Lycored to showcase natural ingredient solutions at IFT Expo 2016

The FDA’s proposed sodium reduction targets will be challenging for US food manufacturers to achieve but are nothing to panic about, according to Tony Lagana.

In the wake of the FDA’s announcement, Lycored has joined forces with leading chef Tony Lagana, the President of Culinary Systems Inc, who is nicknamed ‘the new product guru’. During the forthcoming IFT Expo 2016 in Chicago he will appear live on Lycored’s stand to showcase how food manufacturers can use ‘real food’ ingredients to reduce the salt in their manufacturing formulas by more than 60% without comprising on quality or sacrificing a clean label. Lycored says this can be achieved without any need for ingredients such as MSG, I+G, IMP and hydrolysed vegetable proteins.

Tony commented: “When the FDA’s draft targets were published you could hear a sharp intake of breath across the food industry. And while there will undoubtedly be plenty of work to do once the targets have been agreed, it’s important not to panic. In fact there’s already a lot that manufacturers and foodservice companies can do right now to reduce sodium, and at the IFT Expo I’ll be demonstrating how Lycored’s ingredients can make this an easy and straightforward task.”

For IFT 2016, Tony has developed sauces and dressings that contain over 60% less salt than typical standard products. Among the ingredients he will be using is Lycored’s Sante, a natural taste enhancer derived from tomatoes. Lycored says Sante provides a high concentration of the natural compounds that produce umami (the fifth taste) and kokumi (the Japanese word for deliciousness) to accentuate existing flavour characteristics while remaining taste neutral. It enables product formulators to create deliciousness naturally and avoid ingredients that are undesirable on the label.

Natural colours

In addition to the taste enhancement solutions presented by Tony, Lycored will showcase Dry Tomato Pulp (DTP), a 100% natural real food ingredient from tomato that can be declared on the label simply as ‘Tomato’. It adds a fresh, consistent red colour to sauces (including pasta sauces), condiments, soups, ready meals, and processed meats with no risk of turning brown like some other colorants. In addition, it also provides an authentic cooked-from-scratch texture and healthy fibre content.

Other innovations from Lycored at IFT 2016 include Lyco-Fibers, which enable product formulators to modify the pulpiness, viscosity and mouthfeel of sauces, soups and meat products naturally. According to Lycored, not only do Lyco-Fibers deliver a cleaner label, but they also carry the positive benefit of fibre content. Their high stability means that they do not undergo syneresis when used in sauces. In addition, while alternative stabilisers such as gums and starches can lead to a slimy consistency, Lyco-Fibers deliver an vegetable fibre texture. They also improve the juiciness of meat products and prevent burning of the meat when barbecuing.

Lycored will also present its range of Tomat-O-Red and Lyc-O-Beta natural colours. Natural colours from Lycored are certified Kosher and Halal, non-GMO, vegetarian and are heat, light and pH stable. At IFT 2016, Lycored will showcase the stability of its colours compared with artificial alternatives and highlight how well they perform when exposed to very high temperature processing conditions.