Ingredient toolbox
To make such innovations possible, suppliers at IFT showcased ingredients that intensify flavor in deli-style meats. For example, Closter, New Jersey-based Red Oak Foods LLC, launched organic and non-GMO conventional sprayable liquid herb extracts for industrial applications.
“Our sprayable liquid herb extracts are a new way to season foods naturally, consistently, on any scale,” says Christophe Hervieu, Red Oak Foods’ CEO. “The clear-liquid spray-on herbs impart strong aromas without any visible specks. They also reduce the need for excessive salt or flavor enhancer.
“The sprayable extracts are made from high-quality essential oils of herbs strategically sourced from around the globe to achieve the desired taste and aroma,” he says. “They offer the desirable long shelf life of dry herbs with the taste and aroma of fresh herbs, all without any waste.”
The extracts can be sprayed onto prepared deli meats or mixed into meat blends for comminuted products. The current offering includes basil, cilantro, garlic, lemongrass, oregano, rosemary and thyme.
Heat and smoke are also tools to enhance the flavor of deli meats. This is exemplified by the latest offering from the McIlhenny Co., Avery Island, Louisiana. New Tabasco brand chipotle spray dry flavoring is a full-bodied flavor enhancer that delivers the popular, smoky taste of Tabasco brand chipotle pepper sauce in a convenient dry format. Crafted from smoked red jalapeño peppers, distilled vinegar and a blend of spices, the naturally low in sodium dry format adds balanced flavor to a wide variety of applications without adding moisture. Applications include meat rubs and marinades.
“First you taste the flavors of slow-smoked red jalapeños with hints of onion, garlic and a subtle sweetness,” says Judson McLester, executive chef and ingredient sales manager. “That follows with a perfectly balanced complex heat.”
Northbrook, Illinois-based Bell Flavors and Fragrances showcased a smoke flavor in varied applications. This smoke flavor can be used in deli-style meats, eliminating the task of smoking the whole muscle.
FlavorHealth, North Brunswick, New Jersey, demonstrated its unique sugar, salt and bitterness reduction solutions. In deli meats, the natural flavor technology is particularly useful for enhancing flavor while reducing up to 50 percent sodium content.
“Improvements in food nutrition have been stymied by the absence of natural solutions that allow for a substantial reduction of sugar, salt or bitterness. Despite decades of research, the efforts have hit a ceiling where solutions either have a lack of efficacy or create undesirable side tastes,” says Christian Kopfli, CEO of FlavorHealth. “We take ingredients found in nature to create our balancing and enhancement solutions without offsetting the taste profile.”
FlavorHealth’s proprietary discovery platform allows the company to create sweet, salt and bitter receptors that are very similar to the native receptors on the human tongue and very suitable for high-throughput screening. The company uses this technology to identify compounds in fruits, herbs, vegetables and grains, then isolates and purifies them into natural flavor solutions.
“The flavor compounds discovered through this process are much more effective than traditional flavor modulators,” Kopfli says. “We do this by utilizing proprietary technology and high-throughput screening to identify natural compounds that become the foundation of our natural flavor solutions.”
