Botanicals and Functional Flavors

• Integrating botanicals and functional flavors is a growing trend in the health food industry.
• Some popular herbal and adaptogenic flavors include ginger, beet root, cinnamon, lavender, and wheatgrass.
• Our team at Metarom helps add a wellness-focused flavor design perspective to flavor development.

Flavoring with botanicals and functional flavors is a fantastic way to tap into some of nature’s best assets. Crafting new flavor combinations using the essence of vanilla, ginger, anise, juniper berries, cinnamon, citrus, and beyond elevates specific tastes and textures to make food and beverages stand out from the crowd, especially when it comes to wellness-focused flavor design. Using adaptogenic flavors, herbal flavor innovation, and other functional ingredients in food is a great way to meet consumer demand for healthier options on the shelf.

At Metarom USA, our flavor chemists continually explore how integrating botanicals contributes to lasting market success. Combining botanicals and functional flavors is a win-win for both consumers and growing brands; let’s examine why it works so well.

Using Plant-Based Flavoring Agents

It’s nature’s solution to anything bland. There are many ways plant-based botanicals can be used to add flavors to your favorite treats. Extracting flavor from plant parts is a common way to add zest to almost anything–but there are other ways to integrate flavors as well. The maceration process can be used to isolate the perfect notes in botanicals to add into confections and sweets. Infusion or herbal flavor innovation is ideal for creating added flavoring in beverages of all types.

Carefully combining the plant-based botanicals and functional flavors may give your product a leg-up on the competition in a big way. But how do you find the perfect combination of functional ingredients in food? That’s where flavor experts can step in and examine market demands and trends, helping you achieve the ideal mix using plant-based flavoring agents and integrating adaptogenic flavors as well.

Enhanced Wellness-Focused Flavor Design Using Botanicals and Functional Flavors

One of the biggest trends in the flavor industry right now is an emphasis on health and wellness-focused flavor design. Artificial color and flavor are out; healthy and natural botanicals and functional flavors are in. Metarom helps you navigate a changing industry and stay on top of a rapidly changing landscape.

Our ACTI’SENS and other flavor engineering processes are designed to help achieve specific dietary requirements without compromising on natural flavor. We use herbal flavor innovation, masking agents, bitter blockers, sweetness enhancers, and fat replacers where excess calories are an issue. Here is a brief outline of our flavor formulation process:

• Our team utilizes technology to blend and disperse plant-based flavoring agents and other flavors as evenly as possible, using powders or extracts to tailor the process.
• We use atomization to mix the aromatic solution with maltodextrin or gums.
• Flavor chemists select emulsifying or stabilizing agents to capture the essence of plant-based botanicals and functional flavors.

At the core of our ACTI’SENS process is maintaining the functional ingredients in food and its structural integrity while checking all the boxes when it comes to healthy requirements. We cater to select diets, including vegan, sugar-free, dairy-free, and more.

Using Adaptogenic Flavors

All adaptogens fall into the botanical flavor category–but what are they exactly? The term adaptogenic refers to a category of botanicals used explicitly for lowering your stress hormones (cortisol) and encouraging your body to relax and perform at its best. The use of wellness-focused flavor design and adaptogens in botanicals and functional flavors is not new. The use of adaptogens is based on ancient Chinese medicine and other home remedies used for centuries to treat everyday ailments like anxiety, obesity, headaches, and fatigue.

Some popular adaptogenic flavors on the market now include ginseng, ashwagandha, licorice, and rhodiola rosea. They may appear in health food products like smoothies, cookies, or granola bars, promising to boost immunity and tackle everyday health complaints. For more on the latest developments in this health food trend, reach out to our team.

Experts in Herbal Flavor Innovation

At Metarom, we go beyond simply combining a few botanicals and functional flavors to create something that tastes great. We are leading experts in using adaptogenic and herbal flavoring to target specific market demands. More and more, global consumers view their food intake as a daily dose of vitamins to combat future health risks and maintain fitness. They demand functional ingredients in food, including herbs and spices that promise health benefits using plant-based flavoring agents.

Our flavor experts keep a close eye on wellness-focused flavor design and other growing trends worldwide. Some common herbs that have increased in demand over the past decade include ginger root, beet root, cinnamon, ginkgo, and wheatgrass. Metarom is committed to working with our clients to integrate botanicals and functional flavors that are in demand right now with existing products, or creating something new.

Working With Metarom USA

When you work with us, we view our partnership as a collaboration. We begin by asking you to share your needs, and then we bring our global experience and determine which flavor processes are best suited to the product. With international experience, we then work together to bring your vision to the shelf.

All our flavors are naturally derived from locally sourced plant and animal sources worldwide. Our specialties include vanilla and caramels, but we have a complete catalog of flavors to draw from, and we can even create blends or new flavors to help you stay ahead of demand. Reach out to our flavor team today for a free flavor sample and book a consultation online.