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Being careful about what we eat is the first step towards looking after our health, and everyone wants to eat healthily. Over the past few years, new eating trends have developed such as eating sugar free, following a gluten free diet, consuming nutritious food and preserved fruit that is free from artificial colours and preservatives. Are you ready for this new trend? Find out more here!
Consumers consistently seek new flavours and these make an impact on the products used in the kitchen and those which are sold commercially to meet this demand. What aromas and extracts are we referring to?
Which aromas and extracts? How many types are there?
One of the factors that most conditions how something tastes is its scent, meaning that aromas are a vital element in this sensation. A smell can change how we perceive what we eat.
There are various types of aromas.
- Natural. These aromas occur through natural physical processes, with microbiological or enzyme action creating an aroma free from artificial ingredients. These aromas come from fruits, spices, seeds and animals. The most commonly known form of natural aromas are essential oils.
- Copycat. These aromas are chemically-produced to mimic naturally-occurring aromas.
- Artificial. These aromas are created from chemicals to produce smells that are inspired by the chemical composition of natural aromas.
Some of the most utilized aromas are citric acid ones such as those that derive from oranges and provide sharp and tangy flavours; lactic acid comes from milk and provides an acidic flavour; malic acid, a naturally occurring apple acid, adds a bitter taste; tartaric acid is an organic acid that derives from grapes and wine, providing a sharp taste.
Natural extracts are those that come from parts of plants, flowers, seeds, herbs or fruits. Some of the most common natural extracts include vanilla, lemon, almond, among others.
There are two groups of natural extracts:
- Derived from animals.For example, crab extract can be used to deter insects from plants.
- Derived from plants. For example, chamomile extract can be used or as a natural antiseptic.
Some of the most common ways of obtaining natural extracts is via maceration (letting the fruit or flower steep in order to extract its active ingredients) or distillation (where the prime ingredient is mixed with a dissolving agent and passed through some tubes in order to obtain the extract).
Clean Label …. trending!
Customers are becoming more label savvy when food shopping and carefully read the ingredients listed therein to know the precise ingredients and the nutritional value of what they are consuming.
The aim isn’t only to know what they are eating but also to prove that they are choosing healthy meals that are free from additives.
Clean Label trends lead to consumers choosing products that have recognizable ingredients and that avoid artificial elements. General food standard labels include:
- The sugar content in each product
- The level of saturated fats
- Advice on whether the product is completely natural
- The amount of salt in the product
This trend in food labelling has several consequences, among which are:
- The fact that consumers do not trust terminology that they do not understand when listed on a food product label
- The decision to purchase often depends on the labelling information and consumers tend to select natural products
- Consumers are willing to pay more for food labelled with ingredients they recognise
All of this proves that the food industry must change in order to adapt to the clear demand for natural products.
Discover Lazaya and our preserved fruits that are free from artificial colours and preservatives.
Our quest for innovating the products we make such as preserved fruits and candied fruits, crystallized fruit or glacé fruit has pushed us to find answers that meet consumer satisfaction such as preserved fruits without colorants or preservatives.
We dedicate resources from within our company as well as those we outsource in order to achieve innovation, collaborating with other companies, entering into innovation clusters and tech centres.
Some of the resulting actions include:
- Change the measurements of the fruit so that it suits clients’ needs: in cubes, in strips, irregular sized portions etc.
- Altering ingredients to eliminate preservatives, using natural colorants and changing sugar for sweeteners.
- Changing the packaging, not simply for commercial reasons, but also for food hygiene reason, so that they meet with customer requirements, and substituting tins or glass packaging with plastic that can be sterilized.
Therefore, our preserved fruits free from artificial colours and preservatives are the answer to these new trends in the food industry that are moving towards aromas and natural extracts.
