The company introduced its Maxavor Chicken YE flavour ingredient in response to a need for natural and authentic meat flavours. It is made at DSM’s new factory in China using a semi-continuous technology.
Coen van Oorschot, business industry manager process flavours, told FoodNavigator.com that there is usually a gradual increase in take up of new ingredients but in this case it is said to be “tremendous”, with high levels of double digit growth.
It is being spec’ed in [written into recipes] everywhere, he said.
The semi-continuous technology for making the chicken ingredients from yeast extracts, which can be very quickly scaled up, using the same equipment, to meet new demand. The continuous process also means there is no batch-to-batch variation.
Maxavor Chicken YE is a ‘step two’ flavour building block that imparts a specific culinary taste direction – either roast or boiled chicken – to an overall balanced profile.
It builds on the basic ‘step one’ savoury bouillon, and could be further enhanced by ‘step three’ building blocks, which would give top notes such as spices.
The customer base for Maxavor Chicken YE is made up of flavour houses and food manufacturers who have the in-house knowledge to work with flavour blocks themselves.
The global chicken
From a global perspective chicken’s star is rising, as it is a food used in all world kitchens. The tonality is “light, fresh and desirable”, van Oorschot said. However there are regional variations on how chicken is prepared, which are provide by the top notes.
DSM’s chicken ingredient is also said to be attractive because, as a yeast extract it fits with natural labelling regulations. It is produced without added L-cysteine or reducing sugars, and is free from MSG, allergens and E-numbers.
Jan Grimberg, regional sales manager savoury ingredients Europe, added that this is in keeping with the new European flavour regulations and the natural mega trend, but said that “food and flavour manufacturers are fond of ingredient that adhere to not one regulation but several. There is more demand for ingredients that can be used globally.”
He gave the example of Japan, which has one of the strictest food regulatory regimes in the world and where there was a strong need for a chicken flavour without cysteine. This makes Maxavor interesting in Asian countries that produce foods for Japan as well as for their own markets, such as Korea.
After “cracking” the difficulty of making a chicken flavour ingredient without cysteine, DSM is now working on other meat flavours ingredients, including beef, and other line extensions. Some of these are expected to be ready for the market in 2011.