The Hidden Value of Flavor – Stabilize, Standardize, and Stand Out with Flavor Solutions
When discussing the economy, most people zero in on the overall stock market’s performance.
While what’s happening on Wall St. may be a significant part of the puzzle, what’s happening on LaSalle St. in Edlong’s hometown of Chicago might have an even greater impact on the economy for the average consumer and food and beverage developer.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about food commodities.
We all know that things became extremely volatile in 2020 but let me put into perspective just how unpredictable and unstable it actually was.
In April 2020, Milk and Cheese reached their lowest price in 10 years at USD 11.23/hundred pounds (CWT) and USD 1.23/lbs, respectively. By September, both had more than doubled, with milk reaching USD 22.55/CWT, just $0.03 short of a ten-year high, and cheese blowing past its previous ten-year peak (USD 2.35/lbs) to USD 2.59/lbs.
Even as supply chain issues and shutdowns have largely resolved themselves in the past couple of years, the instability of the food commodities market is putting developers and, by proxy, consumers in a difficult spot.
As Emily Sheehan, Edlong’s Manager–Applications EMEA/AIPAC illustrated in a recent article, consumers are already feeling the squeeze of rising prices and decreasing quantities.
For developers eager to address those concerns, commodity reductions could be the best solution. Unfortunately, this can often come at the expense of taste and quality, which to shoppers might be even worse than the problems it’s trying to solve.
But does lowering commodity costs have to mean lowering the standards and expectations for your product?
At Edlong, we don’t think so. In fact, we know it doesn’t.
Stabilizing Costs
Let’s take ice cream, for example.
The best way to reduce the financial burdens of a commodity like cream would be to substitute it for a lower-fat option like 2%.
Although the flavor might be the same, the experience will be completely different.
By changing the mechanisms involved, like the way the fats and sugars interact with your palate or how aroma chemicals are released from the fat matrices, the taste perception can’t help but be impacted.
All too often, this alteration isn’t viewed as a positive.
However, there is a lot you can do to address this if you have the right flavor solution.
With Edlong’s deep understanding of how fats trap/release aroma molecules and which factors impact mouthfeel, we can leverage these mechanisms to potentially help you regain much of the experience that was lost by reducing the original commodity at a fraction of the cost.
In addition to flavors, highly concentrated enzyme-modified dairy products like EMCs (enzyme-modified cheeses) give you many of the same large fatty acids, fats, and modulating mouthfeel properties as the original commodity.
Moreover, since they are real dairy, you can integrate them into your formulations without having to change label declarations.
The best part is that enzyme-modified dairy has been shown to allow you to reduce dairy commodities by up to two-thirds!
This could be a game-changer for developers who needed to either reduce their commodities or reformulate with less expensive options.
Yet, while this can be a much-needed answer in the short term, the long-term benefits of integrating flavor solutions might matter even more.
Standardize and Stand Out
Reducing or replacing commodities isn’t just a simple swap of ingredients. It’s effectively a reformulation of your base.
This new formulation will allow you to weather the storm, but what if you could use it to standardize your quality and taste for savings well into the future?
Leveraging the combined strengths of Edlong’s flavors and enzyme-modified dairy ingredients could help you do exactly that.
On top of the uncertainty associated with costs and availability, the taste and quality of commodities can vary from batch to batch.
As part of a comprehensive commodity reduction solution, our team can help fill in the flavor gaps to create a profile consistent with, or even better than, the original.
Moreover, it ensures that consumers can continue to expect the same standard of taste and quality every time they purchase your product.
In a marketplace where shoppers are less than enthused, there’s no better way to stand out from the competition than to provide consistently amazing quality, deliciously authentic taste profiles, all at a price to get excited about.
This is the hidden value of flavor.
Contact our team of R&D experts today to learn how you can get started on your commodity reduction!
About the Author: Peter Kern, Junior Flavorist
My over 15 years as a scientist and 7+ years as a flavorist with experience in reaction chemistry, savory, sweet, alcohol, and dairy has allowed me to innovate novel technologies, processes, and flavors that help provide solutions to long-standing challenges in our industry. I love working hand-in-hand with my team and our customers to help them bring their visions to life and have always believed meaningful collaboration is the key to success and the engine that drives progress.
Topics: Value-Driven
Resource Type: Article
Resource Region: US