Introduction:
One of the most intriguing field of study and innovation is functional meals and drinks. Scientists have been investigating various functional components and their therapeutic effects, as well as potential production procedures, in order to create innovatively or improve current functional beverages. The functional beverage composition focuses on fulfilling customers’ thirst while also promoting healthful advantages. The majority of recent research has focused on the potential of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics in the manufacture of functional drinks. Other intriguing topics include food industry byproducts, the usage and processing of natural components, and the optimization of manufacturing processes to create unique drinks without compromising their performance.
The corona outbreak changed how things were, paving the way to new normal and novel technologies. Inflation is on its way and will affect most countries. It’s expected to hit the UK by the first half of this year, predicts the economic reports. The food and beverage industries find it hard to cope with these changes. The pandemic for sure has changed the preferences of people around the globe. Beverage formulation industries have moved into a new phase of functional beverages. There are many issues within the formulation; as professionals say, it’s easy until water and flavour; the complications start afterwards. But is the only problem we face in beverage formulation is choosing the ingredients or what? There are plenty of issues functional beverage formulators face, especially in the UK.
Pain point identified: With increased health consciousness among consumers in the UK, health and wellness are among the key categories of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Functional foods and drinks, made from natural components and designed to perform certain physiological tasks, are at the forefront of food industry research and development. However, the creation of innovative functional food products necessitates expensive research and development operations, such as clinical effectiveness studies, which food manufacturing businesses cannot afford due to limited R&D budgets and technological know-how in this area. Another area of concern for the development of functional drinks is the consumer acceptability of these food products from a sensory standpoint as well as from the other aspects of consideration.
It is necessary to create creative and novel beverages. The majority of food corporations lack innovative capabilities and rely on functionalizing a product by enhancing regular meals with vitamins, minerals, or herbal extracts. Food concepts that are novel are facing many issues.
Several research has reported on novel functional drinks including different bioactive components in the same product. The risk of component interactions is a major consideration when combining numerous ingredients into a beverage. Knowledge of the interactions that may occur when specific materials are combined together in a product is required. These interactions or reactions may cause insolubility, oxidation, precipitation, or degradation of the constituents, reducing or eliminating the beverage’s usefulness.
Some functional substances may be stable in the product when used together, but once taken, they may impact digestion and/or metabolism, reducing the bioavailability of other constituents. Dairy products, for example, has been shown to have a detrimental impact on flavonoid metabolism pathways. As a result, flavonoids should not be added to milk-based drinks. Furthermore, flavonoid bioavailability is dramatically reduced when flavonoid-containing items are taken with milk or milk-based products.
It is vital to understand the ideal dosage of a functional component to be included in the functional beverage. The optimum dose is defined as the highest dosage that has a favourable impact while having no negative effects on other functioning components. The most difficult job in creating functional drinks is ensuring that the functional components stay intact, active, and bioavailable after processing and storage.
Solutions:
Cereal-based products enhanced with probiotics are another form of beverage that necessitates the use of specialized technology. Bacterial cells struggle to survive in the acidic environment of a beverage. Microencapsulation using different matrices has been shown to be effective in preserving probiotics in an acidic environment. Problems with probiotic supplementation in fruit juices can be handled by adding tiny amounts of other liquids. When a new functional beverage is formulated or intended to be formulated, the functionality and safety of the active ingredient and product need to be determined. Metabolomics has been proposed as a promising tool to assess the safety, traceability, and quality of functional beverages, using the rapid evaluation of the metabolites of the functional beverage. In certain circumstances, processing can improve a product’s usefulness. In certain circumstances, heat treatment, for example, gives favourable characteristics or increases functional activity. The useful component is frequently added to the beverage, and eliminating or lowering the quantities of unwanted chemicals can also assist.
