The United States throws out more food than any other country in the world. Supermarkets in the U.S throw out nearly 30% of the food from their shelves every year due to spoilage or expiry which equates to 16 billion pounds. That’s extremely wasteful and a massive lost opportunity.
With 50 million Americans going through food insecurities, imagine what all that food and money could do! Let’s look at some of the most common perishable foods.
Most Common Perishable Foods
Apart from fresh vegetables and fruits, products containing milk, cheese, cream, eggs, and other dairy products make up a large amount of the perishable items found in the dumpsters.
Whether in baked goods, dressings, snacks, refrigerator dips, sausages, frozen entrees, or even soups the usage of perishable ingredients can shorten a product’s shelf life. This makes the restaurants and leading stores think twice about offering them to their customers.
Many food manufacturers find it challenging to address the customer demands for nutrition with safe ingredients without compromising mouthfeel and signature flavors.
Solutions That Do Not Meet Customer Demands
To understand this better, let us give an example of a baked good with dairy cream filling without preservatives. The dairy cream filling will only last about 3–4 days in the refrigerator if you do not add any preservatives. When you use preservatives and chemicals you can extend its shelf life anywhere from 13-15 days and sometimes even longer.
But consumers are stepping away from artificial additives and some of the ingredients they can’t pronounce.
Formulating applications with cream, eggs, and other traditional dairy products also can be challenging in the freezer section. Many ingredients cannot withstand the freeze-thaw cycle, which results in drastic viscosity loss, poor texture, and off-flavors.
Natural Alternatives To Traditional Ingredients
Every food manufacturer perceives that healthy nutrition and clean labels are at the top of beverages and the latest food trends and those manufacturers who relied upon artificial flavors to maximize the product’s shelf life are looking for ways to reformulate to better practices.
Replacing the fresh dairy products with alternative ingredients which are both natural and shelf stable for a longer period of time can help in extending the freshness of the ingredients in a product.
Are you manufacturing products to reduce such pain points? If you are planning to keep your products all natural while improving their sell-by dates, then several forms of whey protein are a viable solution.
You can include long shelf life dairy products such as whey protein concentrate to replace and reduce the need for perishable and expensive ingredients such as milk products, butter, cream, cheese, and require that require no refrigeration and are freeze-thaw stable.
Whey food’s versatility and functionality are superior to that of other commodities. You can use whey protein in multiple applications to reduce fat and calorie count while cleaning up labels.
Use Excesa to locate the perfect food ingredients for your company’s needs. We can help you be versatile as you work to adjust to changing markets.