The way you flavor your product is your competitive advantage.
Conversely, it can also be a liability. If your product doesn’t taste amazing, it won’t sell. That’s why a lot of food companies are looking for concentrated flavoring. But the benefits of concentrated flavoring go far beyond packing a punch with flavor.
In this article, we’ll explore the five valuable reasons you should consider using concentrated flavoring to flavor your next product.
Why Concentrated Flavoring?
When using concentrated flavor, understand that a little goes a long way. In its concentrated form, a flavor is stronger and more easily amplified than alternative methods. It’s also important to note that the term “concentrated flavoring” is subjective. There are different levels of concentration, and what one company calls “concentrated” might not be the same definition another company uses.
We’ve been around long enough to know that if a consumer doesn’t like the flavor of your product, they will reject it. And, that using flavor fillers when not necessary or required for the flavor performance can dilute that all-important taste. At Innova Flavors, we are concentrated flavoring experts for meat and savory flavors.
If that’s what you’re looking for, schedule a chat with us. We would love to talk about your food products and how our concentrated flavoring solutions can turn them into successes.
#1: Lower Usage Rate
When it comes to evaluating the price of flavor, it can be easy to get stuck in a “price per pound” mentality. At first glance, this reality can make concentrated flavoring seem more expensive. But, when considering cost-in-use, that’s generally not the case - it’s quite the opposite, actually.
Traditionally, seasoning requires more volume to achieve the same impact as concentrated flavoring. For example, a common seasoning could cost around $4 a pound with a usage level of 7 percent. Concentrated flavoring, on the other hand, might cost around $10 a pound with a usage level of 1 percent or less. When considering this for 100 pounds of product, it’s easy to see that concentrated flavoring usually wins that equation, and not just by the volume calculation.
This leads to the next benefit…
#2: Less Bulk, Lower Shipping Costs
Shipping large quantities of flavoring is a business expense you can’t get around. But, you can lower it by using concentrated flavoring. The smaller volume of concentrated flavors versus alternatives means carrier costs go down. Over time, the reduced cost of shipping can add up to serious capital.
#3: Less Bulk, Easier Storage
Because you are buying less overall poundage of flavoring, shipping prices will drop, but so will the requirements for storing flavoring. Concentrated flavoring requires less warehouse space, which can also reduce the overall costs of flavoring your products.
#4: Empowers More Opportunity for Flexibility
Concentrated flavor can free up a certain percentage of your taste components, providing the flexibility for increased complexity due to liberated space in the formula. Let’s say you have a marinade that requires certain functional ingredients with predetermined parameters that limit the amount of solids. If you can work with a concentrated flavor, it could help you manage that better.
#5 Better Flavor Characterization
Hand in glove with the fourth benefit above, concentrated flavoring enables not just customization of the end product, but it gives you more flexibility in the characterization of the flavor as well. For example, the ability to move from a standard chicken flavor using just chicken powder, yeast, or HVPs to a chicken flavor with skin and pan drippings is only possible with a flavor. The processes to create a flavor allow for complexity in delivering a flavor profile.
At the end of the day, when the customer takes a bite, the only competitive advantage your product has is the taste. Giving yourself the flexibility and control to fine-tune that flavor experience, even with a completely clean label, is one of the most impactful benefits of using concentrated flavoring.
The Bottom Line on Concentrated Flavoring
There are some things that seasoning-based flavors have going for them. For example, seasoning flavoring solutions can be used as a functional ingredient - more than just flavor. They can contribute to the visual appeal of a product, for example, where concentrated flavorings won’t.
However, we are convinced that, especially for meat flavors and savory flavors, the benefits of concentrated flavors make them the first consideration every time. If you would like to talk to someone about concentrated flavoring for your products, you can schedule a free consultation with us here.
