Sargento Food Ingredients Launches IQF Beverage Pellets

In the new Portionables beverages, ingredients like juice, fruit and yogurt are blended together, then quick frozen to retain their fresh flavor. Because the Portionables beverages are quick-frozen, they are made without preservatives.

3/4/2011 --- Sargento Food Ingredients announced it has broadened its Portionables capability to include beverages. The Portionables technology marries convenience and clean labeling into individually quick frozen (IQF) pellets. In the new Portionables beverages, ingredients like juice, fruit and yogurt are blended together, then quick frozen to retain their fresh flavor. Because the Portionables beverages are quick-frozen, they are made without preservatives. For an added boost, they can be fortified with vitamins, minerals, protein, antioxidants or live and active cultures. A few seconds in a blender reconstitutes the Portionables into a frozen beverage.

“With the growing market interest in frozen smoothies, we thought this would be a great opportunity to expand our Portionables technology into the beverage category,” says Mike McEvoy president, Sargento Food Ingredients. “We’ve experienced great success in sauce development with the Portionables technology, so this is really a natural extension. The technology is so versatile that we’re able to make a wide range of beverages from frozen fruit teas to horchata.”

The proprietary Portionables technology allows beverages to be made with minimally processed ingredients, avoiding the separation and texture problems that often occur with other processing methods. The technology also accommodates the incorporation of particulates, such as fruit pieces, within the size and shape of the IQF pellet. Frozen coffees, teas, fruit smoothies, milk shakes, nutritionally enhanced meal replacements, or other specialty frozen beverages can all be formulated into Portionables.

“As I mentioned, Portionables were first formulated as sauces,” says McEvoy, “but the technology also delivers soups, side dishes and desserts.” Product developers can create their own Portionables ingredient in the Sargento virtual online test kitchen at www.SargentoFoodIngredients.com