Bold flavours, Australian-made and ‘closer to scratch’ products predominate in supplier offerings for sauces and marinades
With the ongoing evolution of the sauces and marinades category driving new marketplace trends, we’ve sought input from our consultant chef Adam Moore and product suppliers to get an insight into the changing tastes of consumers and consequent product line innovation.
“Bold flavours are transitioning across into the sauce category,” Adam Moore tells us. “Sriracha mayo has become well-established, and chefs are now using kimchi in mayo, blending it with the other ingredients to add an extra burst of flavour. There’s also a move to marrying sweet and savoury, such as using ingredients like yuzu, which is a tart Japanese citrus fruit, married with peppercorns or sesame seeds. I recently saw a Mojo (cuban style) dressing using orange juice and whisky.
“We’re also seeing the rise of smoked ingredients like smoked cinnamon and cardamom being infused into dressings and sauces. Smoking the spice imparts a deeper complexity into the sauce. There’s also the use of particulates in sauces, which gives a bit of a chunkier texture – using whole peppercorns or big chunks of garlic which you can see as well as feel and taste.”
Adam says ketchups are also trending – and he’s not talking traditional tomato but mushroom or capsicum ketchups. “You’re adding another ingredient to create a nice thick sauce, like a roasted capsicum that’s then been pureed.
“And in the hot sauce space, it’s all about getting back to nature – people are taking the time to craft a superior sauce from ingredients like bone broths. We’re even seeing American style rich gravies which include all the crumbs from the deep fryer – it’s called a ‘dirty gravy’, where you use the fines which are full of unctuousness. So it’s a real mixture in the market – a blend of going back to basics in some areas, and flavour exploration in others.”
Photo: UNILEVER Food solutions
Chefs on the hunt for more bespoke products
“I think foodservice professionals are looking for more bespoke products,” says Andrew Ballard, Executive Chef at Unilever Food Solutions. “They don’t want to just pour something out of a bottle, because it’s not quite tailored for what they want. They’re also looking for ‘closer to scratch’ products which are made from high quality ingredients. With these trends in mind we launched the Knorr Intense Flavours range of sauce and marinade concentrates which make it easy to add depth and balance to your dishes quickly and easily – you can use them as is, or as a base to which you add other ingredients.
The flavours include Citrus Fresh, Roast Umami, Wild Mushroom Earth and Deep Smoke and can be used for marinating, infusing and seasoning or as a sauce or garnish. “Whether you’re using the Deep Smoke to make a really smoky chipotle sauce or the Roast Umami, it’s all about the key flavours, rather than simply applying a finished marinade,” Andrew explains.
Photo: UNILEVER Food solutions
This provides you with the opportunity to create your own point of differentiation through your own signature sauce – ever more important given the growing competitiveness of the marketplace, as Andrew points out.
“Burger places are popping up everywhere but if everyone’s using the same sauce it’s going to be pretty boring. Mary’s Burgers, Bar Luca and so on all have their own bespoke burger sauces and that’s part of what sets their product offering apart from the competition. It’s all about standing out from the crowd, using good quality products to create your distinctive signature sauces”
The Intense flavours range is also 100 per cent vegan, which Andrew acknowledges is tapping into the “massive move towards plant-based dining”: “we certainly see the plant-based trend as growing and so we’re putting in products which support that in terms of their certification.”
Andrew also makes the point that during the last 12 months there’s been a shift in focus towards more Australian made products.
“This wasn’t so much the case pre-COVID, but certainly now we’re seeing that people are even willing to pay a bit more for Australian made, because it’s seen as supporting the local workforce and also perhaps as being higher quality.”
He makes the point that the Knorr ready to use World of Sauces range is made in Australia, as are all Unilever’s Continental gravies and boosters. “We produce locally where we can, the exception is those products like the Intense Flavours range where the technology is quite complicated and the economies of scale aren’t sufficient to allow for local production at this stage. But we’re continually looking to bring make products locally for the Australian market – if we look at the products we have internationally and see which ones we can bring to Australia.”
Easy, convenient, premium solutions
Birch & Waite has built its reputation on producing Australian-made quality condiments, dressings and sauces, with its Hollandaise sauce recently judged Best Hollandaise at the 2021 ChefsDecision Awards voted by Australian professionals chefs. The Hollandaise was scored based on taste, versatility, texture, ease of use and value for money by a panel of 263 commercial and institutional chefs.
PHOTO: Birch & Waite Hollandaise
“Our viewpoint is that if we can deliver those fundamentals of quality, taste, consistency and labour-saving, that will justify the purchase of the product. Also the fact that it’s locally made has definitely contributed to its success – chefs want to know they’re supporting local produce and an Australian business that they can rely on for consistency of supply.”
“We launched our one litre Hollandaise back in 2018 and we’ve seen really good marketplace response, particularly in the past year,” says Birch & Waite Senior Brand Manager - Foodservice Olivia Grey. “Perhaps COVID has contributed to chefs seeking easy, convenient, premium solutions and our Hollandaise certainly is that – it’s as close to scratch made as you can find in the market.
