More Taste – Less Sugar and Salt

Savory but not too salty, fruity yet not too sweet: Developing new sauces is often a balancing act. With new solutions based on plum and dried plum ingredients from the market leader Sunsweet, the ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies now helps sauce producers to achieve a harmonious balance of flavors and optimize color and consistency – while also significantly reducing the sugar and salt content.

The variety is the key

Sunsweet ingredients for the sauce industry range from fresh plum concentrate and prune juice concentrate to dried plum puree and dried plum powder. Only plums of the d’Agen variety are processed. They have much a higher sorbitol, fiber and antioxidant content than other varieties. Their rich flavor, smooth texture and bright acidity make them ideal for a wide range of uses.

Natural flavor enhancer

In sauces, the plum ingredients enhance naturally existing flavors, such as those of herbs and spices, and reduce undesirable off-tastes such as the metallic flavor of tinned tomatoes. Dried plum puree in particular gives dark sauces a thick consistency and an attractive brown color, thus eliminating the need to use caramel coloring.

At the same time, the Sunsweet plum ingredients can significantly reduce overall sugar content in sauces. Due to their naturally high sorbitol content, more than 25 percent of the total sugars is actually a naturally occurring sugar alcohol, which does not count towards sugar content and contains just 2.5 kilocalories per gram. The natural acidity of the fruit also enhances the sensation of sweetness and flavor.

By enhancing flavors and seasonings, Sunsweet plum ingredients also allow food manufacturers to significantly reduce the salt content of their sauces, e.g. by about 30 to 70 percent in barbecue sauces.

These characteristics make the plums particularly adapted for use in sauces based on either tomatoes or soy, where the sugar or salt level may often be higher than desired. Even when used as the primary ingredient in tomato sauces, for example, the plum will not impart a fruity note but rather enhance the depth of the desired tomato flavor, reducing both the need for sugar, sodium and spices.

Individual applications

Bösch Boden Spies has been the exclusive purveyor of Sunsweet plum ingredients in Europe since 1923. Today, the ingredient specialist also advises producers on the various possibilities of using the ingredients and works with them to develop new, innovative applications.

About Bösch Boden Spies

The historic Bösch Boden Spies GmbH & Co. KG from Hamburg has imported and marketed natural ingredients on the basis of fruits and nuts since 1913. The focus is on products with specific functionalities. Bösch Boden Spies develops innovative application and marketing concepts for these products, opening new markets for their producers and clients from trade and industry. Food manufacturers and retailers in Germany and Europe profit from the ingredients expert’s extensive know-how and tailor-made services. Fairness, transparency and long-lasting partnerships are principles that Bösch Boden Spies actively promotes.

About Sunsweet

California-based Sunsweet Growers Inc. Is the world’s biggest supplier of dried fruit and leading brand in prunes. Founded as a grower-owned cooperative in 1917, the company has 100 years of experience in the growing and harvesting of fruit trees and the processing of prunes. Sunsweet Ingredients is the raw ingredients arm of the company. It provides the food industry with natural ingredients based on plums and prunes. In Europe, the plum raw ingredients have been marketed exclusively by Bösch Boden Spies since 1923.