Every few years, the cliché of the typicalorganic consumer gets a facelift. Whatwas once a wilted flower child piling

warty apples into a macramé tote becamethe crusty, backwoods iconoclast —only to be rejuvenated into today’smiddle-aged “blue-stater” with agraduate degree and plenty of money. Now,another archetype joins its predecessors: Junior.

Mom and Dad can now placate children (and preservetheir own peace of mind) with organic adaptations of kids’favorite treats, including macaroni-and-cheese, squeez-able yogurt and even creme-filled sandwichcookies. Organic baby food often serves asa parent’s first step in introducingorganic products to their children. Ifnot for that little green USDA seal,Mom and Dad might not believethey were buying organic.

The organic baby boomU.S. organic-food sales have

grown at a steady 20% to 24%clip since 1990 while generalfood receipts rose only 2% to4%. Organic products are easyto find and 39% of the countryclaims to use them, according toa 2002 survey performed by the

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By Kimberly J. DeckerContributing Editor

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of people are getting into organicsand naturals through their kids,” saysStephen McDonnell, president ofApplegate Farms, Branchburg, NJ.“The issues around kids — antibiot-ic resistance, overweight and obesi-ty, allergies and specific diet sensitiv-ities — they’re just exploding.” TheHartman Group’s 2000 “Organic Life-style Shopper Study” found that 66% of

respondents purchase organic foods andbeverages for general health and nutri-tion; 30% due to food-safety concerns.

The U.S. food supply is among thesafest in the world, organic or not. But“When you can create a hot dog thattakes out a lot of the things like nitrates,and you can confirm that the productwas made from animals raised with-

Natural Marketing Institute, Harleys-ville, PA, and SPINS, San Francisco.With most organic consumers rang-ing in age from 25 to 55, it’s likelythat many will have kids. The Hart-man Group, Bellevue, WA, reports that37% of organic households include chil-dren under 18.

Becoming a parent sometimestriggers organic inclinations. “A lot

out antibiotics,” says McDonnell, itquiets a parent’s anxious mind.

Championing organics as a cure forchildhood obesity is a tougher posi-tion to argue. An organic fat gram packsas many calories as conventional. Nev-ertheless, says Kate Leavitt, interna-tional division manager at SunRich,Minnetonka, MN, organics tie in “verymuch with the concept of whole foodsand whole grains that you’re hearinga lot about from a nutritional stand-point. Ideally, the less refined a foodis, the better and more nutritionallysound it is. And that’s where the organ-ic market can meet some of these nutri-tional needs for kids.”

What kids wantNutritional needs likely tie for last

place in a kid’s consideration of snackoptions. “When we’re at the store, andmy 9-year-old or my 12-year-old goes tothe shelf to pick out candy or a breakfastbar,” says Don Giampetro, vice presi-dent, sales, iTi tropicals, Lawrenceville,NJ, “I don’t know if they’re saying,‘Hey Mom, hey Dad, let’s get this …it’s organic!’”

To some, “organic” connotes“brown, heavy and full of gross stuff,”and nothing sets a kid’s eyes rollingfaster. “Adults may like breads withcrunchy crusts and grains,” says Leavitt.“But a kid’s wondering: ‘Hey, where’smy Wonder®?’”

Most kids prefer their food sugaryand straightforward in flavor. Gener-ally, chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla— and simple blends thereof — suf-fice. Other kid-friendly blends includeapricot-mango, strawberry-banana andstrawberry-kiwi, all of which pare downthe timeless tutti-frutti mishmash.

Kids give a big thumbs-up to fla-vor intensity. Sixth graders battle to

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Organic manufacturers shouldconsider whether they want to mimic

a conventional product or create amore-healthful version, possibly withwhole rather than refined grains and

palm fruit oil vs. hydrogenates.

If Junior is so wild about macaroni-and-cheese and portable yogurt in a tube,can we replace those products with organic versions that meet taste andappearance expectations while also appeasing Mom and Dad’s organic con-sciences? Bill Fenske, vice president of technical services at SunRich,Minnetonka, MN, put together these two side-by-side formula comparisonsto prove that, indeed, we can — and using fewer ingredients, too.

Macaroni-and-CheeseConventional OrganicEnriched macaroni product Organic durum semolina elbows(wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate (iron), thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2),folic acid)

Cheese sauce mix (whey, milkfat, milk Organic Cheddar cheese sauceprotein concentrate, salt, calcium (Cheddar cheese: cultured pasteur-carbonate, sodium tripolyphosphate, ized milk, salt, enzymes; whey, salt, citric acid, sodium phosphate, lactic lactic acid, citric acid, beta carotene)acid, milk, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, enzymes, cheese culture)

Strawberry Yogurt TubesConventional OrganicCultured, pasteurized, Organic cultured, pasteurized, Grade A milk Grade A milk

Sugar Organic milled cane sugar

High-fructose corn syrup Organic strawberry juice from concentrate

Nonfat milk —

Modified cornstarch Organic rice starch

Kosher gelatin Organic locust bean gum

Tricalcium phosphate —

Potassium sorbate —

Carrageenan Pectin

Natural and artificial flavors Natural flavor

WhatÕs the Difference?

Blue 1 and Red 40 Organic beet-juice concentrate

see who can stomach the most-extremecinnamon red-hots, and kids want wildand wacky colors to match, in every-thing from cereal to ketchup. However,“If we didn’t condition kids with foodsthat are so sweet or so fatty or so blue,”says Grace Marroquin, president ofMarroquin International, Santa Cruz,CA, “if we started them off by intro-ducing the right foods from the begin-ning — which we have the opportu-nity to do — I think they would choosethose instead.”

McDonnell agrees, contending that“the marketplace dramatically under-estimates a kid’s palate.” Kids choosewhat they think tastes best, be it asamosa, an organic juice box or a gooeysnack cake. He says that “is why ouremphasis is that our products can’tjust be organic and not taste great.Taste will drive the kids. And I thinkit’s possible to create great-tastingorganic foods that are every bit as good,if not better, than what else is out there.”

Growing painsBut, Leavitt points out, “better is

not the same. What is every five-year-old eating? They love mac-n-cheese.”While the market offers organic options,she says, they’re not glaringly orangeand their flavors are more subtle. “Soif a kid is raised only on convention-al mac-n-cheese,” going organic, sheadmits, “will be an adjustment.”

Some wonder if organic “junk food”is a perversion of its guiding princi-ples. “It depends on who you talk to,”Marroquin says. “Some people wouldbe adamantly against it and say: ‘Thatis not in the spirit of organics.’ And Ican understand that, because whenorganics started, all you could get werenuts, fruit, beans and seeds. It was allabout whole foods.” But Americans

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tions. A product achieves “100% organ-ic” certification if all of its ingredi-ents — including its ingredients’ingredients — are certified 100%organic (water and salt excluded).“Organic” products must derive 95%of their content by weight or volumefrom organic constituents (again,excluding water and salt).

The next category — products withat least 70%-organic content — doesnot earn the USDA seal. They candeclare “made with organic XXX,”where “XXX” indicates up to threeorganic items used. For all productsunder the 70% cutoff, the NOP pro-hibits mention of organics on the prin-cipal display panel but allows speci-fying organic input on the ingredientstatement.

Developers eyeing the “organic”and “made with organic” categories

want more. The hard core of organicshoppers is a minority of 15% to 20%.The majority gives wider berth to prod-ucts reflecting the larger market and atypical tween’s tastes.

The most-familiar, and successful,organic kids’ products look like theirconventional counterparts, just slightlysedated and with a whiff of youth-tai-lored social awareness: “rain forest”tropical-fruit toaster pastries, hip andhealthful granola bars, breakfast cerealswith nut and fruit bits, and even frozenpizzas, chicken dinners and choco-late-coated ice cream bars. “You wantthe ability to be indulgent,” saysLeavitt, “but there’s a differencebetween totally empty calories andsemi-indulgence. You might want tolook at it as: ‘Well, if I can find a bal-ance between an organic snack chipand a conventional one, I’m still sat-isfying my child’s snack craving, butat least it’s going to have more wholegrain, no trans fats and not as manychemical preservatives.’”

Setting limitsMcDonnell believes in maintain-

ing balance and that manufacturersshould try to make organic productsmore palatable, but limits exist. Themost binding come from the USDANational Organic Program (NOP),which since 2002 has regulated —and, for many, legitimized — the organ-ic industry.

Manufacturers, adds Bill Fenske,vice president of technical services atSunRich, attempting to understandthe rules should bookmark www.ams.usda.gov/nop, a clearinghouse for ingre-dients, processing, certification, com-pliance and enforcement questions.The site also explains organic-certifi-cation categories and labeling restric-

cannot treat the remaining 5% and30% of the formula as an unregulatedfree-for-all. “That 5% is really onlyfor what you can’t get as organic,”says Marroquin. Manufacturers mustuse an organic ingredient when com-mercially available in a form, qualityor quantity sufficient to do the job. Ifan ingredient isn’t commercially avail-able as organic, manufacturers cansubstitute conventional ingredientsthat appear on the National List ofAllowed and Prohibited Substances(aka, “the National List”).

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Soy isoflavones extracted fromfermented, GMO-free, organicallygrown soybeans can benefit a numberof youth- market-oriented products,including chocolate-covered barapplications and beverages.

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at organic and conventional bananasside-by-side, you probably wouldn’tbe able to tell the difference betweenthe two as far as visuals, taste and thefunctionality and overall characteris-tics of the product are concerned.”Even so, he acknowledges that whenretooling a conventional formulationfor an organic label, “you might need todo some modification, particularly from

But they’re not as limited as they werethree years ago.”

Even so, manufacturers wonderif the quality, consistency and vari-ety of organic ingredients can com-pete with what they get conventionally.Giampetro’s experience with tropicalfruits tells him that manufacturers canformulate with confidence. “When youlook at the products that are avail-

able,” he says, “and the requirementsthat may or may not be necessary forspecific foods, such as a low-water-activity fruit fillings for a child’s snack,we’ve seen that the physical charac-teristics of the tropical items that wesource organically are not much dif-ferent from the physical characteris-tics of the conventional item. Take thesimple case of banana. When you look

For example, the National List per-mits citric acid only from microbial-ly fermented carbohydrates, animalrennet and water-extracted gums, butnot synthetic or hexane-extracted nat-ural flavors. And while nothing createsa creamier creme center than hydro-genated shortening, “in organic, youcan’t have hydrogenates,” says David C.Darwin, Ph.D., vice president, market-ing, Avatar Corporation, UniversityPark, IL. Don’t even think about GMOs.

Delivering the goodsSuch restrictions don’t make for-

mulation easy, but the industry is driv-en by demand, says Marroquin. Today’sorganic suppliers offer more than sim-ple agricultural commodities. “It’s allabout mimicking the conventional mar-ketplace,” she continues. “And in asense, our business supplies the spe-cial ingredients that enable manufac-turers to produce the products thatthey’re accustomed to making.” Takea conventional chocolate-chip cookie:“All those ingredients are available,” shenotes. “There’s powdered sugar, starch-es, maltodextrins, corn-syrup solids,gum arabic, cocoa, cocoa butter…”

The fear that massive demand fororganic ingredients would hit the mar-ket all at once, draining supplies andshooting prices skyward, frightenedmanufacturers early on. “The panicin the past was that a really big makerwould launch an organic product andall of a sudden, it drives up the mar-ket,” says Leavitt. And while she warnsthat “blips” in the supply chain stillpop up, the market has largely respond-ed heroically.

Marroquin adds that when cus-tomers worry that organic flavor sup-plies will be short, she tells them:“They’re not short. They’re limited.

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For an organic macaroni-and-cheese product, manufacturersmight consider formulating acheese sauce with organically grownannatto and developing a breadingfrom organic grains, spicesand seasonings.

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a standpoint of flavor and color and tex-ture,” noting that even conventionalproducts vary from year to year.

One more concern is how well func-tional organic ingredients perform.The NOP frowns upon chemical starchmodifications, including cross-link-ing to strengthen native starches againstheat, acid and shear. If an organic yogurtmanufacturer can only use native starch,it might thicken so quickly during ster-ilization that it bursts and loses vis-cosity. Also, acidic fruit might impairstarch function.

Mercifully, the NOP approves phys-ical modifications that render organicrice, corn and tapioca starches func-tional and stable. National Starch FoodInnovation, Bridgewater, NJ, offers aline of organic, functional native starch-es that gets wide play in organic prod-ucts for kids, including some babyproducts.

All in good tasteSweeteners often appear among the

top three items in children’s favorites.Manufacturers need an organic optionthat not only provides the right tastebut functions according to specifica-tions — freezing-point depression,water-activity control or preventingcrystallization, etc.

According to Marroquin, it’s alldoable. “We have companies makingjelly beans, gummy bears and otherkinds of applications using organiccorn syrup,” she says. “Even lookingat the most-sophisticated confec-tionery and bakery applications wherethey’re using it as a humectant or binder,they say that it functions just like whatthey’re using on the conventional side.”

Some organic consumers consider“HFCS” a four-letter word — evenorganic high-fructose corn syrup. “A

lot of organic consumers don’t wantto buy something with high-fructosecorn syrup in it, just like they don’twant to buy something that’s got sat-urated fat,” Leavitt says. Alternativesinclude sweeteners enzymaticallyhydrolyzed from organic barley, oats,rice, tapioca or wheat, as well as organ-ic honey, juice concentrates, maplesyrups and cane sweeteners.

One benefit of organic tapiocasweeteners, says Prescott H. Bergh,sales and marketing, Ciranda Inc.,Hudson, WI, is that they’re GMO-freeand, thanks to low protein and lipid con-tents, “are very neutral in their color andflavor profile compared to most of theother functional sweeteners out there.”Although he concedes that they aren’tas sweet as HFCS, to compensate “wemake some tapioca syrups that blend ininvert cane to get added sweetness.”

Organic tapioca’s high amylose con-tent produces syrups that aren’t exces-sively viscous — even at low conver-sion levels of DE 27 and DE 40 —making them easier to pump and obvi-ating the need for a preheat step.“Natural-food companies or cereal-barmakers can use the syrups as an edi-ble, tack-free, glossy film to help con-trol water activity moving in or out ofa product,” Bergh says. In a frosted-type flake with a lower sugar content,they’ll keep the flake from getting soggyin milk too quickly. Flavored tapiocasyrups “can deliver a honey, choco-late or other flavor on the outside ofthe bar or flake,” he adds, noting theavailability of a tapioca-syrup choco-late base for the organic dairy indus-try to deliver chocolate solids and fla-vor to milk without the dry powderand bacterial issues of cocoa hydra-tion in the manufacturing plant.

While the supply of organic raw

materials for flavor extraction hasimproved, many ingredients and pro-cesses traditionally used in flavorextraction are forbidden, includingsynthetic solvents and carrier sys-tems, as well as artificial preserva-tives. Steam-distillation and physicalexpression can tap organic mint, cit-rus fruits and sweet spices like clove,nutmeg and cinnamon for essentialoils, and organic alcohol can extract100%-organic vanilla. But, says CharlesIker, vice president of flavor creation,applications and regulatory affairs,Mane Inc., Milford, OH, “kids like fan-ciful blends and high impact, and thoseare things that can be a little more chal-lenging to have certified organic.”

In that case, organic-compatible,or NOP-compliant, flavors are the next-best choice. Four criteria make a fla-vor organically compatible — whichis not the same as certified organic,stresses Margret Kingsley, regulato-ry compliance specialist at Mane —natural (i.e., nonsynthetic), GMO-free, not produced with petroleum-based solvent extraction and not pro-duced with sewage sludge. If materialsmeet those four criteria, she says, “theycan be used in 95%- and 70%-organ-ic products.” This opens the door forsimple fruit flavors, like peach andstrawberry, as well as other basic fla-vor components used to build more-complicated profiles that don’t occurin nature.

“We can achieve most profiles ifyou’re talking about NOP-compati-ble,” Iker adds. “Where it gets morechallenging is in that 100% catego-ry.” Some popular profiles are avail-able at 100%: “Root beer can be derivedfrom botanicals, such as wintergreenoil and anise,” he says.

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Greasing the skidsLooking at organic fat and oil

options shows how far ingredient tech-nologies have come. Confectionersand baked-goods manufacturers relyon release agents; conventional versionscontain liquid and hydrogenated veg-etable oils, and other organically ver-boten ingredients, such as petroleum-based mineral oils, that give them a stifftexture and oxidative stability.

To make these processing aidsorganic, manufacturers replace hydro-genates with certified-organic solidtropical oils, such as palm (palm fruit)and coconut. They’re not without theirdrawbacks, notes Darwin: “You don’thave as many melt points and solid-fat indexes, and hydrogenation givesthe flexibility to tailor an agent’s tex-ture to the relevant processing rigors.So if someone has a spray system thathandles one type of viscosity versusbrushing it on in a certain way, thoseare the kinds of textures that we candeal with.”

For a stable, solid fat that’s organ-ically certified and reliably GMO-free,tropical oils are the way to go. “Rightnow, Newman’s Own® and some otherorganic sandwich-type cookie manu-facturers are using palm fruit oil inthe creme fillings,” says Bergh. “To

make coatings and enrobings, again,various palm fruit fractions can beadded to a white coating or chocolate-type coating.” Palm fruit oil’s natu-rally high levels of antioxidant toco-trienols and tocopherols enhance what,at 50% saturation, is already a verystable oil. Given that organic regula-tions don’t allow BHA or BHT, “anystability you can get from the ingre-dients themselves is going to supple-ment your barrier film or nitrogen pack-ing,” he says.

Naturally occurring antioxidantsalso improve organic expeller-pressedsoy oils’ stability and frying perfor-mance. “One of the biggest functionsyou’re looking for in oils is shelf life,”says Fenske. “With expeller soy oil,we have a considerably longer life infrying applications because of the toco-pherols inherent to the soybean.”Selecting from specific, high-oleic,organic sunflower varieties allows theproduction of stability-enhanced, high-oleic sunflower oils that, combinedwith more-economical organic soy,yield a stable, cost-effective specialty-frying blend.

Fenske recommends organicexpeller-pressed oils to adhere sea-soning blends to snacks, cereal nutclusters and bars. Other options include

tack blends made with organic mal-todextrins, which are functionally com-parable to conventional. The organ-ic’s color won’t be as white, becauseit doesn’t go through the extensiverefining of a regular maltodextrin, hesays, and corn maltodextrins might havemore cereal flavor, but “for most appli-cations, it doesn’t make any difference.”

What does make a difference is howthe NOP’s limits have actually creat-ed new opportunities for product devel-opers. “I think that organics challengemanufacturers to be more creative,”says Marroquin. “And sometimes, prob-ably more often than not, they end upwith a better product than if they hadn’tbeen challenged.” n

Kimberly J. Decker, a California-basedtechnical writer, has a B.S. inConsumer Food Science with a minor inEnglish from the University ofCalifornia, Davis. She lives in the SanFrancisco Bay area, where she enjoyseating and writing about food. You canreach her at kim@decker.net.

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Reprinted from the March 2005 issue of Food Product Design