Un-Salting the Salty Snack

By Donna Berry, Contributing Editor

One of the pleasures of salty snacks is the actual taste of salt. In fact, many of us crave salt, which is no surprise, as the human body needs relatively large amounts of sodium, one of the two molecules that make up table salt, also known as sodium chloride.. But many nutrition authorities believe that most Americans consume too much sodium, with excessive consumption recognized as a contributing factor to hypertension, heart disease and perhaps even certain cancers.

So though reduced-sodium salty snacks sounds like another oxymoron in the world of better-for-you food formulating, right up there with low-fat butter and sugar-free candy, the concept is being pursued by most snack-food manufacturers to keep label-reading customers content. After all, earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, issued a report identifying snack foods, such as potato chips, pretzels and popcorn, as one of the Top 10 categories of foods responsible for 44% of consumers' sodium intake.

CDC communicated that if the manufacturers of these foods reduced their sodium content by 25%, they could help prevent an estimated 28,000 deaths per year from sodium-induced high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Since, the manufacturers of the Top 10 have felt pressure to un-salt their offerings, but this is not an easy feat, as salt is often a crucial ingredient in many foods, with roles ranging from influencing safety, quality and integrity, to impacting flavor.

A characterizing ingredient

When it comes to salty snacks, reducing sodium content can be particularly challenging, as saltiness is the focal point of the product. Salt is one of the characterizing ingredients. Its like trying to make a chocolate bar without cocoa or a sugar cookie without granulated sweetness. It can be done, but how well is whats at stake.

Salty snacks are a constant presence in our life. You can grab a bag for an on-the-go snack. They are an easy accompaniment to a sandwich. And at social gatherings, they are a convenient carrier for dips and appetizers," says AnnMarie Kraszewski, food scientist, Wixon, Inc., St. Francis, WI. Their integration into our daily eating patterns makes them almost a necessary target for sodium reduction in order to help Americans reduce sodium intakes.

Further, research shows that more than half of all consumers snack each day, and the frequency of snacking is growing," says Kraszewski. More often than not, that snack they are grabbing is a salty one."

Kraszewski points out that the general range of sodium in snacks is 180 mgs to 210 mgs per serving. Common reduction requests are to get down to 120 mgs, but there have been some companies wanting to go down to as low as 90 mgs per serving," she says. Customers usually have a specific reduction in mind, based on whether or not they want to make a sodium content claim." For example, to be reduced sodium," a serving must have 25% less sodium than the standard. For a low sodium" claim, a serving must contain 140 mgs or less sodium per serving.

Sometimes you are better off not flagging the sodium content on front-of-label packaging," says Marcia Rauwerdink, director, business development, DairiConcepts L.P., Springfield, MO. This is because many consumers immediately associate less sodium with poor taste. If you formulate to keep sodium contents on the lower end, consumers who read the Nutrition Facts will simply be pleasantly surprised to discover that the product does not contain an excessive amount of sodium. They wont think, oh, the sodium has been reduced, so it must not be any good."

Formulators know that sodium performs many functions in snack foods, including taste, performance and even aesthetics. Its no wonder why consumers would immediately associate a reduction with decreased acceptability.

Sodium provides flavor enhancement, mouthfeel sensation and development of the overall flavor profile in snack foods," says Kraszewski. It can help facilitate which flavors are tasted first. For instance, a more-granular salt will allow flavors to develop slowly in your mouth. But if a finer granulation is used, those flavors will hit quicker and more upfront. Reducing sodium therefore requires that other flavor components be stronger."

Indeed, sodium is important in snack items, both for function and flavor, explains Joe Leslie, national industrial sales and marketing manager, Midwest sales, Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc., Oak Brook Terrace, IL. Efforts to replace or eliminate sodium will alter the texture, taste and flavor balance. There is no easy, single ingredient solution to sodium reduction in snack foods, so new approaches are needed. Fortunately, developers are quickly learning how to use, combine and optimize ingredients."

Karen Grenus, senior food scientist, Edlong Dairy Flavors, Elk Grove Village, IL, agrees that salty snacks are a great category of foods to work on reducing sodium in the overall food supply. What helps is that. in many such snacks, most of the salt is on the surface," she says. What is being delivered is really an initial salt hit as opposed to the saltiness being carried through the whole eating experience.

In developing a strategy to replace sodium in snacks, the most important factor is delivering a high, characteristic initial impact while leaving the consumer wanting more," Grenus says. 

Up-front flavor

There are numerous approaches to delivering that initial salty impact with less sodium, with the most common involving the substitution of potassium chloride for some of the sodium chloride. The drawback, however, is that even though potassium chloride possesses some of the salty" characteristics of sodium chloride, it also can impart metallic or bitter off-notes.

We patented a technology that minimizes the metallic notes of potassium chloride to provide a similar taste perception to that of sodium chloride," says Sam Rao, vice president and chief innovator, Nu-Tek Food Science, Minnetonka, MN. Weve trialed this technology in various products, including snack products, and have found it works particularly well for surface application, but it can also be used in the matrix of the snack."

The technology is based on altering the crystal structure of potassium chloride to give it more surface area in order to enhance salty intensity, but at the same time this alteration also reduces the metallic and bitter aspects of potassium chloride," continues Rao. In the snack category, our sodium-reduction technology allows for one-to-one replacement for sodium chloride and can facilitate up to a 50% reduction in sodium content."

Another approach to manipulating that upfront flavor is applying different granulations of salt. The finer the particle of salt used, the more salty a product can appear upfront," says Kraszewski. Using combinations of different granulation sizes can give the perception that a snack is salty, when in fact it is reduced."

Working in umami

Sometimes, when formulating with potassium chloride, it is helpful to use umami-type flavor enhancers to enhance the overall flavor profile of the snack,  as salty snacks tend to be savory and not sweet, and umami-type flavor enhancers complement savory flavor profiles. Further, reducing sodium can reduce the overall mouthfeel sensation of the snack," says Kraszewski. Using umami enhancers helps to boost everything in a profile and give the consumer the feeling that what they are eating has more flavor and is therefore more satisfying."

Leslie adds, Umami enhancers boost the underlying flavor and deliciousness of snacks, without adding flavor of their own. They are surprisingly effective at increasing salty perception, and have the added benefit of masking the off-flavors of other sodium replacers, which are often part of the sodium-replacement matrix.

Approaching sodium reduction by the use of added umami allows snack-food manufacturers to maintain and even increase the flavor intensity and flavor pleasantness of the salty snack while keeping sodium content significantly lower than the original formulation," Leslie adds. We can typically reduce sodium 30% to 50%, while maintaining equal flavor preference to the full-salt version of the food.

We have a new line of natural flavor enhancers produced through our proprietary fermentation technology. They are a great source of umami-rich amino acids," says Leslie. They are neutral in color and flavor and work well in combination with salt replacers, helping to mask any off-flavor notes. They are labeled as soy sauce or natural flavor enhancerwith the ingredients for each identified in parentheseson ingredient statements and are typically part of the topically applied seasoning."

DairiConcepts uses a fermentation technology that transforms whole milk into an umami-type flavor enhancer.

This powdered ingredient can lower sodium contents by 25% to 50% in salty snacks, as it boosts salt perception, savory nuances and umami effects," says Rauwerdink. The flavorful ingredient uses either maltodextrin or nonfat dry milk as a carrier and does not contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), hydrolyzed vegetable protein or yeast extract, which appeals to many label-reading consumers."

According to Rawerdink, sensory evaluation panelists have described snack foods made with the ingredient as tasting more wholesome and balanced than those made with yeast extracts and yielding a more rounded flavor than traditional all-salt formulations. Levels as low as 0.5% have been used to reduce sodium and remove MSG from a number of types of snack foods. Although rich in potassium, it does not contain potassium chloride, which can contribute metallic flavor notes."

Yeast extracts are another option for that umami effect. Yeast extracts, while high in sodium, can also be beneficial when used in smaller quantities," says Kraszewski. They will deliver a background and fullness to a flavor profile. Including other sensations, such as heat, acid, sweetness, as well as the use of strong herbs or spices, can lead the consumer away from a sodium reduction focus to a flavor focus."

A multi-ingredient approach

Often, it takes multiple ingredients to lower sodium contents and best simulate the taste and flavor of an all-salt salty snack. In salty snacks that have a cheesy profile, the most common flavor in the category, this systems approach may include the use of various dairy ingredients.

Saltiness is inherent in cheese," says Grenus. To maintain the integrity of the cheese profile, the product developer needs to consider flavors, acids and enhancers."

Indeed, one of the profiles that has the most challenges in sodium reduction is cheese, according to Kraszewski. We like our salty, cheesy-based snacks, and reducing sodium requires more creativity in the raw materials that are used." She recommends trying to mimic  the mouthwatering sensation of salty cheese by using whey permeate coupled with acids, such as citric and lactic.

Grenus says: Acids  deliver impact while supporting the other flavors in the seasoning. For example, citric acid adds sharpness to cheddar flavor. And, the sour notes of lactic acid enhance the taste of dairy ingredients, such as cheese, sour cream and yogurt."

Flavor ingredients can help provide initial flavor impact in low-sodium formulations. "Weve had a lot of success using cheese flavors to improve the liking of sodium-reduced crackers and chips," Grenus says. "Flavors add back craveability to a low-sodium product and add nuances of a salty ingredient, such as Parmesan, without adding sodium itself. In milder applications, we have had success using cream flavor to boost the overall profile.

Another ingredient that contributes dairy flavors, in particular cheesy notes, is enzyme-modified cheese (EMC). EMC is basically cheese curd that has been treated with enzymes to produce a concentrated cheese flavor ingredient. Its production typically involves blending freshly made cheese curdsometimes with other ingredients, such as other sources of fat and proteinwith water and emulsifying salts to form a paste. This paste is then pasteurized to inactivate inherent microorganisms and enzymes. Then a blend of specific enzymes is added, including  proteinases, peptidases and lipases, sometimes with some starter organisms. This paste gets incubated for a few days, followed by a final heat treatment to prevent additional breakdown by the enzymes and cultures. EMCs vary in cheese-flavor strength, with most in the range of 15 to 30 times the flavor intensity of the original natural cheese curd. Even though EMCs do not contain sodium, their use level is so much lower than the comparable bulk cheese ingredient that they can help lower total sodium.

For most snack foods, sodium contribution from leavening agents is a minor issue, but still should be considered in the ingredient mix, especially in baked snacks. Some baked potato chip applications use leavening, which is typically in the form of a sodium-based baking powder containing sodium acid pyrophosphate," says John Brodie, senior technical service representative, baking, Innophos, Cranbury, NJ. We offer a patented, slow-acting, calcium-based leavening agenta chemical mixture of calcium acid pyrophosphate and monocalcium phosphatealternative that functions as a direct replacement. It has been successfully formulated into several baked potato chip and leavened snack products to reduce the overall sodium content."

Like so many oxymoron foods in todays market, it takes a combination of ingredients to make the unbelievable come to fruition. With the right mix, it is possible to un-salt the salty snack.

Donna Berry, president of Chicago-based Dairy & Food Communications, Inc., has been writing about product development and marketing for 13 years. She has a B.S. in food science from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She can be reached at [email protected].