Top Editors ... Time for textura

Title: Time for textura
Date: 07/06/2006
Autor: By Claire Rowan

Texture can make all the difference to consumer acceptance of a product, and ingredient
manufacturers are working on many new developments to optimise the performance of their products

As well as quality, flavour and mouthfeel, today’s texturising ingredients must also offer versatility in application, ease of use and performance throughout the often gruelling life of the product. No where is this more the case than in the production of sauces, dressings, and soups. To this end, Degussa Food Ingredients has carried out significant development work on its Lygomme KCT series of texturisers and emulsifiers particularly in the area of freezethaw dressings and mayonnaise.
“To meet the consumer’s desire for convenience, manufacturers of dressing and mayonnaises could benefit from offering their
products together with deep-frozen products like potato chips and wedges or prawns,” said Elke Schuster, application development expert at Degussa. “Wouldn’t it be convenient for consumers to have not only the chosen food but also the corresponding seasoning all in one pack?”
However, as well as stabilising an emulsion in an acid and salty medium, the emulsifiers and stabilisers in these applications also need to ensure stable interfaces that can withstand growing ice crystals during freezing. Such difficult conditions can cause
coalescence of the emulsion droplets, resulting in oil separation and ultimately unstable products.
Degussa has developed complete solutions for these freeze-thaw-stable emulsified sauces, with oil contents up to
50%. Created using a combination of dairy proteins and different hydrocolloids, the company’s Lygomme KCT series is said to
guarantee excellent emulsion stability in dressings and mayonnaise, during processing as well as freezing and thawing even when the products are thawed in the microwave.
“Lygomme KCT texturisers and emulsifiers provide emulsions with a smooth, creamy and short texture,” said Ms Schuster.
“Storage tests show that the emulsified sauces remain stable for freezing periods of at least one year, with no significant increase in the oil droplet sizes.”

For effective texturising, among other functionalities, in a range of different products, Avebe has just introduced what it claims is the world’s first GMO-free amylopectin potato starch. Obtained through classical, well accepted breeding techniques by Avebe’s Averis Seeds division, this groundbreaking waxy potato starch contains more than 99% amylopectin, which, combined with the traditional benefits of potato starch, opens up unique functionality, texture, expansion and cost saving opportunities for manufacturers in manyvaried applications, according to Avebe.
“Traditional potato starch has the highest thickening power available and creates clear solutions with a bland flavour. It is ideal for creating a nice pulpy structure such as a tomato paste or an apple purée, yet in the past it could not be used for short, shiny structures, for example,” Vincent Lamberti, marketing manager at Avebe Food, explained to FBI. “Now the new Eliane range of starches can give a short structure, which opens up the use of potato starch for applications such as desserts with a short, smooth, shiny texture, among many others. In addition, as potato starch is naturally highly thickening, it is possible to reduce the amount of thickener to be used, which gives cost savings.”

The Eliane range is able to withstand any processing conditions from UHT to extended retorting including homogenisation, emulsification, high shear and low pH, and is refrigerator-, steam- and freeze/thawstable. “The key benefits that can be expected from this exciting new innovation include a clean flavour, a glossy appearance, a creamy mouthfeel, unique expansion characteristics in snack applications, and quicker cooking times and cost saving opportunities as a result of its high viscosity and stability,” explained Ms Jane Petrolino, market manager for Avebe’s Americas food business, prior to Eliane’s launch in the USA at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Food Expo in New Orleans in July.
“The Eliane range of native modified starches offers new opportunities and concepts for a wide range of food preparations including soups, sauces, dressings, instant fried noodles, expanded snacks, coated nuts, fruit fillings, ready-to-serve desserts, and bakery creams.”
Eliane starch has similar gelatinisation properties to conventional potato starch, but gelatinisation is said to proceed faster. In instant soups and sauces, which are usually reconstituted by consumers using water ranging in temperature from boiling down to 75ºC, Eliane has been found to perform particularly well, without clumping, at the lower end of the temperature scale. In this way, Eliane can offer an alternative to pregelatinised modified starches. Also unique to the new product range is the formation of fine granules by shearing modified Eliane - not usually observed with regular potato starch - which means that Eliane imparts an excellent creamy taste and shiny appearance in liquid style products like fruit fillings, desserts, sauces and bakery cream.


Functional flours

National Starch Food Innovation’s recent tie-up with Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients earlier this year has already resulted in the development of a new range of natural grain-based ingredients that offer the attributes of traditional flours yet with improved functionalities.
As a texturising ingredient, flours are popular for their attributes in prepared foods, but problematic because of their processing difficulties particularly in high-moisture foods. National Starch’s new performance ingredients are designed to eliminate the process and end-product variability associated with traditional flour – improving batch processing times, reducing downtime and adjustments required and lowering the number of off-specification batches. They have also been developed to eliminate hot-prep steps in existing processes to help maintain ingredient integrity and flavour.
“National Starch’s functional flours provide food manufacturers with ingredients that support their wholesome, natural and homestyle food products. With these new ingredients, products can carry consumer-pleasing ‘flour’ designations on the package and offer new options for ‘clean label’ products,” said Joe Lombardi, marketing manager, wholesome ingredients-North America, National Starch, at the US launch of the product range at the IFT exhibition. “These ingredients exhibit a very indulgent mouthfeel, smooth, creamy taste and texture and a natural, rich and luxurious appearance – the same characteristics that have made flour an ingredient of choice for chefs everywhere.”
Applications for the new functional flours, which will be introduced in Europe at Fi Europe, include refrigerated and frozen soups and meals, home-style and premium sauces, baby foods, natural or organic soups, sauces and ready meals, and gourmet and premium foods.


Gum blending

Used extensively in salad dressings for its stabilisation, suspension and mouthfeel properties, xanthan gum has the added benefits of having a high stability in low pH and high salt environments, and rheological properties that allow for ease of processing. Although well tried and tested in a wide range of applications, xanthan gum remains popular with product manufacturers and CP Kelco, which produces xanthan gum under its Keltrol brand, has conducted a range of studies on its performance in combination with various other gums such as guar gum, locust bean gum, and tara gum, for example.
According to CP Kelco, the blending of xanthan gum with guar gum results in a synergistic viscosity increase, which is most pronounced in systems containing little or no ions or salts. However, as guar gum is more susceptible to acid degradation compared with xanthan gum, CP Kelco points out that products stabilised with these blends will be more suited to food service applications than those stabilised with pure xanthan. Other studies carried out by CP Kelco include the blending of whey protein concentrate, speciality pectins and gellan gum, which have been found to enhance the appearance and physical characteristics of low fat dressings.
DSM Savoury Ingredients’ Maxapal A2, (non-porcine) microbial phospholipase, is designed to produce emulsions with high physical stability, high viscosity, exceptional heat stability and extended shelf life. By converting a larger part of the lecithin in eggs into lysolecithin than other phospholipases available, Maxapal A2 reduces the need for other thickening agents and improves the heat stability and emulsification properties of egg yolk-based products, according to DSM.
In this way, mayonnaise and salad dressings containing Maxapal A2 have a higher viscosity than those based on untreated egg yolks. They are also heat stable to 70 to 80ºC and can therefore be pasteurised to ensure a high mircrobial safety and long shelf life.