Smart Snack

Summary

Background
​Functional foods include a wide variety of foods and food components that are believed to improve overall health and well-being or reduce the risk of disease. There are significant opportunities for the food producers to include functional ingredients into snacks and foods in order to make it healthy, attractive and enjoyable. The growing demand for novel and healthy food ingredients makes functional foods an important part of the food industry in Australia.
Research
The ultimate goal of the project was to produce a red meat product containing small amounts of natural ingredients or functional components, at levels approved by the Food Standard Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with specific health benefits.
Outcomes
The outcomes of the project indicated that it is feasible to develop a fibre added snack, which is suitable for high school students, university students and aged care people. The objective of the project was achieved successfully. However, a commercial level beef snack with Oatwell fibre can be improved by increasing curry flavor and improving the texture of product as indicated by consumers from the scale-up and in-store evaluation.