For an industry that prides itself on innovation, UK food manufacturing can be obstinately blind to new technology. Take smoked meats. With all the brouhaha surrounding health and environmental issues, not to mention the pressure on costs, you would think that processors would be falling over themselves to adopt an alternative to traditional wood smoking that has not only been proved to be safer, substantially 'greener' and cheaper, but also enhances flavour. Not a bit of it.
"The hardest thing to change is often resistance to change itself," sighs David Gott, technical director for Unique Ingredients, whose business is in pioneering new processes. Four years ago, he began creating smoke without fire in the UK with a liquid smoke system developed by US-based Red Arrow. But while Unique became the largest distributor worldwide for the company's technology, progress here has been frustratingly slow.
"There are three components you want from smoking: flavour, colour and acidity," says Gott. "What creates bad publicity is the carcinogens, which are in all traditionally smoked products to a greater or lesser degree, particularly benzeno(a)pyrene, which is one of a group of compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs for short. The most extreme case would be highly smoked kippers, which contain around 30 parts per billion (ppb). Liquid smoke concentrate, on the other hand, has just 10ppb and we have to ensure that it is used in such a way that the smoked products themselves contain just 0.03ppb."
Originally developed by a Wisconsin scientist struggling to get consistency into the malting process, liquid smoke uses a non-flammable convector, such as sand, to heat sawdust to smouldering point before condensing the smoke in water and atomising it to form a cloud in the food chamber. There, the air is circulated with the dampers closed until both cold smoked products and those which require further cooking have been infused with the required strength of flavour but remain free from any potentially dangerous residues.
"Carcinogens are found in tars, creosotes and resins in wood smoke," explains Gott. "The beauty about these fractions is that they are soluble in water and can be filtered out."
Widely used in Scandinavia where food producers are subjected to tough environmental pressures, liquid smoke is also reported to be up to 77 times cleaner than traditional smoking. "In France, where they smoke 154,000t of products every year, they calculated that from the 3,000t of sawdust required, 1,400t of pollutants were released into the atmosphere. With liquid smoke, only 18t are released," says Gott.
But while the idea of liquid smoke hasn't exactly set British food manufacturing alight, Gott still has a glimmer of hope. He believes the threat of penalty carbon taxes will persuade some manufacturers to switch, while others may be convinced by lower operational costs -- including substantially lower exposure to fire risk -- which nevertheless achieve the same degree of quality. "Manufacturers are finding it very hard to make money from assembling raw materials. They can make a better profit by maximising the process technology," he says.
Fat replacement
Cereal ingredients firm Ulrich & Short would agree. A worldwide shortage of back fat, essential for most added-value meat processing, combined with intense government pressure to reduce fat in convenience products, opened the market for the company's starch-based fat replacement, Deliquess C, last year. Yet to make its debut at any of the major food exhibitions, Deliquess has already attracted interest from meat processors.
"Back fat is high in demand and low in supply because pigs are being bred leaner and kill has been down," says Adrian Short. "There is also huge demand for fat from the new European Union countries, particularly Hungary and Poland. In Europe they put a higher value on fat than we might and supplier companies will sell it to the highest bidder."
Manufactured in three particle sizes -- fine, medium and coarse -- Short claims products using the tapioca-based substitute have the same mouthfeel and succulence as those using meat fat, but a tenth of the calories.
"In a product which has 10kg of fat in the mix, you simply take out 5kg and replace with 5kg of hydrated mix. You shouldn't see any difference in the product and in burgers and meatballs we have increased the yield by reducing the cooking loss and maintaining the shape better. The other benefit is that it's much cheaper than fat."
Ironically, it is precisely because British pork meat is bred leaner than ever that both the Meat and Livestock Commission and farmer-owned Anglia Quality Meats (AQM) are predicting a new wave of interest in pork-based products. Bernard Matthews, which has just released frozen pork Sunbeams with sweet and sour sauce for caterers of children's food, may be just the first of many manufacturers to latch on to the meat's new healthy credentials. The British Pig Executive's (BPEX) 96% fat-free campaign, launched last year and due to run throughout 2005, will see £1m spent on setting pork apart from other red meats and £2.5m on promoting its healthy image.
According to BPEX's Chris Lukehurst, pork has been relatively poorly represented on the prepared foods counter, but that might be about to change. Chicken, for so long the undisputed king of convenience, doesn't have a lot left to crow about, he says.
"Consumers will tell you how bored they are with chicken, and yet when manufacturers do produce pork products quite often they don't perform as well. It is a conundrum, but I think if processors concentrate on recipes that bring out the best of the product -- by pairing it with fruit or sweet, sharp flavours -- it will do very well."
At AQM, which is working with both processors and farmers to produce pork for new markets, efforts will be concentrated this year on developing processes as much as recipes, concentrating on using meat from a dedicated gilt (a female pig that has not produced piglets) supply chain.
"There is a higher demand for gilt-only carcases from processors," explains Daniel Day, business manager. "There tends to be a better distribution of fat throughout the carcase and they tend to be more succulent." AQM is looking to develop a 'Gilt Edged' brand for pigs reared for processors through the scheme, which is sponsored by BPEX, and updates will be posted on the Grampian Foods website.
Meanwhile, food ingredients supplier TMI is already using pork to tap into the lucrative convenience market. Producer of cooked bacon for sandwich, pizza and ready meal manufacturers, TMI saw an opportunity to break into the retail market a few years ago with pre-cooked bacon for re-heating.
"It was not part of our business at all and now 30% of what we produce is in retail pack form," says md David Abbott. "In the States, 70% of bacon is bought pre-cooked -- here, it's 2%, so there's massive opportunity."
While the majority goes into lunchboxes in the form of bacon sandwiches, TMI's new crispy streaky sachet bacon is going down a storm with culinary challenged consumers.
"From a retail point of view, people have less time and have lost cooking skills," says Abbott. But manufacturers and fast food outlets are cutting corners, too. Fully pre-cooked sausages and pre-cooked bacon for a well-known big-eat burger are just two new product developments this year, while year-round bacon-based party nibbles, including bacon-wrapped goats cheese and devils on horseback, will join the company's Cornhill brand pigs in blankets in the luxury food section.
According to industry think tank IGD, consumption and lifestyle trends all point to more premium products and ever more convenience in the meat sector. How well manufacturers respond to that challenge will depend as much on their willingness to accept new processes and ingredients as in the creativity of their in-house chefs. FM
Duck migrates from the chinese restaurant to more mainstream outlets
Bored with chicken, consumers are being tempted by its equally versatile cousin -- duck -- as chefs create new convenient recipe dishes for both the catering and retail sectors.
"Duck is now found regularly alongside chicken in the chiller and freezer cabinets as it becomes a tasty meat option for the week and not just a speciality dish for the weekends," says Dale Cole, European market development director for duck products supplier Bangkok Ranch. One of the largest producers of Peking ducklings, Bangkok Ranch is launching its first range of authentic Dalee-branded duck dishes targeted at the 'quick meal' sector.
Dalee is a brand of duckling products from Thailand now being rolled out in Europe. Some 10m ducklings are produced every year on the company's own farms in the countryside around the Thai capital.
The range, which is frozen and packaged for both retail and catering use, includes Crispy aromatic Peking half duckling with hoi sin sauce, Whole Peking roast duckling as well as Thai red curry duck, Chinese duck roll with vegetables and teriyaki sauce, and Cooked aromatic duck legs in orange, plum or sweet chilli.
Duck is also on the menu at Emile Tissot which has added Duck in orange and cranberry to its Chef's Selection range of quality pouch packs. Caterers can just heat and snip the pouch and arrange on the plate.
Made using ducks reared at the family farm, Silver Hill Food's new premium convenience duckling products are aimed at both caterers and retail. Among its new retail offerings are Chinese roast half duckling with pancakes and hoi sin sauce; Whole roast duckling; Crispy, boneless Chinese roast half duckling and Honey roast half duckling.
All the products are ready cooked and so simply need to be reheated before serving.
For the catering sector, the company has also produced an easy-to-use boneless Chinese roast half duckling with oriental spices and star anise. The company says this is ideal as a light meal centre served with stir-fry vegetables. Alternatively it can be used in aromatic duck salad or served in a wrap. It is supplied deep frozen, in easy-to-slice portions.
A range of halal products are also available from Silver Hill.