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Great Tasting Calcium Fortified Solid Foods – Breakfast Cereals, Baked Goods, Pasta – With Specialty Minerals Calcium Carbonates

Eating the right foods is an integral part of staying healthy, and part of staying healthy is getting enough calcium in one’s daily diet. Thankfully, getting enough calcium is easier these days: In addition to the variety of calcium supplements available to a consumer, a growing number of foods are calcium fortified.

The functional food revolution is in full swing; in the U.S., the growth of fortified foods is outpacing growth in the nutritional-supplement industry. Americans, apparently, would rather get the extra calcium they need from the foods they eat, rather than from pills or powders. Traditional supplement usage is still stronger in other parts of the world, but everywhere there is a steady increase in the availability of calcium fortified foods.


“Solid” Calcium Fortified Foods
There are few limits on the types of food that can be fortified. Foods distinguished by their solid (rather than liquid or powder) form have been popular candidates for calcium fortification. Though the list of solid-form products that can be calcium fortified is almost endless, included in this group are:

  • Hot and cold breakfast cereals: The calcium can be supplied via the batter used to form the shapes, in color or flavor bits, in a coating on the cereal shape, or as a dry powder blend, such as in instant oatmeal or grits in individual serving pouches.
  • Baked goods: breads, cookies or biscuits, crackers and graham crackers, cakes and cake mixes, frozen waffles and waffle mixes, pancake mixes—with the calcium in the powder mix, the filling of sandwich forms, the flavor or color or fruit bits that may be included, or as a carrier for the flavor and color.
  • Snack foods: shaped snacks, nuggets, pretzels, and the cheese and other flavored fillings in these snacks.
  • Bars: extruded or baked: granola, breakfast, energy, snack bars
  • Pasta: macaroni, spaghetti, noodles, couscous, ramen, and other instant noodles.


How Much Calcium To Add and From Which Calcium Source?
Each serving of one of these solid food products provides a portion of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of calcium. Most governments have set age-correlated levels of calcium intake for their populations, and most such levels are similar to each other as well as to those set by the U.S. government, which recommends a daily supply of 1,000 milligrams of elemental calcium. Click here to view the complete chart of calcium RDIs for the United States

In the U.S., a food is allowed to be labeled a “Good Source of Calcium” if the product provides 10 percent of the adult RDI per serving, or 100 mg of elemental calcium. It can be labeled an “Excellent Source of Calcium” if it provides 20 percent of the adult RDI per serving, or 200 mg. of elemental calcium. Few foods are designed to provide the full RDI per serving, as research has found that calcium is better absorbed if taken in several portions throughout the day, rather than all 1,000 mg at once.

Decision making on which calcium source to use as a fortifier considers many factors, such as bioavailability, taste, mouth feel, palatability, stability, and other effects on the final product. The main objective is to meet nutritional needs while also meeting the consumer’s demands for good taste and convenience. 

Calcium carbonate is most often used as the calcium source in cereals, baked goods, and other solid form foods because of its economy, excellent sensory results, and high bioavailability. Calcium carbonate has the highest percentage of elemental calcium of the calcium salts normally used for fortification—40 percent—thus less weight of calcium compound must be added to achieve the desired level of fortification. This, coupled with its relatively low cost compared to other calcium sources, makes calcium carbonate the most cost- effective calcium fortifier. Added to these advantages is the high bioavailability of calcium carbonate, which is as bioavailable as the calcium in milk.


Fortifying With Calcium Carbonates From Specialty Minerals
Food makers have 28 different SMI calcium carbonates to choose from, virtually guaranteeing that one will be best suited to their respective application. These calcium carbonates come in varied particle sizes, from 0.07 microns to 17 microns; the precipitated calcium carbonates (PCCs) also are available in a number of different shapes. This combination of shapes and sizes delivers a broad spectrum of physical properties, to yield a wide range of possible performance properties. This gives the formulator great flexibility in meeting the physical and sensory requirements of the consumer product being developed. 

In most solid food applications, one of the medium to large particle-sized calcium carbonates is best. The larger sizes are denser and flow better in processing, but are still well below the size at which experts say a particle in a food can be tasted. Some are PCCs, some ground. Some are made in the U.S., some in the U.K. Some meet USP or EP as well as E170i, while some are certified for FCC (Food Chemicals Codex ) compliance as calcium carbonates, some as limestones. Some allow the formulator to meet the requirements of California Proposition 65 lead limits. Click here to read descriptions of the various Specialty Minerals Inc.’s (SMI’s) calcium carbonate families and their characteristics, and then click here to read more on how to decide which to use for a particular application.


The SMI grades recommended for solid foods include:

  • ViCALity® GF or ViCALity® HP USP ground calcium carbonate (GCC). These produts range in particle size from 4 to 12 microns and are designed for the food industry.
  • ViCALity® Heavey, Extra Heavy and Ultra Heavy PCCs, 3.0, 4.5 and 12.0 micron PCCs manufactured in Adams, Massachusetts.
  • CalEssence® 300, 450 and 1500, ultra-low lead PCCs, also 3.0, 4.5 and 12.0 microns in particle size.

All of the above meet the requirements of the U.S. Pharmacopeia as well as the FCC requirements for calcium carbonate, and all healthcare products are Kosher. The Adams plant is also AIB (American Institute of Baking) certified.

  • Sturcal™ H and L PCCs, 4.9 and 6.0 microns in size, manufactured in the SMI Lifford plant in Birmingham, U.K.

The Sturcal™ PCC grades meet the requirements of the European and British Pharmacopeias, and also those of the European Union Miscellaneous Food Regulations, E170i. They, too, are certified Kosher.

Click on one of the product names to go to the web page with complete information about the product, or use the link below to download the product’s technical data sheet.

 

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