Don’t choose the easy option

In my opinion (even though I realise that it’s not very polite of me to say this about fellow product developers), developers of food products all too often choose the easy option. That’s such a shame, because there are plenty of opportunities to make tastier and more natural food without using all kinds of chemical additives such as preservatives.

Of course, developing a product is very different from rustling up something nice in your own kitchen. Issues such as shelf life, stability, scalability and cost reduction soon turn it into a complex puzzle. When things become too complicated, many developers are quick to reach for their box of tricks to help them make the product safe and extend its shelf life by adding chemicals. No fuss, simply add a ‘magic’ powder and job done.

In many cases there are also other ways of arriving at a product that is safe and has a long shelf life, but that means that you have to understand the finer details of the product composition and know which aspects you can alter. Sometimes it’s enough to change the acidity level, the water activity or a combination of the two. In other cases you might need to use substitute ingredients or even adapt the whole formulation. 

Alternatively, you can look at what is possible using mild preservation techniques such as pascalisation (high pressure processing) or PurePulse (electrical fields) in order to kill off bacteria. A preservation step of that kind often reduces the need for chemical preservatives while retaining the flavour, colour and nutrients. There is also a growing number of possibilities for using natural preservatives. For example, the high-tech start-up Phytonext has recently succeeded in using its extraction technology to obtain natural alternatives for benzoic acid and sorbic acid from natural sources.

So there are more than enough opportunities. While it takes more time and expertise to avoid choosing the easy, chemical option, if that results in more natural, tasty and healthy products then, in my opinion, it’s well worth the extra effort.

Dennis Favier is a professional food designer and creative director at innovation company TOP bv which translates technological innovations into interesting applications.