New Naturex Acerola & Onion Blend Offers Shelf Life Boost For Meat Products
02 May 2016 --- As consumers are increasingly focused on what goes into their food, clean label and naturalness are no longer just a trend but a well-established industry norm. But the quest for simpler ingredient lists sometimes leads to higher turnover rates for food products. While we are struggling to figure out how to feed the planet, we currently waste about 40% of the entire food supply (US data), a cause for serious concern.
This is particularly true for the meat & poultry category, for which “natural” expectations are among the strongest. New product launches with “all natural” or “no additives, no preservatives” claims have increased tenfold over the last 10 years. Consumers mostly base their meat purchasing decisions on the product’s color. A “healthy red”, indicator of freshness & wholesomeness, is key to success on the supermarket shelves, whereas discolored meat often gets discounted or goes to waste even though it is still safe to eat.
Naturex launches Xtrablend OA, a 100% natural solution to increase color stability by preventing color degradation in chilled products. Thanks to the synergistic blend of two natural compounds, acerola standardized in ascorbic acid and onion standardized in polyphenols, this new solution provides perfect color protection without impacting the product’s overall taste. In addition to improving color stability, Xtrablend OA is also a powerful antioxidant. In a comparative test on refrigerated pork sausages, natural Xtrablend OA showed results equivalent to conventional BHA/BHT antioxidants, helping the sausages to keep an appealing color and a very low oxidation rate until the end of their shelf life.
Catherine Bayard, Category manager, Naturex told FoodIngredientsFirst that the type of applications targeted with this new natural solution will be: pork sausages , ground poultry , seasoned beef burger or patties. “This product has been designed to tackle color loss in very sensitive products such as meat preparation and meat products,” she explained.
On many mature markets, consumption of meat & poultry products is rather flat and is even decreasing in some areas. To achieve better results, meat processors must differentiate themselves by having their products stand out from the crowd. Xtrablend OA can be labelled as “acerola powder and onion extract”, thus enabling the claim “no additives” to be used on the ingredients list.
“As calls for transparency are growing louder, this friendly labelling and natural positioning is a critical point of differentiation from the competition. XtrablendOA is a very effective tool to help food manufacturers meet consumer expectations for convenient and healthy products, ” says Bayard.
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