Unlocking Umami Flavor Affordability: Success Stories Series

Umami is one of those flavor components that transforms ordinary meals into extraordinary taste experiences. This basic taste sensation can be described as a savory, satisfying taste that adds depth, balance and complexity to food. Culinary professionals describe umami as a full-tongue coating sensation that makes your mouth water. In the food industry, the use of umami-delivering ingredients is driven by three essential components: taste, affordability and the need for a “healthier” and “cleaner” label. Check out real-life examples of how IFF’s umami flavor solutions have reduced cost while improving taste.

Creating a Better Bouillon in Africa
Our first customer story takes place in Africa, where bouillon cubes and powders are found in almost every household in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In this large, growing market, these products are not just added to water to create broth but added to dishes as sources of spices and flavor. Typically, bouillon products contain salt, MSG (MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE), sugars, flavors, spices, herbs and fats, with MSG delivering the umami flavor impact that local consumers crave. However, with the increasing market price of MSG, producers were forced to look for alternative solutions. But the process of changing bouillon recipes comes with its own manufacturing challenges, causing apprehension to make any formulation changes that might impact the manufacturing of the bouillon cube. 

At IFF Taste, our team developed an easy-to-implement, concentrated solution for MSG, flavors and spice blends, while improving umami flavor and affordability. Our technical team helped alleviate manufacturing concerns with our umami training programs, specially designed to teach customers how to use IFF umami tools, so they can achieve best-in-class taste at the lowest cost. In the optimization process, we worked with the ingredients the customer already had available (salt, MSG, fat, etc.) so no additional purchasing efforts or costs were needed.  And finally, once the IFF-optimized recipe product was approved, we supported the integration of the concentrated solution into manufacturing to ensure the cubing process was efficient – as this was an initial customer concern with reformulation. Once implemented, we helped to reduce more than 40% of MSG used in the bouillon cube recipe, improving the current taste of the product and delivering a 30% overall cost savings from the original recipe.

Understanding Umami Flavor in Southeast Asia for Improved Noodles
Umami flavor is an essential part of Asian cuisine. But it is important to realize that in many markets like in Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines, it is perceived and preferred very differently by consumers. So, when asked to achieve a similar umami taste and impact to an instant noodle product sold throughout the whole region, while reducing costs due to the increasing price of MSG and Ribotides, it presented challenges. This is where IFF umami expertise came in. 

Our consumer studies have resulted in a deep understanding of what part of the umami taste, and its releases, is important to drive taste preferences of culinary food products in each of these different Southeastern countries. Together with our Taste Creation team, our sensory science team has also developed a predictive tool, the Umami Taste Block Model, which helped predict the optimal combination of umami tools required for specific umami taste expectations of consumers in different countries. Our team worked hand-in-hand with the customer to deliver consumer-preferred chicken, beef and pork profiles, on top of the expected umami flavor impact, by using our extended taste ingredient toolkit. These formulation improvements helped our customer not only remain competitive in their markets, but they saved over 6 million dollars on recipe costs with this reformulation. Not only meeting but exceeding their goals for cost-savings and taste improvements.

Your Umami Flavor Affordability Partner

At IFF Taste, we work with you to implement umami flavor and taste solutions, consider other flavor profiles and, if desired, provide one single solution to reduce complexity and cost, increase efficiency and improve taste. From recipe creation to factory support, we are your partner every step of the way. Our umami experts are here to help take your culinary creations to the next level.

Learn more about our Umami Flavor solutions and capabilities.