As Asian cuisines evolve and diversify, how are quality texturizers becoming more key?

Asian cuisines are crossing cultural boundaries, offering new culinary experiences to all generations keen to try new sensory experiences.​

Be it food cooked at home, ordered in, or eaten out in restaurants, traditional dishes are being reimagined and fused with global flavours. From Vietnamese pho for breakfast and Japanese tonkatsu (panko pork cutlets) for lunch, to Western-style pizza in the evening, these trends represent a dynamic culinary landscape fuelled both by tradition and innovation.

For every meal, there is a sauce, and the variety of sauces is as extensive as Asian signature dishes. Sauces are an integral part of Asian cuisine, spanning a raft of savoury and sweet applications from ready meals and marinades to bakery fillings and dairy-based desserts. These elements are important to help showcase the variety and depth of traditional dishes and highlight the region’s rich culinary diversity.

Taste, texture and visual appeal are all part of the consumers’ sensory experience, and every food brand or product must consistently deliver its unique sensorial qualities that consumers expect. The specific functions and characteristics of a product’s components may vary, but their ability to provide a specific texture and consistency that works in harmony with the finished dish is key.

As well as delivering target textures, such as viscosity, consistency and elasticity, the ingredients used in sauces and fillings can deliver specific tastes and add aesthetic interest with colour and shine, making dishes more interesting and appealing to consumers.

Challenges for formulators​

Achieving and maintaining consistency of texture and stability in sauce and filling formulations can present challenges. Texturizing ingredients, such as starches and gums, are used to achieve the desired viscosity and mouthfeel and promote smooth, stable sauces that not only enhance flavour profiles of the end application but also provide the target consistency and texture.

Their role is to enhance the overall flavour profile and showcase the natural taste of the product or application, while masking undesirable off-flavours from other functional ingredients. This is particularly key in applications which require a neutral flavour profile, such as creams and fillings in desserts, and other dairy-based products, where any competing flavours will detract from the overall enjoyment of the product.

Tapioca-based starches​

Native starches in their pure forms have limitations. These include poor stability of texture over time, insolubility in cold conditions, excessive viscosity during processing at high concentrations, and inadequate resistance to acidity, shear and temperature.

As a strong player in the texturizer industry, Roquette collaborates with partners to deliver the most reliable and effective texturizing solutions for food, nutrition and health markets. These innovations are designed to work in formulations with the desired texture and technical ease of use at front of mind, to create products that consumers know and love.

In August 2024, Roquette expanded its CLEARAM® TR​ cook-up starches with four new tapioca-based grades. These modified starches – TR 2010, TR 2510, TR 3010 and TR 4010 – complement Roquette’s existing range while also addressing the market’s unmet texture needs – such as clarity, neutrality in taste and mouth-coating qualities.

“Our aim is to push the boundaries of what is possible with our plant-based ingredients, placing taste, texture and technical ease above all else,” says Damien-Pierre Lesot, Head of Texture Hub at Roquette.

“Our latest ingredients are a demonstration of our commitment to food manufacturers, empowering them to bring new and improved products to market that offer unmatched texture and maximum consumer appeal.”

Tapioca starch is naturally gluten-free and is designed to meet diverse industry demands, ensuring it is adaptable to various manufacturing processes and application requirements. It enhances the viscosity and consistency of applications that require thickening and provides a stretchy texture to dough products. For food manufacturers, it offers technical functionality and innovation opportunities while meeting quality standards and consumer preferences across a range of applications.

Tapioca does not introduce distinct flavour or off-flavours, allowing the natural taste of food to shine through. This is crucial for applications where a neutral flavour profile is desired, and any off-notes or strong taste characteristics need to be minimised, such as in neutral fillings and creams, dairy products, among others. In some cases, it can enhance the flavour intensity by not competing with the base application’s flavour.

The CLEARAM TR range is designed to enhance viscosity, consistency – as well as elasticity for dough products – across a wide range of food applications, from sauces to dessert fillings. All starches maintain a natural colour and taste profile, essential qualities for applications that require a transparent, neutral appearance and flavour, such as dairy products, clear sauces, soups, desserts and dressings.

TR 2510 and TR 3010 are both suitable for sauces but provide different technical and texture properties. TR 2510 is better suited to high-salt sauce recipes and chilled or frozen products, whereas TR 3010 is ideal for tomato and chili sauces with flowable consistency, working well in squeezable tubes.

In bakery and pastry applications, TR 3010 offers a clean mouthfeel while TR 2010 can be used in chewy products that require reduced stickiness. Additionally, TR 4010 is ideal for dairy applications, offering a creamy, rich mouthfeel in yoghurts and dairy desserts.

As consumers continually seek new and exciting sensory experience, Roquette can help food manufacturers be successful in their formulations with texturizers that enhance food applications and support the consumers’ ever-evolving culinary journey.