Replacing Fat
The fat replacer arena is getting crowded, as new weight gain products are making entries and old-timers are jockeying for market share. Rivalry is on the rise in the widening market for fat replacers. Several companies have debuted new ingredients intended to increase the palatability of fat-reduced products during the past year. As more companies seek a presence in this growing segment, those already involved are moving to get a leg up on the competition by differentiating their products from others on the market, or by pooling resources for a stronger position.
Fat replacers are the catch-all term which describes ingredients that substitute in varying degrees for fats and oils. While all try to maintain taste, mouth feel and body of the original food, some are designed to replace only a portion of the fat in a product. Others can be used in entirely non-fat formulations. Arthur D. Little Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm, distinguishes fat substitutes and fat mimetics.
It defines the former as being fully functional and lipid-like, directly substitutable, able to replace fat in a variety of applications and non-caloric. Mimetics, the firm says, have some of fat's properties, do not replace fat on a one-for-one basis, are suitable to only some applications and have reduced calorie content.
Annual US sales for fat replacers have not yet passed the $ 100 million mark, estimates Dennis Seisun of Industrial Marketing Research International in San Diego, who is working on a multi-client marketing study of fat substitutes and fat replacers in the US and western Europe. This figure, Mr. Seisun notes, is limited to applications where the fat-replacing ingredient is used as such. Other estimates sometimes include total sales of ingredients such as gums, which are also used as thickeners. Mr. Seisun breaks down the market by fat-replacer type; at 87 percent, hydrocolloids claim the lion's share of the market, proteins account for 11 percent and other types takes the remaining 2 percent. Because the market for fat simulation is still in its early bloom, leadership has yet to emerge. But the influx of new substitutes or improved versions of older ones during the past year is making for a crowded market and setting the stage for some serious battles to assert product superiority. National Starch & Chemical Company's food division entered the fray in January with not one but six new fat replacers, collectively called the N-Lites. Each product is manufactured differently and tailored to a specific end use. National Starch holds up its products as a saner approach to reducing fat than so-called magic bullet replacers: single entities designed to stand in for fat in all possible applications. According to Jeffrey Laurent, manager of development and service for the food products division, the N-Lites are being tested by customers of all types and sizes, and response has been very positive. Competitors and analysts say Starch's food system-specific products are more marketing strategy than new development. However, most in the industry--including those that sell one fat replacer for a variety of applications--agree with National Starch that there can be no magic bullet.
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