A new Salt of the Earth ingredient for Fi Europe hamburgers and processed meat has been launched to significantly reduce the amount of salt and MSG.
Derived from tomato, shiitake mushroom and kombu seaweed, Umamix aims to enhance flavour while reducing sodium in processed meat applications by up to 45 per cent.
Salt is widely used in meat processing as a flavour enhancer as well as a functional ingredient. Hamburgers or meatballs typically contain 1.2-2 per cent salt.
Marketing Manager for Salt of the Earth, Revital Ben Shachar said Umamix had the potential to help decrease sodium by 45 per cent in hamburgers and meatballs without affecting the taste of the final product.
“Our sodium reduction ingredient is designed to address these needs and keep the consumer-craved salty, savoury flavour. This highly cost-effective ingredient thus allows processors to meet all consumer demand targets,” Shachar said.
Creating sustainable solutions involving sea salt has been a challenge for the global food industry since 1922.
The National Health and Medical Research Council has set an ‘Adequate Intake’ of 20–40 mmol (460–920 mg) of sodium per day. This corresponds to 1.15–2.3 grams of salt.
Most Australian adults have a daily salt intake of about 10 grams, i.e. many times the maximum value of the Adequate Intake range.
A ‘Suggested Dietary Target’ of 1600 mg of sodium (equivalent to about 4 grams of salt) has been set for Australian adults. This is about half the average Australian adult’s current salt intake.
Marketing sodium-reduction solutions made from Red Sea salts, Salt of the Earth controls and tracks salt resources in order to promote balanced salt consumption through sodium reduction solutions.