Five minutes with Pure Delish’s product developer Diogo Riedi.
Making healthy food without sacrificing taste requires a lot of knowledge – and many test recipes – which is why Pure Delish has always focused on product development.
Good caught up with Pure Delish’s product developer Diogo Riedi to learn about the fascinating process of making healthy breakfast cereals and snack bars without sacrificing taste.
What are your priorities when developing new products for Pure Delish?
At Pure Delish, we have two main pillars: it has to be pure, and it has to be delicious. We believe that healthy food can also be a treat, something you eat because you crave not only because it’s good for you. Cereal bars, for example, are the perfect snack for the busy yet mindful consumer. However, it is easy to find “fake healthy” options in the market, as well as healthy but unpalatable versions.
What are the challenges for creating healthy food that tastes amazing?
I believe that the main challenge in this niche market is a common preference of consumers for sweet products. Unfortunately, there are many products we all consume daily that have sugars added unnecessarily, like yoghurts and even bread, which alters our palate.
How do you address this concern at Pure Delish?
We only use unrefined sugars such as raw brown sugar, coconut nectar and honey, and although they are healthier options, we try to keep them to a bare minimum. It takes practice and adherence to guidelines. All test recipes are followed by nutritional value calculations to make sure we are achieving not only the taste but also the optimising the health benefits.
Do you have any suggestions for our readers when choosing their breakfast cereals and snacks?
Get acquainted with what you put into your body. The best way to do that is to read the ingredients. By law, the labelling must state the ingredients in descending order, that is, those that are listed first are in greater quantity. So choose the products where whole grains appear first on the list of ingredients.
Another recommendation is to avoid rice flakes, which are cereals with a high glycaemic index, that is, when ingested, they are quickly converted to glucose (sugar) by the body and generate a peak of insulin. Also, watch out for ingredients like glucose syrup, corn glucose, inverted sugar or maltodextrin, which are nothing more than disguised sugars.
The team at Pure Delish is currently in the process of updating the recipes of all their historic best sellers. The goal is to maintain the same flavour that won our consumers in the first place while improving nutritional values, with a focus on reducing sugars levels and increasing protein, fibre and good fats.
