Tate & Lyle taps into flavoured water market
water market, launching two new products as part of its Rebalance
range.
Both the products contain the firm's sucralose sweetener Splenda, and fructose.
One of the 'solution sets' also lists polydextrose, enabling drinks makers to "reduce the calorie-content of commercially available flavoured waters by up to 66 per cent," says the London-based company.
The global soft drinks industry has been hit by a consumer shift away from sugary carbonated beverages towards healthier options.
As a result, leading drinks players like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also operating in mature markets, are looking to maximise on this growing trend - building up a selection of brands to pierce this new market.
'Good-for-you' soft drinks such as enhanced water, fortified juice and flavoured water are enjoying strong growth. Indeed, juice and water were recently highlighted as the fastest growth segments of the soft drinks market in Europe by market analysts Euromonitor.
And according to a recent Fitch Rating, in the US in 2003 carbonated soft drinks grew by only one per cent, while bottled water volume - including vitamin added varieties - grew by almost 22 per cent and non-carbonated drinks by 4.7 per cent.
Overall, beverages run first in the €5.5 billion global flavours market with an approximate 30 per cent slice of the market in western Europe alone.
Fresh on the market, Mike Augustine, global vice-president of ingredient applications and technical services at Tate & Lyle, said the firm was looking forward to seeing the first industrial production of flavoured waters (strawberry, lemon and strawberry) using the new 'Water Rebalance' solutions.
Apparently three Tate & Lyle prototypes tested against 13 commercially available samples on aroma, flavour, mouthfeel, aftertaste and afterfeel "produced excellent sensory test results", he claims.
