Hydrocolloids in solutions to address dysphagia
09 May 2019 | DuPont Nutrition & Health
DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences is putting forward its hydrocolloid portfolio as a key solution to providing appropriate nutrition to those suffering from dysphagia – the medical term for swallowing difficulties. Leonardo Rubio Anselmi, Strategic Marketing Manager at DuPont, tells NutritionInsight at Vitafoods Europe that the company sees particularly strong potential for xanthan gum and gellan gum, in the creation of products that are easier to swallow.
This is our Wires at fight with Europe in Geneva, and I'm here with Leonardo Rubio and Selmi from DuPont.
Leonardo, very interesting key theme that's happening within nutritional product development goes around tackling the issue of dysphagia.
How, how big of an issue is dysphagia and how do you see this kind of evolving on the market?
It is, it is a big issue.
It's a silent one in some occasions.
We have an aging population, and this aging population has a higher likelihood of having dysphagia.
So because of that, it is growing as the different populations around the world are getting older.
And because of that, you have it more prevalent either in hospitals, senior homes, or simply as a symptom linked to a different illness.
So, yes, it is more prevalent nowadays and it is emerging now.
Coming out of the shades that it has been for the last years and particularly the case obviously in countries with aging demographics like Japan.
Correct, Japan is the main one due to the aging population that they have, but it is also present in the US and also in Europe and it's gaining more and more momentum, and there are some statistics around that with about 40% of the people in senior homes in the US that are having this failure.
And a similar number, perhaps a bit smaller in Europe, which also has the same condition at this kind of this type of establishments.
So what can be a very interesting way to address this is through the use of hydrocolis, and that's kind of how, how are you doing this in terms of your product development and what's, how, how have you been operating within this space?
Yes, so first of all, we need to understand what happens.
So basically what occurs is that our throat is is blocking and people are choking when eating.
So the solution to dysphagia is different stages.
So one is when you are mixing the product, so, and jellifies the product, so you can, you can eat it.
You can put it in your mouth.
Then also, once you have it in your mouth, it has to break easily so you can swallow it, nicely.
So, these are the different stages.
So then you need to be able to apply food that people normally would eat.
So either as a juice or ice cream or sort of a soup.
And, without modifying more, much more their, their taste, also the profile, in terms of the outlook as because food needs to be appealing anyways, right?
So which ingredients can work like from this regard then?
Yes, we normally work with geon, but the best one for us is santan santan gun, OK, because it provides you.
Rapid mix up and a jellifying process for the, for the consumer when they are starting working on it.
Then when it comes into the mouth, it's, it's also easy to swallow, but apart from that, it helps you to have a uniform product throughout the shelf life and also when you're going to consume it.
If you use, for instance, a traditional product like a starch or, yeah, starch, that's also known in Japan astarami.
It's a, it's a product that will start to lose the gentrification at a later stage.
So this is something that you don't want when you're having pain.
Also, it's a product that takes much longer, to, to dissolve because it starts to clump while santan.
Just, you can mix it rapidly.
Which sort of applications will you be working on?
Mostly juices, also some soups.
We're also working in ice cream in this type of, this type of application, and also some sort of flans as , desserts, which is very important as.
And how does the ingredient that you're using, whether it's xanthan or gel and, compare with the, the standard offering that you might use in a regular product application?
The regular application may have a stabilizer hydrocoloid just for the outlook of the, of the product.
So let's say, so you have a, a stable juice in the market and and the bottle doesn't look unappealing to you when you're going to buy it.
Here, what you're doing is having a gelification process of the application so it is easier for you to swallow it.
Leonardo, thank you very much.
Thank you.
