KEY INTERVIEW: Kerry Eyes the Meat Free Category, Highlights Flavor Modulation Technology

16 May 2016 --- One of the key happenings for 2016 is reduction of salts and sugars in foods, and in particular reformulation of foods in order to sit with current dietary regulations. Many large food ingredient companies are looking to change their ingredients in many of their branded food products without compromising on taste, flavor or texture.

Speaking with FoodIngredientsFirst at IFFA 2016 in Frankfurt, Nicky Dear, Business Development Director at Kerry highlighted some of the changes that the company is undergoing in terms of NPD. “Some of the things we have been looking at is salt reduction, salt replacement and also sugar reduction,” she says, “We have a huge history of flavor knowledge at Kerry and we are looking for great delivery on flavor across all our products.”
 
“We are seeing several trends in the market, I guess the top one is salt reduction, particularly in the UK – a lot of our customers are looking for reduced salt products, and also reduced sugar which is a huge trend in the industry,” she claims. 
 
In order to keep up with the demand of salt and sugar reduction, Kerry's application center, which has been open since last summer in Naas, Co. Kildare is where they have all the R&D resources from all over Europe. “We have 250 food scientists at the center in Naas which is really starting to pay off – we are seeing cross fertilization of ideas across all of our technologies.”
 
“Our newest technology called Flavor Modulation Technology, covers both salt and sugar perception, what we are trying to do is reduce the levels of sugar and salt on products that meet the traffic light system in the UK but without compromising on the end flavor delivery of the product,” Dear says. 
 
Dear also detailed the differences in the UK compared to other parts of Europe: “In the UK suppliers are requesting the traffic light system, its’ a bit slower to catch up in Europe, but its slowly starting in Germany and France,” she says, “We tend to work in partnership with our customers, to develop a solution that is developed around their products.”
 
Dear also mentioned that gluten free is coming in across not only bakery technologies but a lot of their other technology, particularly in coatings and our other meat products. She says: “We are seeing a lot of the other retailers developing into this area and removing gluten from their burgers and also from premium sausages at the moment.”
 
And there has also been a surge in demand for meat free products, noticeably more than ever before. “Even the meat processors, particularly in Germany, are looking for healthy meat free produce with high levels of protein,” she explains, “There has been a big move towards ‘flexitarianism’ recently and we are seeing this being requested from a lot of our suppliers.”
 
“That’s where Kerry comes in,” states Dear, “We don’t want consumers to compromise on taste. We are looking at a range of different meat free proteins, they could be soy or wheat based, or even a blend of both. We are also looking at the next generation, such as pea and rice proteins and we are exploring different types of technology to develop that.” Dear also told FoodIngredientsFirst that Kerry are looking at allergen free and meat free protein sources and the processes needed to produce them. 
 
One example of a successful meat free product launch which is already on the market in the UK is cereshred, a textured protein made from soy and wheat. It is uniquely processed and gives a meat-like texture and adsorbs about three times its weight in water, ensuring excellent flavor delivery.

“Cereshred is a fusion of soy and wheat and when you hydrate it looks like pulled pork,” Dear explains, “It delivers a really good flavor compared to a lot of products that are on the market.”
 
“At Kerry we are always looking at new developments and clean label runs right through the whole process, it’s very important to us how a products develops over time, and we regularly look at ways of keeping that consistency,” Dear concludes. 

by Robin Wyers & Elizabeth Kenward

A video interview with Nicky Dear & Mick O'Kane of Kerry can be found here!