Respect for your privacy is our priority

The cookie is a small information file stored in your browser each time you visit our web page.

Cookies are useful because they record the history of your activity on our web page. Thus, when you return to the page, it identifies you and configures its content based on your browsing habits, your identity and your preferences.

You may accept cookies or refuse, block or delete cookies, at your convenience. To do this, you can choose from one of the options available on this window or even and if necessary, by configuring your browser.

If you refuse cookies, we can not guarantee the proper functioning of the various features of our web page.

For more information, please read the COOKIES INFORMATION section on our web page.

Refuse

News

Advertorial: Tomato science ready to fight shortage's rising cost

23/11/2021 - Press release

In this advertorial, Lycored explains how tomato science is helping the prepared foods industry squeeze more flavor, more volume and profit margin from every tomato.

As 2021 rolls into 2022, a tomato shortage is threatening markets around the world.

Lycored has an answer: LycoFibers and CTC (Clear Tomato Concentrate); ingredient solutions that help extend tomato paste supplies, reduce solids, and naturally add back the texture, taste, and color to products.

With tomatoes in short supply for the foreseeable future, tomato processors and tomato-based prepared food makers will need to use these ingredients to help manage the shortfall and reduce any impact of higher supply costs on production economies and ultimately, consumer pricing.

What’s causing the shortage?

It’s been another long-hot summer for California tomatoes with major canners and processors blaming drought for significantly lowering crop yields across this key producing state in 2021 (1). With California Food Producers estimating yield around 10.7 million tons, crop yields were down as much as 15% compared to USDA projections (2).

It’s hard to understate the impact drought and a poor harvest in California can have on the global processed tomato supply chain. California is truly king, reigning over all as the top 10 highest producing “state” in the world (3).

According to the California Water Blog, 2021 will be the 3rd driest year in more than 100 years of precipitation record. That means the drought’s effect on the tomato crop is likely to have a continued negative impact on supply (4).

Tomato price forecast: Clear skies, higher prices for the foreseeable future

According to the Washington Post California grows more than 90% of Americans’ canned tomatoes and supplies fully a third to the rest of the world. Noting processing tomato’s “water-hungry” nature, California’s clear skies and low crop yields will likely prompt prices to burst far more than they already have (5).

Further, continued damage from California’s “Tormado” as the Washington Post put it, threatens to imperil the cost structures associated with prices of some of the world’s favorite tomato based ingredients and foods including pizza sauce, marinara, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes and ketchup hanging in the balance.

Tomato-based science from Lycored offers practical cost-effective solutions

Fortunately, advanced tomato-based science from Lycored is capable of offering prepared food producers ingredient technologies that help extend tomato supplies, reduce solids and naturally add back the texture, taste and color of their products.

Lycored has extensive experience supporting product value and enhancing the consumer appeal of tomato-centered products. We continue to demonstrate to our customers and the industry how lycopene-based food ingredient science can extend current tomato supply for high demand products including:

Tomato sauces, pastes and purees
Pizza sauces
Spaghetti sauces
Soups
Beverages

To specifically address issues related to strained tomato supply chains, Lycored offers two ingredient solutions, LycoFibers and CTC (Clear Tomato Concentrate).

LycoFibers can enhance texture, control viscosity and reduce tomato solids to extend paste supplies.

CTC is a liquid serum that harnesses the balance of acidity and high Brix sweetness of tomatoes and has the capability of delivering smoothness and adding taste complexity to savory products.

Preserving texture and mouthfeel with less tomato paste

For tomato sauces and similar recipes, reducing key “structural” ingredients like tomato paste can be especially challenging. However naturally enhancing texture and mouthfeel is less challenging with LycoFibers from Lycored. Natural LycoFibers provide an authentic homemade vegetable fiber effect and our customers have found it to be an excellent method for naturally modifying pulpiness, viscosity, and mouthfeel in their product recipes.

Both Lycored research and customer experience has shown that with LycoFibers, manufacturers can extend tomato paste supply by up to 25%. Further, these non-GMO ingredients can impart a smooth texture and glossy sheen to sauces and eliminate less attractive ingredients such as starches and emulsifiers (in most applications) while improving mouthfeel, texture, and pulpiness.

Concentrates of pure tomato allow manufacturers to improve the quality and authenticity of tomato-based food products. Lycored’s CTC can preserve tomato taste and boost authentic tomato flavor notes as well. Ideal for a variety of sauces, when tomato serum is concentrated to 60% Brix, it can be used to control product viscosity and can return tomato flavor lost because there is less paste in the recipe.

With the reduction of tomato paste and the addition of Lycofibers (for texture and viscosity) and CTC to add taste back, you can extend your tomato paste supply.

A robust solution to color losses

With less paste and the potential for variable tomato coloration coming from multiple suppliers and different parts of the world, manufacturers may be challenged to control product color and shelf life of tomato-based foods. Lycopene science offers the prepared foods industry a full spectrum of naturally sourced color ingredients extracted from Lycored’s tomatoes. Thoroughly covering the red spectrum, studies and customer experience confirm Lycored color ingredients can improve color stability and extend point of purchase shelf life of tomato-based products, such as frozen pizzas.

An all-natural sustainable solution

The fact that Lycored carefully manages and controls its own tomato supply has allowed the company to sustain its operations and weather the impact of drought or natural disasters. As a vertically integrated system, Lycored offers a more viable long-term supply solution featuring sustainably sourced ingredients and clean label transparency. From seed to shelf Lycored products offer 100% full supply chain visibility.

Although Lycored experienced interruptions this year in raw material supply it was able to manage its supply chain past these disruptions. Part of the reason is less competition for resources. Lycored tomatoes are specific to the company’s needs for health, color, texture and flavor and not used for consumer products.

Lycored’s supply will sustain operations and customer orders in 2022 with plenty of product to provide the industry welcome solutions that will help manage tomato paste supply shortages with natural tomato products that are clean label and align with consumer expectations.

Interested in extending your tomato paste supply? Contact our team at info@lycored.com or by visiting us at lycored.com.

At the forefront of tomato science for decades

Lycored, an international company founded in Israel, has been at the forefront of clean-label food innovation, combining nature's potential with cutting edge science to develop super stable natural taste, color, and texture-enhancing food ingredients from tomatoes. Our portfolio of tomato-based food ingredient solutions are developed from Lycored’s proprietary strain of tomatoes grown and managed in partnership with farmers, where the company oversees the zero-waste production process.

References:
1- https://pacificcoastproducers.com/industry-resources/reports/latest-crop-update/
2- https://clfp.com/wp-content/uploads/August-2021.pdf
3- https://californiawaterblog.com/2021/08/22/2021-drought-in-california-in-one-page/
4- https://www.marketplace.org/2021/08/03/the-looming-tomato-shortage/
5- https://www.tomatonewgeos.com/en/background_47.html
6- https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/28/california-tomatoes-drought-prices/

Disclaimer: Advertising paid for by Lycored. The opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of our Editor.

Related companies

Lycored

Tomato processor See details

Back

________________________________________

Editor : TOMATO NEWS SAS - MAISON DE L'AGRICULTURE - TSA 48449 - 84912 AVIGNON Cedex 9 - FRANCE
contact@tomatonews.com
www.tomatonews.co m

Supporting partners