Earlee Products has built a strong reputation around its clean label solutions, including moisture infusion marinate premixes, which help drive down the cost of protein to both the manufacturer and the consumer whilst providing a finished product with optimum eating quality.
Earlee Products has specialised in this space for more than three decades and in that time had identified markets which benefit the most from its solutions.
The current market environment has helped drive the popularity of the company’s moisture infusion marinate premixes, which present a host of benefits across the production process and at the point of sale.
Brett McMullen, group general manager at Earlee Products, said the company’s moisture infusion marinate premixes were perfectly suited to
current trends across the food and beverage industry.
“The price of protein is going through the roof so every step you can make to reduce that cost by increasing the yield is a benefit to the consumer and the manufacturers,” he said.
“Using ingredients including fibres, starches, fruit and vegetable extracts and proteins they deliver quality for the consumers, even if it’s a cheaper product to produce, it can still be nutritious, eat well and have consistent quality.”
Lea Reid, Research and Development manager at Earlee Products, said the company’s decades of experience in the sector had refined its development of moisture infusion marinate premixes.
“We have products we have been making for many years which suits a pre-existing market, but we have a newer range which is clean label and that is where the trends are heading,” she said.
“There is industry and consumer demand for clean label with less numbers on labels.
“Moisture infusion marinate premixes have been around for many years and suit the market because the benefits are that they improve the moisture retention, enhance the flavour and are part of a system where the functional ingredients work together to create an improved yield for
the manufacturer.”
This results in more succulent meat for the consumer and better value for
the manufacturer.
“In a manufacturing environment, yield increases mean cost decreases which can turn a once unaffordable product into something within the reach of all consumers whilst maintaining a good eating quality” he said.
“There’s two kind of products, there’s ones where raw meat is injected and the product is sold raw to the customer and an example of that would be moisture enhanced pork or raw silverside beef.
“And then there’s the range where the meat is already cooked, anything from a classic ham and delicatessen meats right through to some of the new pre-cooked meats that are prepared for things like ready meals.”
The growth of the ready meals sector has also helped play a part in the recent growth of injection premixes in the market, along with the growing costs associated with manufacturing
meat products.
“It’s also a way of introducing flavours into the product,”
“You can marinate the meat which helps add flavour into the product in a way that appears natural. It makes it more consistent, so you tend not to get big variations, which evens things out across the product line.”
There are two main ways the moisture infusion marinate premixes are applied to proteins.
“There’s injection, or they mix it with water and tumble it into the meat, so the water is absorbed into the meat.”
In terms of applying the solution to existing production lines, McMullen said the process was an easy one to learn and implement.
“It all depends on what equipment the manufacturer has. If they have an injector, they can use injection otherwise they can use a tumbler,”
“In its simplest forms it can be a straight soak, if you are using thin strips or diced meat you can even soak it in the brine overnight.”
This can be achieved with relative ease, and still result in an economical product, without capital investment.
“The manufacturer can use their existing equipment and achieve the desired results,”
“Part of the service we offer is helping our customers achieve their goals and we achieve this through training and assistance in how to get the best outcome for their business,” said Reid.
“We don’t just sell a standard range of products; we tailor make it to suit our customers’ needs.”
On top of this is the second process Reid spoke about, which is around clean label E-free.
The demand for clean label has grown substantially over recent years on the back of changing consumer demands. Many consumers are now seeking out ingredient listings before making purchasing choices.
“It’s either an injection, tumble, or a simple soak and we have developed clean label alternatives for all of them that still improves yield, reduces cost and improves profits.
“And the benefit to the producer is its clean label and can be marketed to the consumer as such.”
There is also the capacity to pair this solution up with others that are offered by Earlee Products to increase the benefits even more, such as Flav®Fresh.
“Not only do you inject and get your yield but if you team it up with our Flav®Fresh product you get the extension of the shelf life by controlling microbial growth and mitigating the risk of product failure,” said McMullen.
Earlee Products offers services and solutions which have proven to help curb the negative impacts of consumer demands around clean label products, and the increasing price of
protein production.
And as those consumer demands only continue to increase, it remains advantageous to employ the expertise provided by Earlee Products.