62
MAY 2017
FOOD FOCUSTHAILAND
STRATEGIC
R & D
HalalFood
&
Halal Ingredients
Halal food refers to food or
productsapprovedby Islamic
law for Muslims consumption
or utilization.
The value of the Halal food
industry worldwide is worth
approximately between USD 150
billion to USD 200 billion. This figure
has grown continuously for more
than20%eachyear.Thailandasone
of the world’s major food exporters
exports food to Muslim countries
(Organizationof IslamicCooperation;
OIC)worthmore thanUSD5.11billion,
accountingby17.14% from the total
tradingamount ofHalal food in the
global. Thailand is theworld’s 13
th
largest Halal food suppliers. The top
fiveHalal food export markets are Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Benin,
and theUnitedArabEmirates or UAE.
Halal food from Thailand is very popular in Indonesia. Indonesian
peoplecalledThaiHalal foodas “BangkokProduct”becauseconsumers
are confident in taste, quality and standards. Food enterprises, thus,
should not overlook this Halal food market. To serve high demand of
Halal food in theglobal, and to increase themarket share in themarket,
Thai foodmanufacturers should seek for rawmaterials and ingredients
withhavingHalal certificated for their foodproduction.
Based on a survey in the Netherlands
1
, a survey derived from 500
people found thatmore than50%of the respondentsgavehighattention
to the freshnessandoriginal tasteof food.Asa result, themanufacturers
have created and sought for rawmaterials and ingredients that meet
consumers’ demand. Those consumers’ concernsare suchason clean
label, natural, have natural taste like consumers cook at their home,
contains a small amount of sugar and salt, while not addMSG
2
.
Consequently,most foodmanufacturershavesearched for ingredients
creating delicious food and make from natural ingredients in order to
replaceMSG
2
.Yeast extract isalsocountedas ingredient in food. It can
alsobeseasoningwhichhelps food tastebetter,whilemaintain its taste
standard, and not harm consumers’ health.
What isYeast Extract?
Yeast is single-celledmicroorganism. Most yeasts reproduce asexually
by the asymmetric division process known as budding. Yeast can be
foundgenerally insoil,especiallywherehavehigh intensityofsugarsuch
as sweet fruit juice. Currently, yeast has been used in various food
industries, for instances,alcoholicbeverageproduction,bread,andyeast
extract, etc.
Yeast extract is extracted from the cytoplasm, which is RNAof the
yeast. It is in form of brown liquid. The main components are protein,
vitamins andminerals that areuseful. It has smell likemeat and canbe
used as a flavoringagent.
Yeast extract canbedivided into three groups as follows:
1. Basic Yeast
provides taste as fishy food, noMSG, and can
enhance the salty taste so that noneed toadd largeamount of salt.
It can improve taste of food, make food delicious or “Umami” and
“Kokumi”, and help add flavor to food.
From Figure 3, the meatballs are cooked under two recipes:
control and yeast extract added. It was found that the yeast extract
recipe can help enhance flavor of meatballs better than the control
recipe, which does not use yeast extract.
2.ProcessFlavorEnhancer
isamaillard reactionyeastextract.
The process flavor enhancer helps enhance specific flavor of food,
including the smell of meat and the smell of spices, such as baked,
steamed, boiled, fried, and roasted beef, chicken, and fish. As we
areknown thatspicesarecostly,while itsqualityarevarieddepending
onweathercondition,sourceofgrowing,humid,andmicroorganisms
whicharedifficult to control.Asa result, aprocess flavor enhancers
withhavingvarious tastesandflavors i.e.garlic,shallots,andSichuan
pepper, have been developed for using in the food industry.
From Figure 4, it is an experiment for red stewed beef noodle
with soup. The first recipe (Green graph), is a recipe that does not
use process flavor-roasted garlic. The second recipe (Blue graph)
used0.07%of process flavor-roastedgarlic. It is clear that the soup
in the second recipehas strong flavor of fried-garlic. Thus, it canbe
summarized that the use of process flavor enhancer helps reduce
cost of meat or spices.
3. Flavor Enhancer
is a yeast extract improving taste of food
(orUmami). It helps tobalanceandenhance tasteof food inoverall.
From Figure 5, it can be seen that the use of small amount of
flavor enhancer and high flavor enhancer will enhance better beef
burger’s tasteand flavor.
Following theClean food, Good taste awareness in the society,
foodmanufacturershavepaidhighattention to the selectionof food
ingredients by focusing on the use of natural extract and others
certificationsuchasGMP,HACCPandetc.When foodmanufacturers
would like toexport food toMuslimcountries, their foodproductsare
needed to get Halal certification. Moreover, food should have good
taste. Yeast extract is an alternative choice to serve Muslim
consumers, health- conscious people, aswell as vegetarians.
Nowadays, thereareabout2billionMuslimpeoplearound theglobal from
the total ofmore than7billionworld’spopulation.The topfivecountries
that havehighest numbersofMuslimpopulationare included Indonesia
(which are accounted by 12.7% of the world’s Muslim population),
following by Pakistan (11.0%), India (10.9%), Bangladesh (9.2%) and
Egypt (4.9%).
