Look at the label on a block of plain cheddar cheese and you’ll typically find a short list of familiar, wholesome ingredients including milk, cheese cultures, salt and enzymes.
Why is it, then, that cheese sauces used in comfort foods like nachos, frozen entrees, macaroni and cheese or other savory dishes contain a litany of unfamiliar, hard-to-pronounce, chemical-sounding ingredients that today’s consumers shy away from?
Creating a functional cheese sauce that’s velvety smooth, tastes great and can be shelf stable is typically a challenge, and many attempts fall short of consumer expectations.
But a new, all-natural ingredient from Grande Custom Ingredients Group is poised to give cheese sauce its rightful place in the clean label club.
Watch our quick video to hear about Grande Gusto®, a new, innovative cheese replacement. Then, read on to learn more.
Video Transcript:
Even though it’s been around for a while, clean label is still a buzzword in consumers’ vocabularies, and I’d say it’s become the staple in the average household’s food purchases. Consumers are spending more time reading labels to see what ingredients are included (and what isn’t).
How often are you asked to clean up labels on your products? Next time you’re formulating a cheesy application, consider using all-natural Gusto reduced lactose whey, a great clean label ingredient. Gusto can help you elevate the savory profile in your formula and improve nutrition.
But what do consumers think? We removed the guesswork for you and ran it through a consumer study of 1,500 people to gauge their perceptions. Gusto was one of the most appealing ingredients they would want to purchase, and they overwhelmingly perceived it as clean label. It ranked much higher than other ingredients typically used in cheesy food formulations, such as modified starches, gums and others.
Want to learn more about using Gusto in cheesy soups, sauces and other applications? Contact us today.
Grande Gusto — More than Just Clean Label
Food formulators who’ve tried to replace a portion of regular or processed cheese in their formulations with alternative ingredients are often disappointed with the results. Besides failing to comply with clean label initiatives, most ingredient substitutes produce “off” flavors or a gritty and sometimes chalky mouthfeel.
Grande Gusto tastes like cheese and produces the same rich mouthfeel as real melted cheese in creamy sauces. Why? Because it’s made as part of the traditional cheesemaking process. Like all our products, Grande Gusto is an all-natural, powdered whey ingredient made from the highest quality dairy with no chemical modifications, additives, preservatives or antibiotics, and follows a strict chain of custody. Instead of a laundry list of artificial ingredients, the ingredient statement for Grande Gusto simply reads Reduced Lactose Whey. Contains Milk.
In addition to its functional and clean-label properties, Grande Gusto has advantages over regular and processed cheese in that it requires no refrigeration and is shelf stable for up to 18 months. Nutrition is also improved, allowing food manufacturers to reduce fat, calories and sodium. And in a large controlled study, participants actually preferred Grande Gusto’s taste and texture over regular American Cheese in a macaroni and cheese formulation.
Contact us to request a sample.
