Vitafoods Europe 2024 live: Gelita spices up sports bars with collagen protein for endurance performance

16 May 2024 --- Collagen peptide and gelatin manufacturer Gelita showcased the capabilities of its latest innovation, OptiBar — a collagen ingredient for cereal and high protein bars — at Vitafoods Europe 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The company also showcased its recently released bioactive collagen protein for endurance performance, PeptEndure.

Nutrition Insight sits down with two experts from Gelita, who tell us that the ingredients serve gaps in the market for savory applications without the use of sugar for binding, live on the showroom floor.

“OptiBar is especially developed for high protein bars, Oliver Wolf, marketing and business manager EMEIA, Gelita, tells us. “You can increase the protein load of a bar up to 60% and more and It is still soft and not hard or brittle, which can happen if you make a protein bar with that high protein load using only whey.”

“After a while it’s not chewable anymore,” he underscores.

Wolf highlights that OptiBar is a great option for creating bars that are tender, chewy and soft. However, he reveals that one of things that make the offering so innovative is that, because OptiBar also works as a binding agent, it can be used in place of sugar in cereal bars and it opens new avenues for different kinds of bars.

A new “flavor” of bars
According to Wolf, since OptiBar is derived by enzymatic hydrolysis of natural collagen, the ingredient exhibits good bioavailability and a neutral taste making it ideal for sweet and savory bars and easy to customize with flavors, sweeteners, colorants and dietary fibers. It combines well with other nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and ingredients like dried fruits and cereals.

OptiBar can be used for clean label products with nutritional claims, under EU regulation 1924/2006, such as source of protein, high protein, reduced sugar, low sugar, sugar-free and with a soft, indulgent texture. The powder is the latest addition to the company’s portfolio of naturally functional branded collagen peptide ingredients.

“You can create savory bars, like an Italian style bar,” Wolf explains. “It’s not necessary to create a sweet bar, you can make it spicy because you don’t need sugar for binding, you can create different styles and with the cereal bars you can increase the protein load dramatically.”

Functional and versatile
According to Natalie Leuwer, category manager food specialties, global marketing and innovation at Gelita, OptiBar does not need to be boiled like traditional cereal bar binders.

It can be warmed with water and oil to 70°C at which point the dry ingredients are added and the mass is molded. Therefore it can be easily introduced into existing production lines. Gelita recommends using OptiBar with whey or plant-based proteins.Gelita’s savory sports bar, OptiBar showcased at Vitafoods.

Additionally, in 2023, Gelita launched PeptEndure — a protein solution poised to revolutionize endurance training. According to the company, this innovative ingredient is designed to enhance endurance performance through a sustainable, adaptive approach to muscle conditioning

“We have one very important market, in sports nutrition and sports bars, where it’s possible to enrich them with more than 60% protein,” Leuwer underscores. “Sports bars are, of course, also a very good category to add our bioactive collagen peptides (BCPs) to.”

Wolf agrees stating: “PeptEndure is the first collagen protein for endurance performance. That spot on the market did not exist before and we’re covering that white spot for long-lasting endurance improvement.”

Looking toward the future
Meanwhile, as the official collagen sponsor of 2023’s Vitafoods Europe the company honed in on prominent trends in the market, such as “healthy aging” and “beauty-from-within,” burgeoning areas of interest in the market. The company’s breakthroughs will be presented by subject experts to allow visitors to delve deeper into skin and joint health topics.

“We will intensify our investment in peptides,” Wolf concludes. “We have several studies in the pipeline and several products for the future. At the moment we are focusing much on sports nutrition which is of high interest for us and for the market.”

By Inga de Jong, with live reporting from William Bradford Nichols at Vitafoods Europe 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland