CUTTING THE COST OF YOUR MEAT PRODUCTS RECIPES WITH FUNCTIONAL FLOURS

Functional flours can significantly reduce the costs of meat products recipes, say ingredients specialists Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI). Their range of functional flours - heat-treated flours produced using specific varieties – also make it possible to produce low-fat meat products, such as patés, that maintain the texture and other properties of traditional recipes.

Dr Walter Lopez, LCI’s  Marketing Manager for Nutrition explains, “As one example, in poultry sausage formulation, the functionalities of these flours makes it possible to use 8% of ‘Gel Tex speciale 5%’ to replace 10% starch, as used in a traditional recipe, without modifying the manufacturing process and while maintaining equivalent organoleptic properties. This allows a reduction in the proportion of meat of 5% and of texturing agent by 2%, significantly reducing the cost of the recipe.”

A second example is the use of functional flours in low-fat meat products says Dr Lopez. “Very often, low-fat meat products are too firm and lack both softness and a melt-in-the mouth texture. Functional flours, such as ‘westhove wheat 1000R’, ‘westhove maize 1000R’ and ‘farigel rice 1000R’ make it possible to mimic the melt-in-the–mouth texture usually provided by fat. The absence of amylose in these references also preserves a transparent jelly – while ordinary flour causes it to become opaque.

“The formulation of a low-fat paté containing 3.8% ‘westhove wheat 1000R’ plus our oat fibre produces a paté containing 15% fat with a pleasant melt-in-the-mouth texture, good spreadability - and maintaining organoleptic properties.”

Dr Lopez pointed out that Europe remains the most innovative region in the world for meat products, accounting for around a half of all new products in the sector: “LCI’s functional flours give manufacturers the opportunity to keep up their pace of innovation while reducing costs and retaining traditional product properties.”