As meat and poultry processors continue adding value to their further-processed products, they are paying particular attention to enhancing the flavor and safety of their offerings. Wixon Inc., Milwaukee, WI, is a unique vendor in today’s marketplace in that it offers both seasonings and flavors.

“We import spices from around the world and process them into high-quality seasonings,” says Chuck Ehemann, executive vice president. “We also offer both liquid compounded flavors [natural, natural WONF, and artificial] as well as dry flavors—the full gamut. Many of our flavor systems are a combination of both technologies. This makes us unique. For the most part, there are core flavor companies and core seasoning companies.”

Although different from most of its competitors, Wixon recognized 12 years ago that it needed to even further differentiate itself from the rest of the pack, thus, it invested in unique lines of technology for the meat and poultry industry.

“The core of these technologies really evolved through work in the pharmaceutical industry, and we then developed further applications into the meat and proteins industry,” Ehemann says. “This is the backbone of our Wix-Fresh™ line of technology.”

The R&D team at Wixon developed Wix-Fresh™ as a flavor modifier to enhance, mask, and stabilize meat products’ natural color and flavor.

Wix-Fresh™ also does the following:

• Extends the shelf life of fresh, frozen, pre-cooked, and further-processed meats

• Masks soy and other off-notes in meat applications

• Reduces ‘warmed-over’ flavor in meats

Wix-Fresh™ is available in liquid or powder form, is a natural flavor, allows a clean product label, and is used in a ratio of one-quarter pound to 100 pounds of meat.

“In pre-cooked proteins, you always face the challenge of warmed-over flavor when you reheat it at home or at a foodservice location,” Ehemann says. “Our products greatly reduce that warmed-over flavor and make it taste freshly cooked.”

Wixon also offers Wix-Fresh Mimic, which masks the off-notes of Listeria inhibitors, while simultaneously potentiating the savory top notes of a treated protein.

The Agriculture Department suggests using acetates, diacetates, and lactates to help ensure meat safety. The off-notes associated with these Listeria growth inhibitors are no longer a challenge for processors thanks to Wix-Fresh Mimic. A flavor modifier, this product masks the off-notes and stabilizes the natural flavor of meat products. It also masks undesirable flavors associated with using potassium chloride in reduced/low-sodium applications.

“Our product very lightly masks the metallic note of potassium chloride so it can potentially reduce the amount of sodium chloride needed in a product so processors get the taste and the functional property they are looking for in potassium chloride,” Ehemann says.

Wixon also offers a range of services for customers including seasoning/flavor inventory management, as well as electronic data interchange (EDI) for order placement.

“We are also in the process of building a meat pilot plant at our Milwaukee campus,” Ehemann adds. “We are interviewing people from the meat industry who would be applications specialists. We are also visiting other pilot plants to help us in the design of our pilot-plant layout and assist us in determining equipment needs for this plant. We anticipate this meat pilot plant being up by March 1 of 2006.” NP