Natural Preservatives

A significant part of the foods we consume like meat, ready meals, dressings, plant-based foods, and more are perishable by nature and intrinsically have a limited shelf-life. Additionally, microorganisms are all around and proliferate rapidly, so at one point they will take over and render these perishable foods inedible. To prolong the shelf-life of foods, protect them and preserve their freshness, we need preservation. Preservation not only prolongs the shelf-life of foods but also ensures food safety, helps maintain foods’ nutritional value and greatly supports food waste reduction.

Blendtek offers a range of natural preservation options that are clean label, protect against various microorganisms and maintain freshness and flavour. The options to consider include cultured sugar, natural vinegar made by fermentation, fermented wheat flour, fermented rice flour, natural basil flavour and other natural flavours.

• Meat - both cooked and uncooked meats need antimicrobials to help control bacterial growth and prevent the proliferation of pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. Changing regulations limit the use of buffered vinegar in products that are labeled as natural. We have a solution labeled as natural flavour that has proven efficacy to maintain and even extend shelf life when converting from conventional buffered vinegar products.
• Prepared Foods - combining various raw materials into a prepared meal like a lasagna or other home meal replacement (HMR) products comes with challenges to maintain health, convenience and food safety. Our natural flavour solutions can help you get there.
• Dips and Dressings - optimize your product distribution and maximize your revenue by extending the shelf life of your products with natural flavour.
• Plant-based Foods - as with meat, protecting plant-based foods from spoilage is critical, and the added scrutiny for clean label options makes natural flavour solutions very appealing.
• Bakery - fermented options to control mold in bakery products are available for both conventional and gluten free applications.

Labeling is a key consideration when evaluating preservation solutions. If you are targeting the clean label consumer, or want to label your finished product as natural, you may not be able to use traditional options such as buffered vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate or calcium propionate. Even within the clean label options, how they are called out on an ingredient declaration may play into the right fit for your product.

Processing and storage conditions are also critical to understand when selecting the appropriate preservation solution. If the product is raw, cooked, refrigerated or frozen makes a significant impact when choosing the best option.

Desired shelf life is important as it impacts the distribution of your finished products, your relationship with customers such as grocery retailers or food service, and ultimately the experience that the end consumer has.

The species of microorganism to be controlled is also critical to identifying the best method of control. Even if you’re not sure, the experts at Blendtek can help you and provide support the you need to ensure the best solution.

Ensuring the safety, quality, and freshness of foods and beverages poses significant challenges with respect to controlling microorganisms. Blendtek offers fermentation-based solutions to achieve the perfect balance between safe and delicious foods, meeting the industry’s requirements on shelf-life and labeling requirements.

Have a read through our 'Clean Label Preservatives' blog post for more tips on looking for clean label ingredient declarations and advantages of clean label preservatives; as well as our 'Growing Movement Toward Plant-Based' post surrounding market growth.

Contact the team at Blendtek today to discuss options for your specific project.