NEW YORK — The novel fiber food ingredient category will increase its market share by more than 750% between 2004 and 2014, market researcher Packaged Facts said in its “Fiber Food Ingredients in the U.S.” report.

“Packaged Facts determined that sales of all fiber food ingredients (i.e., conventional, insoluble-type fibers; conventional, soluble-type fibers; and novel fiber food ingredients) will continue to increase indefinitely as the market for fiber-enhanced foods is still in its infancy,” said Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts. “There is a great deal of room for growth across almost all food categories, which presents an opportunity for the many different fiber ingredients that are among the most popular with today’s food formulators.”

Packaged Facts said in 2004 91% of all fiber food ingredient sales were conventional, in-soluble-type fibers, and the remaining 9% share was split between conventional, soluble-type fibers and emerging novel fibers. The firm predicts that share for conventional, in-soluble fibers will decrease by 41% in 2014 while share for the newly refined conventional soluble-type fibers will increase 64%.

Most novel fibers only have been available to formulators since the turn of the century but have gained popularity due to versatility and invisible nature in food applications that previously were not conducive to fiber enrichment.