According to the Swiss flavour giant, consumers are demanding natural, authentic and home-cooked flavours – and this provided a spur for the development of the new line.
Its new meat flavours were devised after the development of gold standard recipes for different cuts of meat and different cooking styles, such as poached chicken breast, grilled entrecote, oven-roast pork, and slow-cooked beef casserole.
The company did not want to go into details about the specific methodologies used to make the flavours, since it considers “the processes, the raw materials and the sources of raw materials used as part of our unique knowledge”.
However a spokesperson said fermentation or enzymatic processes may be among the technologies we use for these products.
“We are not working with single materials but complex combinations of ingredients and processes.”
They added that some of the flavours may contain small amounts of meat derived ingredients; the product specifications that customers are provided with include ingredient listings.
The flavourings are then provided to the food industry in a convenient form, for use in stocks, soups, sauces, snacks, ready meals and meat-free meals.
The company says that they meet with requirements for natural labelling for the EU, which fits with another pressing consumer trend, towards additives of natural origin. Other regions have other requirements for a natural label.
According to market researcher Mintel, manufacturers are showing eager to develop ‘clean-label’ products with natural rather than chemical or synthetic additives, as these are perceived to be safer and healthier.
‘No additives/ preservatives’ claims accounted for 23 per cent of new product claims in Europe from January to September 2008, Mintel said last week, and a similar number – 22 per cent – of claims on products launched globally.
Chefs’ focus
In May this year Givaudan held its three-day Chef’s Council in Barcelona, at which attendees spent an entire day focusing on beef.
At the event Buzz Baughard, vice president of global food service, said new flavours and combinations often start in fine dining, and make their way through casual dining to fast food and eventually to packaged goods in a process that takes three to five years.
He said: "We are trying to shorten the gap between food made for fine dining and ingredients in packaged goods."
Chicken from IFF
The announcement from Givaudan comes hot on the heels of a range of chicken flavours, introduced by rival International Flavours and Fragrances last month.
Like Givaudan, IFF also worked on the basis of establishing gold standard recipes for different cuts of meat, and the chefs and the flavourists then worked in close collaboration to replicate the precise notes.
IFF’s development team sought to uncover consumer preferences for chicken flavours by actually observing them cooking in their own homes.
Teresa Nava, senior researcher, sensory and consumer insight at IFF, said that investigation of chicken flavoured products on the market showed few that taste much like real chicken. However while consumers wanted intense flavours, they did not seem so bothered about the chicken-ness as they were not that aware of what the possibilities could be.
Exter range
The trend towards natural meat flavours is not just dominated by the big boys in the market. Earlier this year Dutch flavour firm Exter Aroma, which targets smaller firms, introduced five new flavours that meat clean label demands: meat, roasted beef, chicken, roasted chicken, and boiled chicken.
Lambert ten Haaf, the company's director of sales and marketing, told FoodNavigator.com that it developed the new range using a traditional food preparation process. The products are processed in big ovens, at temperatures of between 72 and 100 degrees centigrade.
While he said that Exter does have some competitors who use the same oven-based flavour production process, he claimed that no-one else is combining it with the same type of natural ingredients.
He could not reveal precise details of the process, but said the flavours are created by direct conversion of the plant protein into amino acids.