Dive Brief:
- Bell Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has developed lines of extender and replacer flavors in response to factors that can hamper the use of ingredients, such as shortages of ingredients that result from bad crops, market forces, or over exportation. These lines help manufacturers address the resulting rise in prices and concerns about the quality of the ingredients.
- The extender and replacer flavors, which assist with cost reduction and ensure standardized and consistent flavor profiles, can be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to ingredients.
- Flavors available for savory applications include garlic, tomato, olive oil and eggs; fruit flavors include lemon, lime, raspberry, cranberry and grapefruit; other flavors include vanilla, cocoa, maple and honey.
Dive Insight:
There are multiple reasons clients can benefit from extenders, and there always seems to be a new profile that can benefit from extending ingredients, Aaron Graham, director of creative services, flavors, Bell Flavors & Fragrances, told Food Dive. For example, sometimes an agricultural product can be expensive and price volatile, and extenders can help reduce direct costs, and perhaps reduce the volatility over time.
Graham says some of the benefits customers have targeted recently have to do with reductions in microbials, particularly because agricultural products grown in the ground traditionally have high micro counts. "Obviously, when they are sold they can go through various sterilization processes, but there are challenges with microbials, so having an extender based on a flavor that doesn’t have the same agricultural makeup can help in that area," Graham said.
Bell Flavors & Fragrances’ extenders also help customers create consistent flavor profiles, especially with sweet profiles such as vanillas and honeys, where natural variations in flavors can occur. "Our clients have approached us with extenders in mind to help keep more of a consistent flavor profile, which again if you need a flavor, we can standardize that a lot more effectively than the real thing," Graham said.