Restrained consumer behavior will continue on the food market next year. For example, in Great Britain over half of people invest time and effort into finding the lowest prices, according to a recent study of consumer behavior in multiple markets by market research company Mintel. For this reason more and more food manufacturers are turning to cost-effective solutions that still offer high product quality and eating enjoyment. One example is cream, as Hydrosol Product Manager Binia Postel explains. “Around the world, manufacturers are very interested in bringing vegetable fat creams to market. We saw it again at Food Ingredients Europe. The positive response to our new stabilizing system for making mixed fat cream clearly shows the demand for solutions of this type.”
One reason for the great interest on the part of trade fair visitors is doubtless the technological challenge of mixing vegetable and dairy fat. With the help of a new functional system from the Stabimuls ICR series, Hydrosol has succeeded in creating a highly stable final product from both kinds of fat. The fat content of this composition is 32 percent. Through the use of vegetable fat, this mixed fat cream offers substantial cost advantages over conventional cream, while the inclusion of dairy fat gives it a balanced taste. In short, its flavor, texture, and functional properties are comparable to conventional dairy cream,
Individual Service
Another advantage is the flexible use of the stabilizing system in combination with various dairy components. “We’ve developed multiple recipes, optionally with milk and clarified butter as main ingredients, or with milk and cream as central components,” says Binia Postel. “This lets us adapt the recipe to the ingredients that are already available to the customer locally.”
In addition to tailor-made recipes, Hydrosol is in demand as a problem-solver. “We’ve found that customers have a great need for service,” reports Binia Postel. “With vegetable fat cream, the complex production process brings up questions for companies who want to take such products to market. Since we’ve been doing intensive research in this area for years, we have extensive expertise with an enormous depth of detail knowledge. Individual assistance on-site is therefore an important part of our service package that is very much in demand with customers.”
It’s not just the cost savings that make mixed fat cream an attractive alternative to conventional cream. With the help of Hydrosol’s stabilizing system, producers in regions that have only limited access to milk or dairy cream can make a mixed fat cream that has similar properties as classic whipping cream, plus a lighter mouthfeel than most vegetable fat creams and better foam stability than dairy cream. These advantages make it especially suitable for the food service market, for example for cakes and desserts.
This new functional system is just one of many solutions in the Stabimuls ICR range. These systems can be used to make different kinds of vegetable fat creams depending on customer requirements, for whipping, cooking or both.
