Choosing Flavor

Stacey K. Walton is a food scientist at Tate & Lyle with an expertise in beverage applications. She earned her Bachelors of Science, Masters of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has focused on food and beverage chemistry and sensory science throughout her education.  She has previously worked for ADM, PepsiCo Beverages and Foods, and Kellogg’s in various roles.

One formula in particular that I enjoyed developing was a pomegranate-flavored water fortified with an excellent source of fiber (5g fiber per 8-oz. serving). I wanted to create a base for a light flavor to showcase the fact that soluble corn fiber does not add any negative flavor attributes. So, I used a combination of citric acid and phosphoric acid to get a pH of 3.4. I also formulated with sodium citrate and potassium citrate to balance flavor, in conjunction with sucralose. Then came the fun part of screening flavors. I evaluated about 25 flavors in this base to see what might be most accepted, keeping in mind the original light flavor objective. I had fellow employees at Tate & Lyle taste a variety of flavors, such as pear, pomegranate, grape and apple. I narrowed down the flavor list from 25 to 10 and hot-filled each flavor in the base to determine if it would stand up to the heat treatment. After another tasting session, I decided the pomegranate flavor was the winning flavor and the formula was complete. I also did some stability testing to confirm that the fiber content would not change before and after the hot-fill process and over a 9 month shelf life. Since there were no heat stability or shelf life issues, we selected a co-packer to make 8 oz. bottles for us to hand out at the IFT trade show. We also had commercial labels developed for the bottles that would work with the co-packer labeling equipment. We had lots of great comments at IFT about this prototype, and even got a mention in The New York Times.