IFF Successfully Tests Flavour System For Low Sodium Products

The custom approach to sodium reduction includes the utilization of proprietary flavor technology and ingredients that enhance salty impression, suppress negative aspects of potassium salts, and rebalance the overall flavor system.

03/10/06 International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) has announced the successful testing of its customized flavor systems for reduced sodium applications. IFF has devoted extraordinary research efforts into filling the consumer’s need for healthy, sodium-reduced products with great taste. These efforts have resulted in solutions that can reduce sodium levels by 25 to 50% while maintaining consumer preference.

“In many instances, manufacturers can reduce sodium levels by 10 to 15% and achieve parity or preference to higher sodium content foods without the need to employ sodium-reduction technology. However, IFF has a portfolio of custom flavor systems that can allow an additional 15 – 25% reduction while still maintaining consumer preference versus lower sodium counterparts” said Dr. Guy Hartman, IFF’s Global Director of Flavor Applications.

In order to optimize salt reduction, custom flavor systems require a close development partnership with IFF’s customers. “We have learned that for the most appealing products, flavor systems need to be application-specific,” says Dr. Hartman, “There is no magic bullet in the industry that will effectively reduce the sodium in each and every product. But, the great news is that the extensive experience of our expert flavorists and application staff in this endeavor can be employed to create lower-sodium products while maintaining a parity or better preference flavor profile. We use a creative team of food technologists, chefs, flavorists, and sensory/ consumer insight experts to ensure that each application gets the optimal benefit from our flavor systems.”

The custom approach to sodium reduction includes both Natural and Natural and Artificial flavor solutions, the utilization of proprietary flavor technology and ingredients that enhance salty impression, suppress negative aspects of potassium salts, and rebalance the overall flavor system.

“The proof of the pudding, however, is in the consumer testing,” says Dr. Hartman, “and our testing went very well, indeed. In a comparison between two chicken broths, for example, consumer salt perception of a broth with 455mg of sodium and our sodium reduction flavor system achieved equal preference with the one with 711mg sodium, a reduction in sodium of over 35%. While we are thrilled with the way these are testing, we are hard at work continually improving and refining our efforts in an area that is so vital to consumer health and wellness. We will also continue to incorporate new technology in our R&D pipeline as it becomes available for use.”