Food technologists are a creative, but miserly, crowd. They strive to deliver consumer-pleasing products while piecing together penny-saving formulas―an aspect increasingly important in today’s economy. Knowing how to squeeze maximum flavor, functionality and cost benefits out of new and existing formulas begins with a few basic principles and some ingredient know-how.
Supplier strategies
“Especially now, given the state of the economy, the No. 1 thing for manufacturers to do is to talk to their ingredient suppliers,” says Carrie Schroeder, product line brand manager, Edlong Dairy Flavors, Elk Grove Village, IL. “If you operate in a vacuum, you’re not going to end up with a product that’s as good as if you have collaboration.”
Allowing a trusted supplier to look at the product holistically can generate inventive cost-saving recommendations. “We don’t need to know who your vendors are or what you’re paying for ingredients,” says Schroeder. “We can look at the combination of ingredients and what each is bringing to the table from both a flavor and functionality standpoint. It’s really about getting creative and finding combinations of ingredients that contribute less cost overall.”
Flavor companies might not be first on the list for food scientists seeking economical formulations, but they can offer a unique perspective. “Most flavor houses now have a culinary staff available that can work with the developer. And they have a helicopter view of the industry, without any bias against any additive or ingredients used in the formulas, and can therefore give very sound advice,” notes Simon Poppelsdorf, vice president, flavor R&D, Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Northbrook, IL. The company can work with the customer by looking into the label and offering lower-cost alternatives, such as going from natural flavors to natural and artificial and completely artificial, and reducing the use of costly commodity ingredients.
Using a flavor designed to extend or replace raw materials can result in significant price savings. “A very good example is honey,” Poppelsdorf says. “It is used in a wide range of products, like ham, cookies and barbecue sauces. In a barbecue sauce, you already have sugar, caramel color and honey used together.” Using a honey flavor can “dramatically reduce the honey by increasing sugar or corn syrup, and color, if needed,” he says. “The leverage of savings can be enormous in this kind of approach.”
Matt Patrick, vice president, R&D, TIC Gums, Belcamp, MD, finds that, often, food formulations are designed under rushed and challenging circumstances. “Launch timelines have become more and more aggressive over the years,” he says. “We see that developers must juggle several tasks simultaneously in order to hit a predetermined launch date. Often, formulas become prematurely locked down as a result of consumer tests and long-term stability studies. All of this means that formulas have not always been optimized for cost, and ingredients systems have not been fine-tuned to achieve the most functional efficiency. My recommendation would be to go back and take a critical look at one’s formulation, and if there isn’t hard evidence that a given ingredient is at its optimal level, consider it an opportunity to reduce the cost of that formula, perhaps even enough to offset increasing ingredient costs.”
When reformulating an existing product to reduce cost, it can be difficult to match the ingredient statement. Maintaining a label claim can be another burden. Preserving flavor, color and texture are imperative.