Three Functional Benefits of Using Honey in…

America’s love affair with added protein shows no sign of waning, as the craze moves from the sports nutrition aisle into mainstream grocery categories such as energy drinks and even frozen pizza. Consumers are looking for more protein, and unlike 10 years ago, they are not willing to sacrifice taste and texture to get it.

Unfortunately, added protein ingredients can be difficult to work with. Depending on type and usage rates, dairy proteins, plant proteins and protein blends can create dryness, firmness, chalkiness, bitterness, astringency, beany notes or dense eating textures. Enter honey, a functional ingredient that does more than just sweeten products.

In added protein applications, honey’s value is amplified through its functional benefits in improving texture, flavor and overall product appeal. Here are three ways honey helps improve the flavor, texture and overall likability of added protein products.

1. Honey enhances texture and moisture management

Added proteins in a formula often compete with other ingredients for available moisture, which can impact softness, chew, tenderness and perceived freshness. Over time, moisture migration and ingredient interactions can make a product harder or drier than intended.

Honey helps prevent this due to its unique composition of sugars, water, acids and other minor components. This composition makes honey a humectant, meaning it attracts and retains moisture in a product. In baked goods, for example, honey’s use helps reduce the dryness that sometimes comes with added protein.

For product developers, this is especially important because texture is a factor in repeat purchases. Honey helps move the eating experience closer to a familiar food texture and away from the overly functional eating experience associated with added protein products.

2. Honey helps mask off flavors in added protein products

Many protein ingredients bring unwanted off notes to the flavor party. Plant proteins often contribute earthy, beany, bitter or astringent notes, while dairy proteins contribute chalky flavors.

Honey helps improve the overall flavor profile of high-protein products in several ways.

First, honey provides sweetness, which balances bitter or earthy notes from protein ingredients. Honey also contributes flavor depth that helps round the edges of a protein system and make the finished product taste more complete.

Honey also is a multi-carbohydrate system with more than 20 different carbohydrates. This gives honey a sustained sweetness, and not just an intense flavor spike that hits quick and dissipates just as quickly. This ensures off flavors are masked throughout the eating experience.

Honey also complements flavor systems commonly used in high-protein products, such as peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and coffee. In these applications, honey can act as a flavor connector, helping the formula taste complete and not like a laundry list of functional ingredients.

3. Honey supports browning, color and finished product appeal

In addition to flavor and texture challenges, added protein products also can pose visual challenges, mainly in the form of pale products. Thankfully, honey’s reducing sugars, fructose and glucose, trigger an intense Maillard reaction during baking or heating.

This ensures added protein products develop a golden color, surface browning and cooked flavor notes. Although the browning helps solve color challenges, it also enhances flavor development by adding toasted, caramelized and baked notes to added protein products.

For example, an added protein cookie needs to deliver protein but still look and taste like a cookie. Honey can help support those familiar flavor and visual cues while also contributing sweetness, moisture management and a clean label.

Essentially, honey helps added protein products taste more like real food and less like a nutritional supplement. We’ve developed many formulas where these benefits shine through, including a high protein whole wheat bread and protein bar with honey. Email [email protected]
for these formulas or to understand how honey can enhance your added protein products.