by Patricia on March 9, 2010
As we continue the work on our mystery product, ELF team member Patricia began the flavor journey. Read on to learn the ingredients of a taste test.
About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting a flavor house. You may wonder, “What is a flavor house?” Well, flavor houses serve as the labs for the spice world’s mad scientists. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that and SHAZAM! You have a mouth-watering, super-fantastic, leave-the-customer-begging-for-more…seasoning.
Well, it’s not exactly that easy. It actually requires a bit of work before you even arrive at the flavor house, and a whole laundry list of descriptions to help the mad scientist head down the right path. We provide a little direction with the following criteria:
- Creamy taste, but without the dairy ingredients
- Natural ingredients only. NO artificial!
- Appeal to kids of the allergy-friendly world, as well as the adults
- Not too spicy, but not too bland
- Tastes like you can put the seasoning on bread, even though we won’t use it for bread. NO wheat or gluten!
The next step is taste, taste, taste! It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! The mad scientist prepares a full array of samples and sits you down at a large table to begin the process. It’s similar to wine tastings (those readers out there who are 21+): talk about the appearance, smell, texture, immediate taste, flavors that occur in the middle and finally the finish taste.
At the end of the day, you rank the flavors you enjoyed, but do not necessarily count out the ones you didn’t like. These flavors get sent back for revisions. Maybe for a little more tomato, or perhaps less salt or maybe it’s just lacking a little big of oompf (yes, that is a technical term…okay, not really). A few days later, you start the process all over again with the revised flavors, then slowly narrow the field down to the best flavors. Now we’ve finally achieved that mouth-watering, super-fantastic, leave-the-customer-begging-for-more product, not just a seasoning!
by Hanna on March 4, 2010
This week’s guest blogger is Lisa. Lisa is a mother of two kids suffering with allergies and recently was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Her post this week discusses how she added “expert label reader” to her duties.
When my son Jonathan was diagnosed with life threatening food allergies four years ago, I was overwhelmed. He was only 11 months old and just beginning to try new foods. I became frightened to give him anything new for fear of an adverse reaction. It was at this moment I realized my true calling: expert label reader.
I realize that I’m lucky Jonathan was diagnosed after the federal government instituted mandatory labeling for the 8 main offending food allergens. I’m also lucky he only has common allergens (seafood, egg and peanut). Scratch that, I was lucky. Over the past summer, my 14-year-old daughter Rachael was diagnosed with food allergies too. “No problem!” I thought. Been there, done that, right? Rachael’s allergies are completely different than Jonathan’s and most of her allergies are not prominently labeled. A new challenge awaited the expert label reader!
After assuming an even more watchful eye on product labels for the past several months, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Unfortunately, I’ve found that determining whether gluten is in a product is much more difficult to decipher. It has been difficult to find items everyone in the family can enjoy. Having one food pantry per person just won’t work in our home! Luckily, there are companies making gluten-free products and label their ingredients clearly and properly. I have been a devoted Enjoy Life Foods fan since Jonathan was diagnosed. Now three members of my family feast on Enjoy Life brand products. A few favorites are the chocolate chips and the Cocoa Loco snack bars (we’re huge chocolate lovers!). My expert label reading hat is off to Enjoy Life for filling my family’s snack needs!
While it can still be frustrating to find safe and delicious foods when allergies and intolerances are present, I’ve found being persistent really pays off. A few of my expert label reading habits: read those labels closely, look up ingredient lists on manufacturer’s websites and contact the companies directly by phone. And if you have any doubt about the ingredients, just put the item back on the shelf!
~Lisa
About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting a flavor house. You may wonder, “What is a flavor house?” Well, flavor houses serve as the labs for the spice world’s mad scientists. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that and SHAZAM! You have a mouth-watering, super-fantastic, leave-the-customer-begging-for-more…seasoning.
