Food Engineering PhD, Department of Agriculture and Bioengineering, Purdue University, USA Yun Wuxin
Nowadays, there are many foods called "mates" on the market, such as coffee companion, milk tea companion, milk powder companion, grains companion... They are all What is it and what is its nutritional value?
Coffee companion. "Coffee Mate" is a product and even a registered trademark. Its core is to disperse the fat with a small amount of protein and small molecule emulsifiers to obtain a texture similar to whole milk. It was invented to replace cream and add it to coffee to improve the flavor and mouthfeel. Compared with cream, coffee mate has a high fat and carbohydrate content, but it has very little protein, vitamins and minerals, and its nutrition is far from milk or cream. Early coffee mates used hydrogenated vegetable oils. This oil not only has cost advantages, but more importantly, it has a high melting point, strong stability, and a taste closer to natural butter. However, hydrogenated vegetable oils often contain quite a lot of trans fats, and more and more scientific evidence shows that trans fats are bad for health. With the improvement of food technology, the current coffee mate has little or no trans fat. However, its high-fat and high-calorie characteristics have not changed.
Milk tea companion. Because Coffee Mate is a registered trademark, other companies cannot use it. The same product is often called "non-dairy creamer" or "coffee whitener", and even "oil powder". Their essence is the same as Coffee Mate, but different manufacturers have different formulas. Used in milk tea shops, it is called "milk tea companion". Of course, the milk tea companion has also been further seasoned, adding some auxiliary ingredients such as flavors.
Milk powder companion. Milk powder companion is a kind of solid beverage for babies. The core ingredients are glucose, non-dairy creamer, maltodextrin, etc., and some plant extracts are used as "clearing ingredients." This is a very tricky product. As a "solid beverage", this type of product meets national standards. The ingredients in it are indeed all "nutrients", "even if they are useless, they are at least harmless" for adults. But for infants, the standard for measuring the suitability of an ingredient is different from that for adults: only what is necessary is suitable, and if there is insufficient evidence to prove "necessary", it should not be given. Because the baby's liver and kidney systems are not yet fully developed. Any "unknown substance" will increase the body's burden and bring unnecessary risks to the baby. The design goal of formula milk powder is to "meet all the nutritional needs of infants." Each of its components has a relatively strict range-more can't do, less can't do. The introduction of this "milk powder companion" makes milk powder no longer the only source of nutrition for babies. Its addition destroys the "content" control in the formula, thereby increasing the difference between formula milk powder and breast milk. Many milk powder partners claim "no sucrose", which is actually a confusing word game, because the whole product contains a lot of glucose and maltodextrin, and the nutritional value is still very low.
Grain companion. Grain Mate is a kind of flavored cereal dried fruit product. Its design idea is to use oats, sugar, dried fruit and other ingredients as "partners" to improve the plain and single flavor and taste of pure cereal powder. "Five Grain Companion" is just a concept, and different specific products can be designed with different ingredients. If you can fully accept the flavor and taste of five-grain powder, there is no need to add five-grain mate; on the contrary, you need to pay attention to its sugar content. ▲
[Source: Life Times]
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