Salty flavor enhancement in foods | Food

Salty flavor enhancement in foods

Background
What we're looking for
What we can offer you
Who we are
Q&A

Have questions about this request?

Get them answered by the team at Kraft Heinz.

Background

According to the World Health Organization, almost all populations are consuming too much sodium with the mean global intake of adults exceeding double the WHO’s recommended maximum intake of 2,000 mg/day.

Kraft Heinz is committed to decreasing sodium across our global portfolio. Consumers desire reduced sodium food products that still maintain the profile delivered by sodium chloride and current commercial solutions do not convey a strong salty taste and often have unfavorable off (bitter, metallic) or uncharacteristic (savory) flavors.

What we're looking for

Kraft Heinz is seeking natural ingredient technologies to achieve at least 30%, but preferably over 50%, sodium reduction within complex food systems of various moisture, pH, and salt levels. A prospective ingredient technology may, on its own, be salty or may enhance the saltiness of the food system in which it is incorporated. Food systems of interest include, but are not limited to, sauces & condiments, processed meat products, and processed cheese/cheese food.

Solutions of interest include:

Salty-enhancing flavors, extracts, or taste-active compounds
Physically modified sodium chloride that enables lower usage levels with maintained salty taste
Modified mineral salts (including, but not limited to, KCl) without bitter or metallic off-flavors

Our must-have requirements are:

Natural ingredients
Salt-like taste or salty-enhancement with no off-flavors
Minimal impact to color
Safe for human consumption
Feasible scale-up/commercialization

Our nice-to-have's are:

Regulatory approval for use in food in the US and Canada (or other countries with pathway to approval in USA and Canada), including FDA GRAS and Novel Food Additives Permitted, respectively.
Plan for regulatory approval in the European Union (EFSA approval)
Commercialization within 2 years
Cost effective (Cost-in-use <$0.05/lb)

What's out of scope:

Artificial ingredients
Ingredients that are solely for topical/surface applications on the food
Ingredients with off-flavors
Ingredients having an unfavorable impact to appearance
Ingredients that are not safe for human consumption

Acceptable technology readiness levels (TRL):

Levels 4-9

What we can offer you

Eligible partnership models:

Sponsored researchCo-developmentSupply/purchaseLicensing

Benefits:

Sponsored Research

Funding is proposal-dependent starting with proof-of-concept, typically ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 for a 6-month length project with the potential for expansion based on results and opportunities.

Expertise

We offer the expertise of our team of scientists for collaboration and guidance during the development of the project.

Who we are

We are driving transformation at The Kraft Heinz Company, inspired by our Purpose, Let's Make Life Delicious. Consumers are at the center of everything we do. With 2021 net sales of approximately $26 billion, we are committed to growing our iconic and emerging food and beverage brands on a global scale. We leverage our scale and agility to unleash the full power of Kraft Heinz across a portfolio of six consumer-driven product platforms. As global citizens, we're dedicated to making a sustainable, ethical impact while helping feed the world in healthy, responsible ways. Learn more about our journey by visiting www.kraftheinzcompany.com or following us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Learn more

Reviewers

Allison Trio

Principal Scientist

Mirjam Spreeuwenberg

R&D Technology Lead

Maxine Roman

Lead, Innovation Collaboration & Partnerships

Q&A with Kraft Heinz

The Q&A is now closed.

Sort by:

How are you planning to handle IP for this project?

Cesar Pinto, Business Development, Alianza Team Foods

February 21, 2024

The IP terms will be dependent on the technical readiness of the solution presented and on the type of contract agreed on by both parties.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 21, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Hello, We are interested in submitting a proposal for this project. We have a good solution natural for salt reduction and other functionalities. Is the price listed in the project description a mandatory requirement? It will be considered the application if this cost is not meet?

Inês Lopes, Researcher, FMSI

February 15, 2024

Thank you for the question. The cost-in-use limit listed is a "nice-to-have", but not a "must have". Cost is one of many considerations for this type of work. I encourage you submit a proposal, even if outside the cost-in-use limit, for a full review of the opportunity.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 15, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Texas Tech has an issued patent for a low sodium salt substitute that may solve your problem. We would love the opportunity to license it to a company interested in commercializing it. Would this be something you'd be interested in?

David Mcclure, Tech Transfer, Texas Tech University

February 13, 2024

Thank you for the question. Yes, we open to considering all proposals.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 13, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Hi Allison, Can you provide me an email address that I can send a short response to with a copy of the issued patent for low sodium salt? David McClure Director of LIcensing Texas Tech Office of Research Commercialization David.McClure@ttu.edu

David Mcclure, Tech Transfer, Texas Tech University

February 13, 2024

We appreciate your interest! At this stage, please include details on the issued patent within the formal Halo proposal submission.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 14, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Allison, unfortunately Halo will not allow me to submit a proposal because I am an Administrative user, not a researcher. I am the Director of Licensing at Texas Tech and we have a developed technology for low sodium salt with an issued patent I would like to bring to your attention. If you want to review it the patent number is U.S. patent 8,999,425. If you go to Google Patents and type in the number you can review the published patent. If there is interest, I can put your people in touch with Richard Meyer, the inventor, who is a food scientists and adjunct professor at Texas Tech. Thanks for your help.

David Mcclure, Tech Transfer, Texas Tech University

February 16, 2024

Thank you for the details! We will explore the possibility and reach out to you if we are interested.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 20, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Our group will be submitting an application. Since we have expertise in the psychophysics of taste, are you interested in learning about how the taste of saltiness has been modified in the past?

Linda Bartoshuk, Principal Investigator, University of Florida

March 15, 2024

Thank you for your proposal! Kraft Heinz has an understanding of salty taste science and historical approaches but is always open to learning from different angles and perspectives. The appropriateness and need of this can be discussed upon proposal discussions should your project move forward.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

March 18, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Hi Alison, Did you test the OISE or Heterogenous Salt Distribution approach and celery derrived- phthalides like alkylphthalides?

Artur Gluchowski, Postdoctoral Scientist, Warsaw University of Life Sciences

March 21, 2024

Thank you for your question. I cannot share the approaches we have used or researched, but we are open to considering proposals in any or all of the areas you've described.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

March 21, 2024

Is this response helpful?

Would you be interested in working/co-dev with an AI company that has a licensed product. Our product has the capabilities to generate a fast sample response to ingredient substitution and NPD for low sodium and more.

Amanda Hennessey, Business Development, BCDiLabs

February 28, 2024

Our RFP is more specific to ingredient technologies than reformulation tools, however we are open to considering all proposals.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 29, 2024

Is this response helpful?

We are from the University of Padua (Italy) and we deal with food science and sensory analysis. We have sensory science laboratories and deal with food ingredients. We think that the solution is to be found in flavor enhancers. I would like to know more about this project, and whether the project is a collaboration with other research groups. Thank you Giovanna Lomolino

Giovanna Lomolino, Research Associate, University of Padova

February 19, 2024

Thank you for your interest! All details can be found in the project brief and webinar recording. At this time, a resulting collaboration from this RFP would be between the organization proposing the solution and Kraft Heinz without additional research groups.

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Kraft Heinz

February 20, 2024

Is this response helpful?

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