3 replies to this topic

[GlebBalandin]

Good day, everyone!

I would very much appreciate your suggestions on the following issue.

I've just started working in a trading company specialized in eastern foodstuff. Currently, we have a problem with our teriyaki sauce manufacturer: latest lots of their product demonstrate significantly lower organoleptic characteristics compared to normal lots.

Their teriyaki sauce contents:
Soy sauce concentrates 40 %
Mirin (shin-mirin, <1% alcohol) 35 %
Sugar+corn starch 10 %
Balsamic vinegar 4 %
Caramel colour < 1 %
Sodium benzoate < 1 %
Water 17 %
--------------
Total 100% (due to water evaporation during heating)

Based on our tasting we suspect the manufacturer has decreased the Soy sauce and Mirin (wich basically contains alcohol, sugar, and vinegar) concentration while increasing Balsamic vinegar and sugar concentration.

Therefore, I need to develop a fast and simple method to determine if a sample is prepared according to the original recipe.

I believe, there are two solutions:

1) Send the raw material soy concentrate and manufactured teriyaki sauce samples to a lab and run a chromatography analysis on amino acids. According to Onaga we would be able to determine the soy sauce content based on a/a concentration.
The downside of this method is that we don't have our own lab so it's going to be very costly.

2) Another idea is to examine the content of starch (run full acid hydrolysis and then define the glucose content using a refractometer) and vinegar (simple titration). The downside is that we can't check the mirin content that way. However, it's easy to get all the equipment needed for the tests and we can execute them anytime we want.

To sum up, I'm really looking forward to reading your suggestions. Also, please, correct me if I the conclusions are somehow wrong.
English is not my native language and I apologize for mistakesif any.

[Vladimir Surcinski]

First you will need good contract with the producing company and specification of the product. In contract you could specify that product must be always as defined by specifications and that producer must confirm this. In case that product is not like the specification (you will check this with the laboratory but unannounced and not for each batch) you will put the expanses for product recall and return on producer. Additionally you can include in contract some penalties for producer if this happens often. 

 

I hope i helped  

 

Наздравље пријатељу :)  

[MWidra]

A quick way may be to check the pH.  Vinegar has a lower pH than soy sauce, at least that's what I've seen.  If the pH is lower in your most recent batch than previous batches, then you could follow up with some outside testing.  By checking all batches that arrive, you may cut down on the number of outside tests that need to be done.

 

If you add a pH to your spec, a dishonest supplier would just adjust the pH and still add more vinegar. 

 

That's my thoughts.

 

Martha

[GlebBalandin]

Thank you so much for your replies. pH checking seems a good idea as a first step testing.

I wonder if there is a standard recognized method for soy sauce examination?

 

Also, very pleased to hear a word from a Serbian specialist. I've been to Belgrade once on a beer-brewing facilities trip. Really enjoyed your way of running a production.