Givaudan breaks down flavour components for ‘home-cooked’ taste
Chefs, flavourists and scientists joined together to identify the taste and aroma components of home-cooked food to create Givaudan’s new range of flavours called TasteSolutions Richness.
Home-cooked food generally involves slow cooking or multi-step preparation, such as frying an onion, browning the meat and adding tomatoes, etc for sauce. During the cooking process, different chemical reactions naturally occur, with different ingredients and timings.
Laith Wahbi, global product manager, savoury taste, at Givaudan, told Foodnavigator.com: “When we try and do that on an industrial scale it is very difficult to replicate because of the complexity.
“There is a lot of food chemistry. A lot of taste components are naturally forming.”
Wahbi said that in processed foods, the basic tastes are salt, sugar and MSG but in home-cooked food the taste comes from somewhere else.
Rather than trying to replicate the cooking process Givaudan’s experts have tried to pinpoint where the taste ingredients and taste components are generated, then put those in the Richness flavours and, as a result, into convenience food.
The flavours combine new technology and knowledge of what the components of aroma and taste are “to provide an authentic flavour profile for consumers, and offers a multi-layering of flavours beyond the traditional ingredients used in food service concepts, snacks and ready meals”.
The low sodium formulations are also said to remove the need for high levels of salt “as the taste is already there”.
Initially the flavour options are chicken and beef but this will expand to areas such as cheese, dairy and vegetables. It comes in powder or liquid form.
Nikki Karani, global marketing head, savoury, at Givaudan, said: “Richness involves recreating the taste matrix of food to provide a depth of flavour and mouthfeel consumers recognize.
“TasteSolutions Richness represents a real breakthrough in our Savoury capabilities and other areas as well. Consumers are demanding more sophisticated flavour profiles and through Richness we can now more accurately translate the culinary experience into soups, sauces or snack seasonings”.
Expertise
TasteSolutions Richness was inspired by ChefsCouncil events, which focus on the culinary exploration of taste. Givaudan chefs, flavourists and scientists partner with leading chefs, to investigate taste effects in food, and translate the experience from haute restaurant cuisine to convenience products.
The TasteSolutions brand already exists, but the Richness flavours are a range of new products.
Home cooking trend
A recent survey by ingredients company DSM found that consumers the world over are looking for natural and authentic tasting foods – a preference that far exceeds other parameters.
A fresh and natural flavour was what consumers said they most wanted but next on the list was the desire for food to taste “as if it were made at home”.
