Fat opportunities in the market for infused oils

A Lancashire-based company is in the embryonic stages of developing the very first infused hard fats - a move that would enable bakers to develop unusual new premium products.

Springthyme Oils currently makes infused oils - intensely flavoured olive and sunflower oils that have been steeped with fresh herbs, chillis and other ingredients, which have been heated rapidly for maximum flavour release and then filtered.

These have gradually replaced dried herbs and flavoured oils in many soups, dressings and other foods owing to their intense flavour and clean-label status.

However, baked goods, such as pizza bases, pastries, flans, pies and other products had not been able to benefit from these products as they typically used hard fats, said Springthyme director Ken Williams. "We've created semi-solid infused fats on a laboratory scale but we need to explore the market potential before investing in the equipment that we'd need to do this on an industrial scale."

Having access to infused hard fats would enable manufacturers to develop more unusual food products and ingredients, such as chilli-flavoured pastry for use in sausage rolls, or garlic-flavoured pizza bases, he said.

"If you just add garlic to dough, it doesn't retain its flavour. But with infused fats, you've got more heat stability which allows you to retain more flavour."

One of several challenges was filtering the spent herbs and chillis from oil that was still hot, he said. "You've got to heat it up to a liquid, infuse it, filter it hot, cool it so it becomes semi solid again and then reduce it into pellets or flakes. That raises several new production and handling issues."