Psyllium – the fascinating powder now available in EU Organic quality

Fibre is an important component of a healthy diet. But getting the WHO’s recommended 30 g of dietary fibre every day can prove quite difficult, even when maintaining a seemingly balanced diet. Targeted product design of fibre-enriched foods can help make up for the deficiency in dietary fibre.

Our partner J. Rettenmaier und Söhne produces functional fibres from various raw materials such as wheat, oat, apple, pea, and potato. The range of fibres from JRS includes psyllium, also known as ispaghula. Psyllium is a soluble dietary fibre obtained from the husks of seeds from the Plantago ovata plant. Plantago ovata, which is grown in India, has been used medicinally for as long as people can remember. 

With its fibre content of up to 95%, psyllium not only provides valuable nutritional benefits, but also presents numerous technical advantages in processing. These are attributable to its extreme water binding capacity. Psyllium is capable of binding twenty times its own volume in liquids. 

All functional characteristics at a glance:

• Extremely high water binding capacity 
• Film-forming properties
• High functionality over time and under shear forces
• Synergies with other functional ingredients 
• Neutral flavour
• Very high microbiological product safety

Psyllium is gluten-free and, thanks to its high fibre content and shelf life of 3 years, is the ideal ingredient for many different applications:

• Fibre-enriched foods
• Low-fat foods 
• Baked goods, especially gluten-free products 
• Vegan and vegetarian convenience foods
• Minced meat and other meat products such as broth and cooked sausage