Joe Ahern, Innovation Manager of Food Systems at the Kerry Group, explains what clean labelling is and why the food industry is getting behind it.
Over the last number of years, consumers have become increasingly preoccupied with what ingredients are in the foods they are eating. To satisfy this growing desire for less processed foods, manufacturers are embracing the trend known as clean labelling.
Clean labelling is essentially about making the ingredients in food products as natural and simple as possible, replacing any additives, chemicals or preservatives with a naturally-occurring ingredient or the closest natural form without compromising the flavour, safety or shelf-life of the food.
As Innovation Manager, Joe Ahern’s role is to research such alternatives and provide solutions to assist clean labelling, a process that has been brought about by public demand.
“Generally speaking, I think people are concerned about certain E-numbers and preservatives based on the comments from the World Health Organisation on processed meats…People want to trust what they’re eating,” he explains.
As well as regaining the trust of the public, another desired outcome of clean labelling is that, one day, we could potentially have food that is free from E-numbers. Joe argues: “The reality is saying a product is free of E-numbers changes people’s mindset from a food being processed to thinking of a product as food they have prepared or would cook themselves.
“One of the goals of clean labelling is to change public perception that foods are heaped with chemicals and preservatives, which removes it far away from the authentic product. The ultimate aim for anyone in my role is to have no E-number preservatives in a product.”
Of course, it must be noted that the safety of consuming E-numbers has been verified and moreover, they have allowed us to avail of a wide variety of foods.
Joe acknowledges this: “The materials that are being used, the E-numbers, have been proven to be effective at their job and up to a certain level their general safety has been proven as well. But that’s not sufficient for consumers. They want more, they want better, they want a food ingredient rather than a chemical.”
In other words, the ingredient list of a food product is paramount in terms of a consumer’s priorities when buying food. While the push for clean labelling continues to spread, it’s not exactly a new phenomenon and is something that the Kerry Group has been investing in for many years.
“The idea here was to create a better perception when launching products, and a better degree of safety of the foods being supplied,” Joe reveals.
Of course, it’s not just processed meats that are being looked at, confectionery is another product that has come under scrutiny over the past few decades, particularly in relation to the effects of the levels of of E-numbers and colouring it contains. In the European Union, the response to this was legislation, meaning that companies now have to notify the public clearly on the label when such colours are included.
Going one step further, Joe and his colleagues are trying to find suitable and safe alternatives: “In the lab, we decide what can really be done to replace particular E-numbers, and with ingredients like colours. They need to be able to do the same job as E-numbers but also be more acceptable to consumers.”
An example of where clean labelling has worked effectively is in the confectionery industry, specifically in relation to food colouring. Companies have embraced the trend by swapping E-numbers with natural alternatives. For example, the synthetic red food colour E122 can be replaced with natural red cabbage extract.
Even still, there are challenges facing food businesses hoping to adopt a clean labelling approach, namely cost and sustainability. While manufacturers can take pride at the idea of taking raw ingredients from sustainable sources, it has to be affordable and long-lasting. However, Joe believes that it’s worth the effort and is a process that all companies will inevitably have to get on board with. In the long term, clean labelling will be beneficial to both food businesses and the consumer.
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