Yeast extracts – natural products that enhance the taste of beverages!

Year by year, the awareness of consumers is rising. Customers are looking for products with the lowered content of sugar and sugar substitutes or with natural sweeteners. This trend is present for several years and is gathering pace when the sugar tax was imposed in Poland. In addition, consumers have more knowledge on the topic regarding the risks related to overweight and obesity, and more and more often read the ingredients of products and choose those with the so-called clean label. How can manufacturers respond to these needs?

Yeast extracts – even up to 30% less sugar in beverages

Lowering the amount of sugar added is generally linked with lowering taste characteristics of beverages. This is a big challenge for manufacturers. However, there is a natural alternative available on the market. These are yeast extracts. Thanks to their use it is possible to create completely new and very attractive for consumers lines of beverages with clean label. Combination of yeast extract and sugar substitute helps lowering the consumption of sugar from 5% to 30% without losing the flavour.

Adding only 0,01-0,03% of yeast extract to the final product can strongly get and intensify the sweetness and enhance flavour. Yeast extracts block the perception of unpleasant taste note, such as citric acid, and enhance the effect of sugar substitute. This enhances the original fruity nature of juices.

How to neutralize unpleasant taste note?

Certain manufacturers reduce the amount of sugar used in products by using the liquorice root, which is healthier and provides about 50 times more sweetness than sugar beets. Unfortunately, many consumers do not like taste notes offered by this plant. Yeast extracts are able to successfully neutralize them without losing the multidimensional taste of a beverage.

In other beverages, yeast extracts can perfectly neutralize unpleasant taste notes, such as earthiness, bitterness, metallic aftertaste or the feeling of excessive acidity. It is worth using them when manufacturing:

• coffee beverages,
• plant milk,
• coffee creamers,
• functional beverages and juices.

Yeast extracts support immunity

Natural yeast extracts are rich in beta-glucan – an organic chemical compound, one of the components of dietary fibre. Glucans contain many vitamins and minerals, and also affect the immunity system. So it is worth using yeast extracts for the production of beverages and functional waters.

Less sugar in drinks thanks to yeast extracts

Hungary, France, Finland, Great Britain, Denmark, Chile, Mexico, Norway, Peru and Poland represent countries that have decided to introduce tax sugar. War on sugar was declared also by ordinary consumers, who increasingly choose beverages with low content of sugar. Bearing in mind current trends and consumer behaviours it is worth searching for natural alternatives such as yeast extracts, which will allow lowering the content of sugar substitutes in beverages.

The use of yeast extracts in beverages provides many advantages. In addition to a significant lowering of sugar content and neutralizing unpleasant taste notes, beverage manufacturers may offer natural beverages with a clean composition.