Givaudan Advance Chicken Flavour Creation for Challenging Economic Times

Natural chicken flavours are already widely used in the USA, but Givaudan is seeing an increasing number of briefs requiring natural solutions from European customers. Other markets generating increased demand for natural flavours include Japan and Australia.

08/05/09 Givaudan has further advanced its TasteEssentials Chicken flavour programme by developing proprietary, breakthrough natural ingredients that help food manufacturers create consumer preference for their products in tough market conditions.

Givaudan’s new ingredients add greater authenticity to the chicken flavour profile, particularly ‘richness’, capturing specific nuances of the taste of chicken.  These high-performance ingredients are now being included in some of Givaudan’s chicken flavours adding significant value to customers’ brands: with several already being used commercially in chicken soups, bouillons, burgers and nuggets.  Givaudan’s extensive chicken palette comprises a range of high-impact ingredients to match customer and consumer needs for authentic, richer, chicken flavours, including natural, low-sodium, allergen-free and clean-label solutions.
 
“We innovate continuously to help customers respond to changing market conditions,” says Andreas Haenni, Global Head of Savoury.  “In the short term, there is a focus on value-for-money offerings but medium to long term, we still see growing demand for natural flavours, driven by consumer preference for healthier eating options and changing regulatory requirements.”
 
Natural chicken flavours are already widely used in the USA, but Givaudan is seeing an increasing number of briefs requiring natural solutions from European customers. Other markets generating increased demand for natural flavours include Japan and Australia.
 
Faced with the current challenging market conditions, consumers are changing their food consumption patterns and are looking for good value combined with healthier eating options:  chicken-based menu items remain a popular low-fat protein choice whether dining out in Quick Serve Restaurants or eating in.  For those consumers choosing to prepare more food at home, chicken-based ready meals and culinary preparations for chicken dishes are universally popular.  All these categories of eating provide food manufacturers and processors with opportunities for chicken product reformulation based on the latest high-performance, high-value flavours and ingredients.
 
Givaudan’s ongoing ingredient development activities are guided by its consumer insights programme supported by sensory capabilities, which have created a unique flavour language to aid the company’s flavour creation teams and help customers identify which flavour combinations are likely to succeed locally.
 
To further help identify preferred aromas linked to flavours, Givaudan uses innovative tools and technologies. The proprietary Virtual Aroma Synthesiser (VAS) and portable mini-VAS are used to evaluate the performance of new ingredients in flavours, to develop new essence and signature flavours as well as to screen and validate preferences with consumers and customers.
 
“The VAS enables greater speed-to-market, increases a flavour’s likelihood of consumer acceptance and can be connected on-line, enabling global collaboration of Givaudan’s flavour development teams,” says Michael Peters, Director, Global Flavour Creation Technology.  “For example, we recently worked with a customer in Latin America on a product reformulation project to develop a new chicken flavour for soups.  Using the mini- VAS technology we succeeded in creating a successful new flavour for the product which demonstrated increased consumer preference when compared with others on the market.”
 
“Givaudan’s ability to develop new ingredients and understand and control aroma release is key to flavour performance,” adds Dr. Bob Eilerman, Global Head of Science & Technology.  Sensitive and volatile chicken flavour components are protected using Givaudan’s proprietary encapsulation technologies, PureDelivery which help flavours withstand rigorous food manufacturing techniques, stabilise unstable ingredients and reduce undesired reactions between flavours caused by external factors (e.g. oxidation) while extending product shelf life and promoting flavour retention.
 
Givaudan’s TasteEssentials Chicken programme is designed to enable food manufacturers to rapidly identify their precise chicken essence, signature and aroma needs including taste solutions for low salt recipes. By partnering with Givaudan they can develop unique, differentiated flavours across a range of applications, setting their products apart from the competition.