Wellness Foods' 2005 Readers' Choice Awards

Wellness Foods, FoodProcessing.com

We asked, you answered, we tallied, et voilà -- we proudly announce the winner's of this year's awards competition.

By the Wellness Foods staff

For the second year, our readers rallied to our call to make their choice for the best nutritional ingredients suppliers.

This year we presented 10 categories for your assessment. In alphabetical order they are: Calcium, Choline, Fiber, Inulin, Lutein, Lycopene, Omega Oils, Soy, Vitamins and Whey Protein. These were the primary ingredient categories featured throughout our 2004 editorial year and are not meant to endorse any particular source in any way.

To maintain the highest level of impartiality, our survey was kept short and sweet, with the concept of “best” left unquantified. Best was what was best to the individual voter — whether efficacy, service, availability or cost. We left it up to you.

The survey form is an unaided recall survey sent by e-mail to 9,100 recipients of Wellness Foods during the month of December. Recipients represent all categories of the food and beverage industry.

We opened the field to a first-, second- and third-place winner for each category. A difference of less than 3 percent was deemed a statistical tie, and for categories in which no single company received at least 5 percent of the votes, the category was simply dropped. (This did, in fact, happen with choline, so nine categories of winners are presented below.) We even had one category — omega oils — blessed with a three-way tie for second place.

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Photo courtesy of Purac America Inc.

Category: Calcium
Winner: Tie
• Purac America Inc., Lincolnshire, Ill. (6%)
• Specialty Minerals Inc., Bethlehem, Pa. (5%)

Calcium builds strong bones, and both Purac and Specialty Minerals built strong bonds with our readers in a statistical tie among a wide field of contenders with 6 percent and 5 percent of the total votes, respectively. Purac specializes in highly soluble calcium lactate-based formulations and is the world's largest and most experienced producer of natural lactic acid, lactates, gluconates, lactitol, xylitol, lactides and polylactides.

Specialty Minerals provides several food-grade calcium products in a broad range of particle sizes. Its products are used as texturizers and release agents in foods and confections as well as a source of calcium in baking products.

Category: Fiber
Winner: Archer Daniels Midland Co., Decatur, Ill. (11%)
Second: Sun Opta Ingredients Inc., Bedford, Mass. (8%)

ADM’s Alpha Cellulose, Powdered Bh 200 Fibersol-2 soluble fiber is a clear, colorless and concentrated fiber source used as a bulking agent for low-calorie formulations. With no inherent or added flavor, it boasts high solubility, rapid dispersion and very low viscosity, plus it’s heat/retort- and freeze/thaw-stable. It meets all criteria for health and safety and is GRAS as maltodextrin, as well as Kosher pareve-certified by the Union of Orthodox rabbis (OU).

Photo courtesy of Orafti Active Food Ingredients.

Category: Inulin
Winner: Orafti Active Food Ingredients, Malvern, Pa. (20%)
Second: Tie

• Cargill Inc., Minneapolis (9%)
• Sensus Operations CV, The Netherlands (9%)

Orafti is the world leader in production and commercialization of chicory-based food ingredients. Its Raftiline range of hot-water extraction inulin powders includes Raftilose, which can be applied in most food products. Clinical studies show enhanced digestive health plus potential beneficial effects such as improved lipid metabolism and cancer inhibition. Its reduced caloric contribution makes it popular as a fat and sugar replacer for calorie-reduced foods.

Category: Lutein
Winner: Kemin Foods, Des Moines, Iowa (18%)
There were no clear winners for second or third place in this category.

Kemin’s FloraGlo brand lutein — derived from a species of high-lutein marigolds cultivated in Thailand — is our readers’ favorite source of this powerful antioxidant. Its product is chosen not only for food and beverages but is pure enough for vitamin and dietary supplements, too.

Photo courtesy of LycoRed Natural Products.

Category: Lycopene
Winner: Tie

• LycoRed Natural Products, La Crosse, Wis. (11%)
• BASF Corp., Florham Park, N.J. (11%)

Third: DSM Nutritional Products, Parsippany, N.J. (8%)

For 2005, LycoRed’s Lycomato brand of naturally derived lycopene moved up to share first place for best lycopene supplier with BASF. While the evidence continues to mount for the importance of lycopene in helping to prevent prostate cancer, a wealth of new evidence is showing this tomato-derived phytonutrient to have possible benefits in preventing lung, breast and skin cancers as well as aiding in vascular health. Lycomato is derived from an Israeli-developed variety of hearty, high-lycopene tomatoes.