Keeping It Creamy

As health-conscious consumers work to limit their fat intake, manufacturers work to formulate tasty low-fat or nonfat foods. Heavy Cream Replacer (HCR) from Edlong Dairy Flavors can reduce or replace heavy cream in a variety of applications. “We wanted to create a concentrated flavor that captured the dairy sensation and minimized variations in flavor profile,” says Anand Rao, Ph.D., director of technical sales. “But formulators had problems using small amounts of the concentrated flavor to replace large amounts of heavy cream in their formulas, so we moved from a concentrated flavor to a flavor system.” Typical use rates for heavy cream range from 1% to 50%; use rates for concentrated heavy cream flavor range from 0.05% to 1.50%.

Reconstituted at 30 parts powder to 70 parts water, HCR serves as a 1:1 complete replacement solution of liquid dairy heavy cream. It can also act as a partial substitution to enhance the impact of other lower-fat dairy solids. “Multiple dilutions offer multiple uses,” Rao says. “At 20 parts powder to 80 parts water, HCR reduces total fat content to 10%. At 10:90, it replaces whole milk for 5% fat content.”

According to Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 131, Section 150, heavy cream must contain “not less than 36% milkfat.” By comparison, HCR contains 15% fat. In addition to being lower in fat, HCR’s lower use levels typically result in cost savings.

Edlong has tested HCR in several applications. In one, HCR replaced heavy cream in a cheese sauce. After creating a gold standard that included 20% heavy cream, developers created a formula for cheese sauce using 6% HCR. In a subsequent sensory analysis, tasters rated the cheese profile, creaminess and balance of the two sauces the same, and half of the sensory panel preferred the HCR sauce. The only difference noted was saltiness. “The product with HCR scored significantly lower than the heavy-cream product in salt perception, although salt was not reduced,” Rao says. “We showed HCR works in cheese sauce as a complete replacement of heavy cream. It maintains body and texture; the flavor was heatstable during cooking; and it was freeze/thaw stable during storage.” Further, replacing heavy cream with HCR resulted in a 75% cost savings.

In another case study, HCR replaced liquid buttermilk in ranch dressing. Formulators replaced the gold standard recipe’s 50% buttermilk with 37.5% water, 10.5% HCR and 0.5% buttermilk flavor. In a subsequent sensory analysis, the control buttermilk ranch dressing and that made with HCR were rated the same for dairy profile, buttermilk profile, creaminess and balance. Again, testers deemed the HCR dressing less salty, although it did not contain less salt. “The creaminess reduces the salty taste without negative overall impact,” Rao says, noting in the category of overall preference, 12 out of 18 tasters preferred the dressing made with HCR. “We completely replaced the buttermilk,” he says. “We provided smooth body and mouthfeel. We brought in the dairy impact without dairy ingredients.” In a cost comparison, Rao says the modified HCR formulation represented a 60% savings.

HCR can also be successfully incorporated into the following applications: fruit dipping sauces, ranch dressing, other dressings, cheese sauce puddings and custards, frozen desserts, and seasoning blends.

Edlong Dairy Flavors 
225 Scott Street 
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-1299 
Phone: 847/439-9230 
E-mail: [email protected] 
Website: www.edlong.com