one thing and yet the ingredient label tells a different, or at least a confusing story.

A ‘Clean Label’ is an aspirational objective that doesn’t necessarily eliminate all but the core ingredients, but it does act as an objective to eliminate as much as possible that is not critical to the product presentation and the consumer satisfaction that it delivers. In this pursuit, enzymes are very useful tools as enzymes are very rarely considered to be ingredients – enzymes perform a function for a very defined period of time, usually during processing and are almost always fully denatured by the time they reach the final package, simply adding to the overall protein content of the final product and with no residual enzymatic activity. There are a few exceptions, an example would be lactase enzyme when added asceptically to fresh milk, without UHT treatment. In such an instance, the lactase may continue to serve as an enzyme in the final product and would be therefore included on the ingredient label, but such instances are rare. Therefore, enzymes are a great way for brand developers to ‘clean up’ their labelled ingredients, effectively using Nature’s IQ to remove and replace other, often less appealing additives.

If Clean Label is of appeal to you and your brand, talk to us.