Food Corporations Turn to Chefs in a Quest for Healthy Flavor

But not one, alas, went into a salivating mouth as soon as it left the bubbling rice bran oil. Rather, it was rushed under a glass “udder” bristling with slender filaments and tended by technicians, who would soon analyze it at a PepsiCo lab in Illinois for the magic that gave it such flavor and crispiness.

Other creations, destined for the same lab, went into Styrofoam containers bedded on dry ice, part of a continuing effort to find new ways to improve the nutritional quality of the giant food company’s products without losing recognizable flavors.

“The challenge facing us and other big food companies today is not easy: to have a great-tasting product without as much salt, fat and sugar,” said Greg Yep, senior vice president for long-term research and development at PepsiCo. “Chefs have ways of tricking the taste buds that we can use in our products.”

Prodded by consumers, regulators and politicians, major food companies like PepsiCo are under extraordinary pressure to make healthier foods. Kellogg has cut as much as 30 percent of the sugar in children’s cereals like Apple Jacks and Froot Loops, removed salt from others and increased fiber. Taco Bell last month announced a new Power Protein menu that will include items with less fat and calories, and other companies are rushing to get their products in shape.

“We’re not only thinking about making great-tasting foods but about the nutrition guidelines we need to deliver on,” said Greg Creed, chief executive of Taco Bell, referring to the company’s pledge to bring one-third of the meal options in its restaurants into compliance with the federal dietary guidelines by 2020. “This is a huge change in mind-set.”

While snack sales like those in PepsiCo’s Frito Lay division are still increasing and show no signs of slowing, it and some of the country’s other major companies have worked to reduce the amount of sugar, fat and salt in products aimed at children. The efforts are part of a voluntary system that they hope will keep regulators and lawmakers at bay as well as address growing consumer knowledge of what is in food.

Guiding Stars, a program created in 2006 by the Hannaford grocery stores to tell consumers about the nutritional quality of the food sold in supermarkets using small tags attached to shelves, now awards at least one star out of a total of three to more than one-third of products, compared with about a quarter when the program started.

Cookies, crackers, snacks, cereals and yogurts are among the latest products to receive a star, according to Sue Till, client services manager for the Guiding Stars Licensing Company. Ms. Till said a confluence of factors, like the crusade by the first lady, Michelle Obama, to foster healthy eating among children, and consumers’ growing concern about gluten and genetically modified ingredients, was forcing food manufacturers to pay more attention to nutritional quality.

“It can be as simple as using fresh herbs to replace salt or raisin paste to replace sugar,” she said. “They’re learning it’s not as hard as they might have thought.”

In fact, Mr. Yep, in his white lab coat, and PepsiCo’s executive research chef, Stephen Kalil, in a white chef’s coat, argue about which one of them has the “best job in the world.”

They are on the teams responsible for carrying out the plans of PepsiCo’s chief executive, Indra K. Nooyi, which are controversial on Wall Street, to improve the healthiness of the PepsiCo portfolio, which she has long insisted is critical to the $65 billion company’s long-term survival.

One of the first products to emerge from their efforts was Quaker Real Medleys, instant cereals made from whole grains and chunks of fruit and nuts. It has a similar amount of sugar as the company’s traditional instant oatmeal, but about half comes from the fruits and the oats; most of the sugar in instant oatmeal is added.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/business/food-corporations-turn-to-chefs-in-a-quest-for-healthy-flavor.html?partner=rss&emc=rss