LAS VEGAS—For the average American consumer, it’s pointless to discuss the merits of healthy, functional foods without a key component: perception. How consumers perceive foods was at the heart of today’s SupplySide West presentation by Stephanie Lynch, director of business development, Virginia Dare; Scott Riefler, regional vice president of technical sales, TIC Gums; and Judy Lindsey, vice president and general manager, Product Dynamics (a division of RQA, Inc.). Tying the three speakers together was the collective umbrella of the National Association of Flavors and Food-Ingredient Systems, a wide-ranging group of manufacturers, processors and suppliers of fruits, flavors, syrups, stabilizers, emulsifiers, colors, sweeteners, cocoa and related food ingredients.
Lynch kicked things off with a look at the various approaches to flavor masking technology—as she said it, “putting things back into balance.” It’s necessary to analyze the overall organoleptics of a product. She noted that “adding more flavor isn’t always the answer.” Aspects like ingredient particle size, levels of flavor and salt, and other factors all come into play. Coating ingredients to bypass taste receptors can also help improve the cognitive perception of flavor and taste interaction.
During his portion of the session, Riefler focused on “Label Declaration Considerations for Stabilizer and Texture Selections for Health and Functional Foods.” Noting that “texture has been underutilized as a product differentiator,” he provided an inside look at how functional ingredients like gums and other stabilizers multitask in various applications to provide emulsification, suspension, gelation and other functional benefits while also serving as a healthy source of fiber, connections specific ingredients to functions and proven application areas. Depending on the desired label requirements—such as organic, natural or health-related claims, which should always be established early on in R&D—a flexible range of specific stabilizing and texturizing ingredients and systems are at the formulator’s disposal.
Finally, Lindsey tied everything together by illustrating how analytical sensory works as a valuable tool in creating a “product fingerprint.” The path from concept to consumer perception must be traveled in a careful and calculated manner to foster peak consumer liking.