Samenvatting

The increasing trend of sustainable and on-the-go healthy food products results in consumers demanding more ‘natural and organic ingredients. Not only do consumers want healthier options, but there is also an increasing concern on part of governments and legislation makers on reducing salt levels in food products to tackle the current high salt consumption in human diets. Additionally, as a consequence of consumers becoming more concerned about how certain food products are manufactured and what they are consuming, the current trend of ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ has also pushed manufacturers to introduce ‘clean’ label products containing no synthetic ingredients, additives, or E-numbers. Numerous studies show that consumers do not trust E-numbers, or ingredients with ‘chemical’ or synthetic-sounding names. This has resulted in food manufacturers researching alternative ‘natural’ taste enhancers to enhance taste perception of food products to reduce salt levels without compromising the overall quality and taste of the product. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which ‘natural’ taste enhancers can be used to enhance taste perception simultaneously maintaining or reducing salt levels in instant soup powders produced by Future Kitchens. This research aims to answer the question; “How to maximize the taste perception in healthy vegan instant soups produced from overproduction streams by the addition of ‘natural’ taste enhancers without increasing the salt levels?”. Literature research, kitchen trials, and a consumer acceptance test were used to answer this question. The obtained results were used to improve existing recipes and developed new instant soup recipes.

This project focused on the enhancement of savory perception of instant soup powders through the addition of natural taste enhancers rich in umami compounds such as glutamate, aspartic acid, and 5’ribonucleotides; 5’-inosine monophosphate (IMP), and 5’guanosine monophosphate (GMP). The instant soup powders were produced from overproduced vegetables using the novel drying technique freeze-drying to obtain a premium soup product simultaneously reducing global food waste and extending the shelf life of the product. Several kitchen trials were conducted to develop the new recipes where different natural taste enhancers were combined to obtain the most flavorful recipe. During these kitchen trials, taste interactions of flavoring components were taken into account to evaluate which components could positively impact the flavor profile of the recipes. Furthermore, the addition of components rich in umami compounds such as cherry tomatoes, soy sauce powder, shiitake, kombu, and “clean label” broth allowed for an enhancement in savory perception and a fuller mouthfeel.

The enhancement in savory perception was achieved by maintaining the salt levels below 20% of the recommended daily intake (6g/day) and maintained the cost of production for low volumes within the cost margin established of €0.60-0.90 per serving. Additionally, the addition of these compounds reduced the salt levels by 23-30% compared to the existing recipes without compromising the quality or taste of the final product.

A consumer acceptability test was conducted to assess the overall likeliness of the newly developed soups in terms of color, taste, mouthfeel, and texture. From the results obtained the newly developed soups (spicy tomato, onion-potato, and pumpkin-coco) were all liked by the consumers as all three soups obtained an average score of 7 or higher for all the four attributes measured, with spicy tomato being the most liked by the respondents. However, none of the newly developed soups obtained a satisfactory net promoter score (NPS). This was due to the structuring of the survey which should have taken into account more factors affecting the NPS and should have been conducted with only a consumer panel instead of a combination of consumers and non-consumers.

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