Led by Dr Mike North, the team at Taranaki Bio Extracts enjoy applying their knowledge to develop ingredient solutions for customers.
“I’ve worked as a Research Scientist for large government-funded and commercial projects, delivering substantial R&D outcomes – using my experience and expertise to support customers to get to that next level is key,” says Dr Mike North, Site Manager
Whether your product requires flavour, mouthfeel, or nutritional components, TBE can work with you at any level:
- Making an ingredient at scale to your own recipe
- Helping you develop a custom recipe
- Refining your product requirements so you can move from test kitchen to full scale.
Whatever the ultimate goal, their customisation is a fine-tuned process;
STEP 1: Selecting the right ingredients is the important first step.
STEP 2: All ingredients go into the pressure cookers to be cooked in water – careful thought goes into this part of the process. The Maillard reaction is really important to creating flavour. This is the process where the sugars react with the proteins – it’s a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars to create melanoidins, the compounds which give browned food its distinctive flavour. There’s no sugar in meat so using fresh vegetables in the recipe is a simple and natural way to provide sugars for the flavour reaction to occur.
The temperature and time is another key factor in the customisation process at TBE. Temperature and time impacts the amount of protein extracted from the raw materials and how much the protein is broken down into small amino acids. Smaller units are more readily absorbed by the human gut but longer chains of amino acids create a stickier mouthfeel. So it’s all about tailoring to the end use of the product.
STEP 3: Achieving optimum results – Once Taranaki Bio Extracts have achieved a product they’re happy with it’s about replicating the same process to achieve consistent results.
“We do taste samples at each stage in the process and a final taste on the finished product, along with measures to check on the solids content in the product,” says Dr Mike North.
STEP 4: A separator separates the fat in the broth, and the broth is then concentrated.
“We use a vacuum evaporator which lowers the boiling point so we can boil the water off at 70°C. This helps to eliminate any burn-on effects or further flavour changes from occurring,” says Mike.
STEP 5: Following the fat separation and the concentration, the product goes into what’s called the blend tank. This is where TBE brings the product to the exact specification that the customer wants. For example, at this point they can reincorporate the fat that’s been separated off, homogenising it into the broth. The fat contributes flavour. If a customer wants a shelf-stable product, salt is added at this point. Then a final blend check is completed to ensure all aspects are correct.
“Our own in-house testing is done on each batch, followed by a certified lab test with the results presented on the COA (certificate of analysis). With every specification we have, there’s a range and we’re usually running over 99% of our products in spec first time,” says Mike.
While beef ingredients are their speciality, multi-species are available on request – no pork or alcohol as TBE is Halal certified.
To learn more about how Taranaki Bio Extracts can support you to the next level with your product Contact – Taranaki Bio Extracts
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