Flavour of the month

Alan Liao Jingjun of Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients Corp and PROVA’s Muriel Acat-Vergnet answer our questions on ingredients and explain how producers are responding to recent consumer trends for healthy, natural foods.

As consumers become increasingly health conscious, there is mounting demand for ingredients that can add flavour and sweetness without adding calories. What options are available to producers seeking to cater to this trend?
Alan Liao Jingjun. Rebaudioside A (Reb A), a non-calorific sweetener derived from the stevia plant, could fill a sweet spot in the food and beverage market. The growing demand for products with greater perceived health benefits could help the sweetener grow in coming years. Since approved by the FDA, interest in the sweetener has surged, and it is being used in products such as fruit juices, enhanced waters and carbonated soft drinks. Beverage companies are particularly interested because they are facing lagging sales of full-calorie soft drinks, and soft drinks made with artificial sweeteners because of consumer concerns. Reb A would allow companies to develop natural, low-calorie products made without artificial sweeteners. We blend our Luo han extract with Reb A using our unique blending know-how to enhance the flavour and sweetness.

Muriel Acat-Vergnet. In principle, flavourings aren't directly considered as substitutes to sugar or its alternatives. However, vanilla, when used at a proper level of dosage, is able to smoothen and round up, thus bringing the impression of sweetness to food stuff.

In chocolate for instance, natural vanilla proves to overcome the bitterness, which is linked to high cocoa and/or lowered sugar content. In baked goods (biscuits, cereals), vanillin has a very interesting impact, exhausting the overall complex aromas yielded by the baking process, thus compensating the possible loss of mouth feel due to a lower level of sugar.

Another type of flavouring, called "masking flavours" also contributes to overcoming special off notes, due to its high protein or vitamin content, which would be exacerbated by a reduction in sugar. 

When talking about fat reduction, flavourings that imitate the taste of butter or cream provide a satisfactory contribution to compensate the loss in mouth feel and richness.

How do these ingredients fit into the growing trend towards 'natural' and organic foods?
MA-V. In recent years, the demand for replacing the existing synthetic flavours with natural ones has grown substantially. This trend started in the chocolate industry, when manufacturers decided to switch from vanillin, the key flavour ingredient in chocolate, towards natural vanilla, in general pure extracts.

Using an original technology, Prova fat-soluble vanilla extracts respond to this demand. Being compatible with high-fat systems, the flavouring yield is fully optimised, thus contributing to a good rounding up effect, keeping dosage levels low.

Other products are making the switch from synthetic to natural, like biscuits, cereals, dairy products. The solutions are in general vanilla extracts combined with natural substances.

Organic foods must use at least natural flavourings, the ultimate choice being organic flavours. The offer for organic flavourings has broadened tremendously, and one can find organic versions in almost all flavouring notes. This trend has come along due to the ever-growing demand for organic food.

ALJ. We have been committed, for more than 10 years, to developing natural plant source health products to better improve people's life quality. The mission and aspiration of Layn is to bring health and beauty from nature to human being. Our attention and dedication are always on 'natural source' and 'health', which we believe are the whole world's pursuit, our mission and responsibility. Our main product categories include high purity plant source monomer, natural sweeteners, functional juices, as well as standardised plant extracts. Layn is dedicated to persistent utilisation, conservation and development of botanical raw material and has advocated GAP and Organic standardisation in cultivation for many years. Layn is continuously pursuing organic food standard and comply with GMO-free standards. We supply several organic products including our Luo han guo.

Any breaches in food safety can have grave effects, both for consumers and the businesses that supply them. What steps do you take to ensure that your products are free from any contamination and safe for human consumption?
ALJ. We effectively control our products from the raw material cultivation, harvesting, transportation, storage, production, packing and shipment. The quality of Layn Natural Ingredients is assured by our strict compliance with the following standards: GMP, ISO9001:2008, ISO14001:2004, ISO22000:2005, HACCP. Our quality assurance programmes are maintained on an ongoing basis. We implement comprehensive tests including toxicological tests, heavy metal assays, pesticide residue assays, microbiological detection, in vitro tests and in vivo tests, in tandem with our dedicated professionals, ensuring the safety of Layn's products and their respective efficacy. We all take great pride in the high quality and consistency of our products. All of our people are part of the quality that goes into our products and they are trained accordingly.

MA-V. All of our products are manufactured under current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system of product safety. By using the HACCP system, specific hazards such as physical, chemical and bacteriological are controlled, reduced or eliminated.

Prova's main know-how lies in the extraction of natural raw materials. When dealing with agricultural products, bacteriology is a very sensitive question. Several 'killing steps' are implemented – such as heat treatments of the vanilla beans – and are also part of the transformation process when using solvents under specific conditions.

What role does research and development play in your business? Can you describe any recent innovations in your product lines?
MA-V. The main challenge in our business is certainly to match synthetic with natural substances. One issue is that there are many less available natural ingredients than synthetic ones, not to mention the higher cost.

Matching vanillin at an acceptable cost is a challenge. Natural vanillin is too expensive and no other single natural substance is a genuine alternative. It must be a combination of several flavouring ingredients, including vanilla extracts.

Biotechnologies are developed to obtain natural substances. This is completed by the creativity of our flavourists, whose job it is to combine flavouring preparations and substances.

Flavour release is complex. In processes, like baking and sterilising, volatiles tend to give way to heat resistant body notes, thus distorting the original flavour balance. To get around the flavour loss, increased dosages and encapsulation techniques are commonly used.

Our recent innovations focus on developing natural flavourings within our specialities: vanilla, cocoa, coffee, sweet brown and gourmet notes (caramel, all nuts, biscuit notes etc)

ALJ. Layn's R&D focuses on technology optimisation and product standardisation. Layn is based on a project management system and focuses on the product development in multiple perspectives. Our product development process extends from product standardisation to pharmaco-toxicological testing, and includes applications from regulatory compliance to intellectual property protection. We have achieved more than 20 invention patents and more than 600 in technical know-how.

The Panel

Dr. Alan Liao Jingjun is Board Director and CEO of Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients Corp, member of the China National High-Tech food development council. Before joining Layn, he spent eight years working at P&G as food senior scientist and external business development manager. He graduated in biochemistry from Peking University and is an expert in photochemistry, human nutrition and intelligence properties.

Muriel Acat-Vergnet, was promoted to CEO at PROVA SA in 2008, after having been Vice President for 5 years, and with the company for 16 years. She graduated from the Toulouse business school and got a Masters degree in Business Administration in the United States.