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The Better way to season Packaged cheeses

Adding spices and bold flavors to packaged cheeses has become a convenient way for processors to liven up classic products without necessarily inventing a whole new recipe or process. These bold new food products increasingly appeal to consumers too, who are demanding increased and unique flavor boosts in the foods they buy.

One of the ways processors are meeting this new demand is through seasoning transfer technologies which use product packaging to conveniently deliver seasonings and spices to products without mess and without need for labor-intensive or wasteful application procedures.

For example, Flavorseal’s patented seasoning transfer technology allows processors to apply virtually any seasoning blends they choose to meats as well as cheeses by using film sheets and casings to transfer those custom-applied seasonings to the surface of the product.

The technology has been around for a just a few years, and over that time, it has not only evolved and improved, but also has attracted plenty of interest from cheese and meat processors alike and their customers.

The technology works by using the packaging to apply spice blends to the exterior of cheese products, giving manufacturers a new way to kick up the flavor of their products, without making changes to the recipe or to their basic process.

Examples of the resulting products include sriracha- and habanero-spiced deli cheeses that stand out on store shelves as bold and spicy versions of popular sandwich staples like mozzarella and swiss.

Flavorseal’s Director of Research and Development Jim Smith says the company’s seasoning transfer technology for cheese, which works just like company’s seasoning transfer products for meats, opens the door to many new flavor options for cheese manufacturers and has the potential to save them money while also boosting demand for their products.

Just as important is that the seasoning transfer technology outperforms manual application methods and tumbling processes in terms of mess, waste and consistency, Smith says.

And recent enhancements in the product and the spice blends it accommodates have made seasoning transfer just as effective for cheeses as it has been with meats. Today, the process accommodates almost any flavors and spice blends the processor can dream of. So even seasoning mixes or blends considered hard to work with, such as sugars or spices with inconsistent particle sizes, can be incorporated with Flavorseal’s seasoning transfer technology, Smith says.

It’s made possible by the company’s collaborative partnerships with spice blending specialists and master blenders who fine-tune each seasoning blend to make the seasoning transfer process efficient, effective and consistent.

“Our spice blenders know exactly how to develop these seasonings so they will work in our process to manufacture seasoning transfer products, and also so they will work for the customer in terms of application and flavor,” Smith explains.

Other technology improvements to the seasoning transfer process have allowed for more effective and flavorful spice transfer even to products with low moisture contents. By the time the product is shipped, received and unwrapped at the deli counter, all of the seasonings have effectively been transferred from the packaging to the surface of the cheese, Smith points out.

Besides boosting the flavor value, Smith adds, processors who replace their existing spice application methods with seasoning transfer typically experience savings in terms of lower processing costs, reduced spice waste, reduced application time and reduced cleanup. They also produce more consistently seasoned products, Smith says.

“If the manufacturer was rolling the product in tumblers or rolling them by hand, or even sprinkling it on the product,” Smith points out, “those who adopt seasoning transfer technology generally find that the spice application becomes more consistent, the flavor factor goes up, and the cleanup is drastically reduced.”

He says not only is the switch easy to make, but typically results in considerable time and cost savings for food processors.

 

For details on how innovations like Flavorseal’s seasoning transfer technologies can reduce processing costs and address rising customer demands, request our free guide:

EIGHT BEST STEPS TO BOOST FOOD PROCESSING EFFICIENCY

 

LEARN HOW FOOD NETTING CAN TRANSFORM YOUR PRODUCTS

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