Sauces: Fermented food and green banana spark innovation

31 Aug 2017 --- Fermented foods and drinks continue to be a hot topic with the likes of kombucha beginning to make a real splash last year in US and European markets. And now, the revival of the ancient techniques of fermentation is also leading to innovation within the sauces category. You can read the first part of this report here. 

Austrian startup, Genusskoarl, recently introduced its umami fermented seasoning through its new product, Wiener Wurz, which can be used as a universal sauce seasoning for a range of dishes from soups, salads, stews and to add to other sauces to marinate meat, fish and vegetables. 

It contains locally sourced organic lupin, oats, salt and water for a unique umami flavor and its launch is the result of a successful crowd-funding campaign.

Green bananas 
Another startup, International Agriculture Group (IAG) has introduced two new functional fruit flours as part of its NuBana Green Banana Flour line. NuBana N100 delivers the processing benefits of a native, cook-up starch with unique viscosifying properties, while NuBana P500 is a pre-gelatinized flour that thickens in cold water and can replace hydrocolloids and stabilize fruit systems. 

Both ingredients can help replace sugar by replacing bulk. As 100 percent fruit ingredients, they can contribute a wide range of consumer-pleasing attributes, including the functional replacement of non-clean label ingredients, a higher level of nutrition and gluten-free status.

NuBana can replace wheat flour or maltodextrin and is ideal for applications needing viscosity, adhesion or water-binding, such as sauces and salad dressings. 

What’s next?
Sauce solutions to replace or cut down on sugar will continue to be developed, driven by consumer trends to reduce hidden sugars, of which there can be significant amounts in sauces. As flavor preferences shift, there are opportunities for a broader variety of sauce solutions inspired by flavors from around the world. Home cooking means people want the convenience of ready-to-heat sauces packed with a diverse range of flavor origins. With lots of innovation in the sauces segment from well-established companies to start-ups, technologies like fermentation, are driving new product development, while themes such as provenance, locally-sourced and natural are also driving factors for NPDs. 

By Gaynor Selby