Snac World - February 2018 - 31

THE CHALLENGE OF

SPICY
When deciding between natural, artificial or both types of flavors, snack producers
must weigh consumer concerns about labels with cost and flavor intensity.
the cost with a higher price point or settle for a small amount
of flavor. "Those strategies can help contain the cost and still
deliver a good product," Mr. Patel said.

Kerry Ingredients

MAKE AN IMPACT
Consumers and snack producers expect flavors to deliver
a promised sensory impact. Natural flavors can deliver some
profiles, such as dairy and some spicy, very well. However, artificial flavors typically deliver more of an overall impact and the
taste that consumers expect.
This becomes particularly challenging when a snack producer decides to reformulate away from artificial to natural.
Consumers already know what that snack product "should"
taste like and expect the same sensory profile regardless that
flavor ingredient has changed. "It can be very difficult to get
an exact profile match as well as an exact one-to-one usage
match," Ms. Loomis said. "The usage rate for a natural alternative is often higher than its artificial counterpart because
the artificial ingredient is usually more concentrated."
One way to overcome this issue of potency and consumer
expectations is to start out slow. "Start with natural and artificial flavors instead of all artificial flavors on the label," Mr.
Lombardo said. Reformulate the product to balance natural
and artificial flavors, and then test the sensory characteristics
to make sure they're still acceptable.
To also label a product as "all natural," snack producers
must use an ingredient that identifies as the source of the
flavor being claimed. "A strawberry flavor would have to have
strawberry juice or powder," he explained. However, in many
cases, these ingredients alone do not have the impact necessary to deliver the flavor levels expected by consumers.
To deliver the desired impact, snack producers can combine
that natural source flavor with complementary natural flavors
for a "Natural with Other Natural Flavors Added" claim.
The decision to switch to all-natural flavors is not so simple. Snack producers must weigh priorities that sometimes
contradict each other: company values, targeted consumer,
price and flavor impact. Only in balancing these priorities can
snack producers know the right path for their products.
SNAXPO OFFICIAL SHOW ISSUE

Jalapeño is the "poster child" for challenging natural flavors. What consumers have
associated with jalapeño is actually born
from artificial flavors, and jalapeño powder
has a difficult time keeping up. "Natural
jalapeño powder doesn't deliver the robust
flavor that a consumer would recognize or
want," said Harshad Patel, R&D director,
Culinary & Flavors, Kerry Ingredients.
This natural flavor lacks the very specific
green note consumers identify with the
pepper. "The characteristic 'green' jalapeño
flavor that consumers have come to expect
is typically achieved through artificial
flavors," explained Darla Byerly, senior food
scientist, Fuchs North America. "It is quite
a challenge to achieve high-impact green
notes from a natural jalapeño flavor."
In order to get the intensity consumers
expect from a chip or snack labeled
"jalapeño," the necessary amount of natural
flavor would create other issues. "In order to
get enough of that specific green note that
is part of the jalapeño, you may have to add
so much jalapeno powder that it turns your
whole product green," said Mike Lefevre,
PhD, R&D director, Cheese & Dairy Flavors,
Kerry Ingredients. This conundrum leaves
snack producers in the difficult position
of balancing flavor expectations with
clean label demands that are at odds with
one another and may be sacrificing other
sensory characteristics to fulfill both needs.
For difficult flavors such as jalapeño
that may not have an adequate natural
alternative yet, Mr. Patel suggests trying
the "natural and artificial" strategy.
Combining the challenging flavor with a
complementary natural flavor can offset
some of those labeling issues. "One
solution is to make a cheddar jalapeño
variety because you can find natural
cheddar flavor but the artificial jalapeño
flavor delivers robust flavor," he said.

2018 SNAC WORLD

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Snac World - February 2018