A new ingredient to help ice cream developers in the physical handling process has been designed by scientists in Australia. Researchers at the Food Science Australia laboratory claim to have come up with high fat cream powders which not only taste and feel as good as the original cream, but are easier to handle and have a longer shelf life.
Current fresh cream substitutes such as butteroil, anhydrous milk fat and frozen cream may lack flavour, are less versatile and sometimes require special storage conditions such as refrigeration.
"We set to work to develop a high fat cream powder, which gives premium ice cream the rich, creamy flavour and smooth mouthfeel that is desired by consumers," said Phil Clarke, manager of food processing at Food Science Australia - a joint venture of CSIRO and the Australian Food Industry Science Centre (AFISC).
Clarke claims that the key to producing this high fat cream powder is the processing. Researchers experimented with a wide range of formulations for the cream-based concentrate, varying the processing conditions to produce a range of powders with up to 70 per cent fat content.
Clarke added that the advantage of the new process is that it uses equipment common to modern dairy processing plants and does not require additional equipment.
"One of the features of a lot of the technologies we produce is that there is no need for large capital investments either by the ingredient manufacturer or the end user. The ingredients are used in the traditional way with normal equipment," said Clarke.
The end product containing the powder appears to also meet with the approval of the human palate.
Clarke commented: "Sensory analysis by a team of tasters is an essential step in the commercialisation of any product."
For the project, the high fat cream powders were used to make a range of 16 per cent premium ice creams which were tested at by sensory panellists. The panellists also compared these ice creams with commercial products available from Australian supermarkets.
"The ice cream performed very well with the physical and sensory characteristics of a premium product. The tasters commented that the colour, texture and mouthfeel of the ice cream were comparable to the premium commercial product."
"In some cases, our sensory panellists preferred our ice cream over the commercially available product," boasted Clarke.
In addition, the researchers investigated the overrun levels, melt resistance, colour and the firmness of the ice cream.
The project was funded by the Dairy Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO and has led to a collaboration with dairy ingredients company Tatura Milk Industries to develop and commercialise the powders.
The high fat cream powder can be used in a range of products including dip, baked products, desserts, canned cream products, dry mixes such as soups and as a partial or complete ice cream mix for reconstitution. Tatura Milk is also examining the use of powder in the local confectionary manufacturing markets.