RTD fruit smoothies face texture, mouthfeel and stability challenges. Citri-Fi^® natural citrus fiber provides clean label stabilization and texturizing which improves the quality over the smoothie’s shelf-life.  

When the smoothie trend hit, consumers followed suit with high enthusiasm. Patrons flocked to the stores buying high end blenders, smoothie mixes and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Each morning, they thumbed through ideas on social media or e-cookbooks searching for the ultimate recipe. And for those who boycotted brick and mortars, there was always the option of ordering the smoothie kits on-line. While these do-it-yourself’ers (DIY) took pride in mixing up their own concoctions every day, the other half of us took the yellow brick road and bought the RTD smoothies.

RTD Smoothie Challenges and Solutions

Creating RTD smoothies for the mass seems like an easy process – puree fruit together, slap a label on the bottle and place it on the shelf. However, there are challenges around delivering a high quality RTD smoothie to the market such as texture, mouthfeel and stability. DIY home smoothies have the luxury of blending ice into the mix to create a rich and thick texture. On the other hand, RTD smoothies need to rely on the fruit and vegetable bases which may be thin and watery. In this instance, clean label functional fibers like Citri-Fi^® improves the texture. Citri-Fi is a natural fiber produced from the citrus juicing process. This natural ingredient thickens up a smoothie to create that full-body mouthfeel when used at 0.3% to 0.8% . This clean label texturizer can be labeled as citrus fiber, dried citrus pulp or citrus flour.

Another common issue is stability. Manufacturers rely on the fruit and vegetables’ innate components to provide the stability over shelf-life. Yet, at times this falls short. They shy away from adding stabilizers to maintain a clean label declaration. As a result, smoothies tend to separate out requiring the consumer to shake before drinking. Though some drinkers shake their beverages before consuming, the appearance is not aesthetically appealing on the shelf. In this scenario, Citri-Fi  provides stability in addition to mouthfeel at a 0.3% to 0.8% usage level. This clean label stabilizer is non-GMO, allergen-free and gluten-free which resonate well in the natural markets.

Some RTD beverages are sold in powdered form to be hydrated by consumers on-the-go. Citri-Fi does not need heat to activate its swelling power. As a result, this clean label texturizer  provides a thick consistency and smooth mouthfeel once hydrated at a 1.0% to 2.0% usage level.

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