Convenience and Affordability

We all lead busy lives. Whether it’s racing home from soccer practice to fix the family dinner, hosting an impromptu neighborhood cookout or simply not wanting to go to the store and buy fresh food, ingredients afford the convenience required by today’s fast-paced lifestyle of purchasing foods that can be kept in the pantry and prepared quickly and easily.  Ingredients and additives also allow food producers to make foods more affordable so the family food dollar goes further.

Helping Food Dollars Go Further

We all want to make sure that the foods we feed our families are safe and nutritious, but some foods can be very costly.  Food ingredients allow nutritious, appealing foods to be produced at a lower cost, making them more affordable for consumers on a budget while providing key nutrients.

Certain food gums can be used to replace animal protein, which not only makes the product more affordable, but can improve overall nutrition by lowering fat and making the product suitable for people with certain dietary or religious restrictions.

Many food gums, like cellulose derivatives, are dietary fibers and can help boost fiber intake without the cost of purchasing certain fiber rich fresh vegetables that may be difficult to prepare and spoil quickly. Similarly, food additives like silicon dioxide are used in powdered mixes to prevent clumping and to help products rehydrated properly. Powdered products, like powdered milk, are an important and affordable alternative to fresh products that often help families consume key nutrients while making ends meet.

Finally, food ingredients, including vitamins and minerals, can be added to more affordable or more convenient foods through the process of fortification to help meet dietary requirements for under consumed nutrients. When these nutrients would otherwise only be available through consumption of expensive or hard to find or difficult to prepare foods, fortification is an important process that helps make affordable food more nutritious.