6 replies to this topic

[african food]

Hi all

 

I am hoping some of you clever people might be able to help me. I want to attach a flavour to dried vegetables and I need them to last as long as possible (shelf life). How would you suggest I do this?

[GMO]

Interesting.  You'd want something which doesn't increase water activity so you couldn't add anything water based.  Ideally you want something which would either make the dried ingredient dryer or reduce micro loading or both.  So smoking, spraying with an alcohol or oil based flavour maybe?  Or a wacky idea could be to "deliberately" taint them, e.g. by passing some kind of food safe essential oil aroma over the dried vegetables.  Or have you thought about infusing a flavour before drying?  

[FurFarmandFork]

Shelf life on dried foods is mostly dependent on packaging (moisture and oxygen barriers).

 

If your end of life criteria is texture, then moisture barrier will help extend. If your end of life criteria is oxidation or off flavors, oxygen barriers and/or scavengers will help out.

 

If the coating you're applying is powder based, it should stay flavorful in good barrier packaging (see above), even moreso if it's oil based, then hydrogenated oils will help prevent racidity.

[african food]

Interesting.  You'd want something which doesn't increase water activity so you couldn't add anything water based.  Ideally you want something which would either make the dried ingredient dryer or reduce micro loading or both.  So smoking, spraying with an alcohol or oil based flavour maybe?  Or a wacky idea could be to "deliberately" taint them, e.g. by passing some kind of food safe essential oil aroma over the dried vegetables.  Or have you thought about infusing a flavour before drying?  

I'm thinking of an oil based flavour. But worried about rancidity....

[african food]

If your end of life criteria is texture, then moisture barrier will help extend. If your end of life criteria is oxidation or off flavors, oxygen barriers and/or scavengers will help out.

 

If the coating you're applying is powder based, it should stay flavorful in good barrier packaging (see above), even moreso if it's oil based, then hydrogenated oils will help prevent racidity.

Thank you. Three questions - what is a scavenger? And what do you mean by hydrogenated oil - should my flavour be hydrogenated? And what is, in your opinion, a good barrier packaging?

[african food]

Also, what would a typical shelf life be for this type of product?

[FurFarmandFork]

Depends on the characteristics of your product and your criteria for shelf life. Sorry, there isn't a simple answer there. If you really want to see what's out there, buy some products off the shelf and see what they list as best by. My recommendation that no one ever likes, don't sell the product until you have actually run several production runs to the end of your labeled shelf life and evaluated a ton of product for problems.

 

Hydrogenated oils resist oxidation, but they aren't consumer friendly. Saturated fats are your friend if you can. High oleic oils are also better to resist rancidity.

 

As far as designing your packaging, talk to a supplier, the world of packaging is huge, they'll recommend something. You get what you pay for there.

 

Scavengers are things like oxygen and moisture absorber packets that are packaged with the food to help extend shelf life.