Convenient, healthful, indulgent, great-tasting foods that also possess unique elements are key trends. G.C. Hahn & Company, a 158-year-old international supplier of customized stabilizers and emulsifiers, including hydrocolloids, proteins and lipid-based ingredients, offers many new food concepts possessing these characteristics.

“We are somewhat of a 'hidden' trend scout,” says Elke Lindau, manager of advertising and promotion, HAHN Group. “We are well known for analyzing trends and industrial technologies. Then, using our expertise and international experience, we define new product innovations and their chance for marketplace success.” An example of this is the development of whey and cream cheese-based beverages that can be formulated to have either a sweet, fruity or savory taste profile. The products not only perfectly match worldwide trends, but provide for desirable gross margin aspects and production efficiency, says Lindau.

A lemon/ginger flavored version has a base recipe of some 50% to 60% whey, 15% cream cheese or, alternatively, 10% cream, 7% to 25% fruit components and 2.5% inulin. For a savory version, vegetable juice can replace the fruit portion so G.C. Hahn incorporated tomato juice at the 25% level. Tomato juice is an international favorite. The company believes its popularity has been driven, in part, by global airline travel where it is commonly available.

For both formulation variations, G.C. Hahn developers suggest stabilization with HAMULSION® BTMMU, which helps provide a creamy mouthfeel and prevents product separation. Both the lemon/ginger and tomato prototypes were processed using standard pasteurization beverage technology.

G.C. Hahn also has worked with new, refrigerated, whey-based dessert concepts where the product can be consumed as a convenient snack, much like yogurt. These products can be created to have textures such as creamy, jelled, set-type and whipped. For another point of interest, these textures can be combined either in layers or swirls. Additionally, variations with new product characteristics can be developed using fruit preparations, other milk products or by altering the percent of whey anywhere from 15%-70%. In one whey-based dessert, the formula consists of 70% whey and 12% cream for a final fat content of 2% to 4%. A hot-filled version of this product had an eight-week shelflife.

In two other intriguing examples, the company created a Panna Cotta dessert consisting of 0% fat, 35% whey and 15% mango pulp layer topped by a 10.5% fat “cream” layer. It also developed a Whey Cream Dessert with an aerated "quarg" heart and apple/sea-buckthorn fruit. The product is 4% fat and possesses a fluffy mouthfeel due to a 40% overrun.

G.C. Hahn's trend-focused product development and technology expertise, customized stabilizer systems and optimized manufacturing technologies mean near turn-key capabilities can be provided to food companies.

For more information:
G.C. Hahn & Co. USA Inc., Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
hahnusa@gchahn.com • www.gchahn.com