Synergy tackles dairy costs, mouthfeel and provenance
As food costs come under scrutiny in the recession, food firms have to perform a balancing act between offering products that are value for money but still address the need for healthier products with less fat, sugar and salt, and the desire for clean label.
According to Claire Robertson, group development manager at Synergy, the new Dairy Ingredients range can help with taste and fat reduction “without introducing additional costs or artificial additives”.
The new Dairy Ingredients range is claimed to help meet consists of three product types: Mouthfeel enhancers, premium cheese pastes, and provenance cheese powders.
Donna Rose, customer marketing manager, told FoodNavigator.com that the mouthfeel enhancers are a combination of natural flavourings, milk proteins and other dairy solids, and are made using proprietary technology from Carbery, Synergy’s parent company.
They are “top noted with a natural flavouring,” she said, which means they can build back flavour and mouthfeel that may otherwise be lost when fat is reduced by up to 30 per cent.
The premium cheese pastes, meanwhile, are 100 per cent cheese, and can be declared as such on the label. They are said to liven up “uninspiring” fat reduced dishes.
Both the mouthfeel enhancers and the cheese pastes can both be used in ready meals, processed cheeses, sauces, savoury pastries, seasonings, and soups.
The provenance cheese powders, meanwhile, tap into the demand for traceability, and can be traced back to their farm of origin as they are sourced through Carbery’s cooperatives. Used either alone or as building blocks for flavour, the varieties include Cheshire, Dubliner, Irish Farmhouse, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella and Wensleydale.
Rose said these are mainly used for declaration purposes, so manufacturers can state the precise cheese on the product label.
Cost reduction
The company claims that the new ingredients can actually reduce outgoings, through lower usage rates and storage costs.
Rose explained that this means that manufacturers can use less expensive dairy products, such as cream or butter. In the case of the mouthfeel enhancers, they only need to use between 0.1 and 0.3 per cent in the ready-to-consumer form.
Likewise, the intense flavour of the cheese pastes means cheese content can be reduced by up to 50 per cent. Dosage rate of the pastes is 1 to 2 per cent ready-to-consume, but precise usage depends on the formulation.
In addition, storage costs can be reduced as using dairy products in powder form means they do not need to be refrigerated. “They would need to store a lot less and it helps avoid perishable stock,” said Rose.
