Ferments can replace salt

Manufacturers can use ferments ingredients made from fermented products to enhance the flavour and shelf-life of food and drink, while achieving significant salt reductions, delegates heard at a Food Ingredients Europe conference in Frankfurt last month.

Lactic acid or lactate salts enhance the flavour of foods such as bacon, tomato, green herbs and cheese, as well as some bakery and confectionery products, claimed Diana Visser, innovation manager food at Dutch ingredients company Purac.

"The perceived sourness of most refrigerated food products can be optimised by using lactic acid. Unlike most other organic acids, lactic acid doesn't have an intense sour flavour profile that overwhelms the final taste of the food product." She said that by adding ferments, savoury flavours are detected and the consumer interprets this as salty.

In the US ferments are already being used commercially. But in Europe: "More research is needed, as legislation on using ferments is not well defined. I think it would come under the The Novel Food regulation," she added.

"Sodium reduction is a key trend in the food industry but preserving flavour and maintaining shelf-life and texture are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve once salt is removed from an existing food formulation. But ferments can offer the flavour benefits of fermented foods without the need to ferment the food itself, which can be beneficial when reducing salt," said Visser.

She said that potassium lactate formulations, for example, were also used in a wide range of meat and poultry products around the world to extend shelf-life.

Shelf-life can be measured by many factors, some of which include microbial spoilage, purge and colour. Potassium salt of lactic acid (E270) is a natural acid produced by bacteria in fermented foods.