Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
own brand products by 1999 (www.iceland.co.uk/page/view/the_iceland_story).
In the following decade other food retailers (Co-op, Sainsburys, Marks &
Spencer) published statements declaring that they would remove artifi cial
additives from their products (BBC News 2005b; Poulter 2007a,b). Almost 90%
of UK grocery sales were at the top seven supermarket retailers (Garner 2009),
giving these retailers great infl uence on shopping habits.
Consumers, supplied with information from the government and retailers, are
now much more aware and capable of reading nutritional and ingredient
declaration information on food packaging and, as pointed out by Hitt
et al.
(2007), positively search for more healthy and natural food.
The number of food additives used in savoury food products has been reduced
over the last 30 years mirroring the move to natural fl avours. Greater consumer
awareness coupled with a fear of ingredients with E numbers had by 2010
minimised food additives to those considered as technologically necessary to
manufacture a product, to give an adequate and practical shelf life to a product or
to fulfi l a food safety requirement. Novel packaging solutions such as modifi ed or
controlled atmosphere packing have assisted in this move.
The move toward natural ingredients is worldwide, although this is led by
Europe where, according to a Mintel webinair, 16 000 new product introductions
with a 'natural claim' were made in 2010 compared to between 6000 each in
North America and Asia-Pacifi c and 2000 in Latin America. A fi gure of 4000 of
new product introductions with a 'natural claim' in Europe in 2005 demonstrates
the rapidity of the growth of natural products.
13.2 Natural ingredients for savoury foods
When considering a savoury food product the subject is best approached from an
ingredients' perspective. It is necessary to consider which ingredients can be
combined or added to a basic substrate or food system (such as meat or fi sh) in
order to make consumer-acceptable products that are both cost-effective and
process effi cient. This is achieved using dry seasonings, marinades, sauces and
coatings ingredients, or their liquid or wet equivalents. So what tools do today's
savoury product formulators require in their armoury?
13.2.1
Salts
The most basic ingredient used in savoury food products is salt (sodium chloride),
which gives the salty and long-lasting fl avour to food that we all enjoy. It also
gives the added bonus of functionality in some products, preservation
(antimicrobial) and binding of water in the product. Most would consider salt to
be a natural ingredient but there is also a trend towards using sea salt as a more
natural version. Some manufacturers prefer sea salt because it is made without the
E535 anticaking agent present. Salt is available in different granulations from
micro fi ne to granular, and also in different shapes of granule.
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