Create makes true-to-life ginger flavour

The UK-based company already offers a range of natural and nature-identical liquid and encapsulated flavour systems.

But commercial director Damian Bellusci told FoodNavigator.com that until now ginger flavours have tended to fall short of the true taste of ginger, because the volatile aroma and flavour compounds are delicate and hard to preserve.

Create Flavour's solution, which took a year to develop, is based around the cold extraction of these compounds.

Bellusci said the technology is similar to that used for olive oil extraction to retain the natural flavour and green notes.

The intention at the outset of development was to provide a 'best in class' ginger flavour that replicates fresh ginger in a natural offering.

This came following a The company has already introduced the new flavour to certain key customers, who have been trialling it in applications.

Bellusci was unable to reveal details of the first consumer products slated for market launch, but said that they should be on-shelves in the next two months.

The flavour is said to be suitable for a wide variety of applications including bakery, dairy, cereals and beverages.

It is available in natural and nature identical versions, and liquid and encapsulated.

Create Flavours is planning similar customer collaboration for the forthcoming flavours in the range.

It is currently investigating other spice-based flavours to develop along the same lines, and expects to have four or five 'fresh' offerings available in the next six months.

Bellusci highlighted the fierce trend towards natural flavours in the food industry at the moment, as consumers are veering away from products containing artificial additives.

Indeed, Create Flavours announced last November the establishment of a new division for the production of natural flavours, including dedicated R&D facilities.

It said at the time that it had experienced increasing demand from its customers for new products to be of natural ingredients, and old products to be reformulated.

In the flavour industry at large, others are also seeking to get closer than ever before to the true, natural taste of produce.

For instance, in 2006 Israel-based Frutarom introduced citrus flavours that use cold processing technology to retain the full flavour of the natural fruit.

US-based Blue Pacific Flavors announced earlier this year that it has teamed up with New Zealand's Hort Research to develop and commercialize new fruit flavors that are true to the taste of the original whole fruit.

Indeed, Hort Research has already developed a means to use fruit enzymes to produce flavors that are exactly the same as that of the real fruit - not just the closest possible match.

When the enzymes are put into bacteria or yeast, the flavors are produced in the same way as when beer is brewed: they are emitted into the air above the bacteria and are pulled off and condensed into a liquid flavor form.