For years, food companies have been searching for answers to consumer demands for healthier products that actually taste good.
Wixon Inc. has developed a line of ingredients that minimize or mask unpleasant flavors, enhance desirable ones and offer solutions to modify the basic perceptions of flavor.
At its five-building, 300,000-square-foot headquarters in St. Francis, the company manufactures a comprehensive line of ingredients and finished products for the food and beverage industry.
Charles Franklin Wixon founded the company in 1907 in downtown Chicago. Back then, he pushed his spice cart around, selling his spices to local sausage makers.
Today, Wixon offers innovative flavor alternatives.
“Many (companies) have added vitamins, minerals, botanicals and healthful nutrients to appeal to consumers, while others have tried to remove unwanted fats, sodium and sugar,” said Ron Sonntag, co-owner of Ron Sonntag Public Relations Inc.
Adding or removing ingredients can create flavor problems, however. Food might be bitter or have an undesirable aftertaste.
Such a taste challenge led Wixon to develop ingredients to mask unpleasant flavors and enhance desirable ones.
“The result was the technological breakthrough of taste modifiers called Mag-nifique Flavor Technologies,” Sonntag said.
The “Mag-” in Mag-nifique is named for a molecule synthesized into some of Wixon’s products, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate, said Peter Gottsacker, Wixon’s president.
“The last part of the word is our French heritage that makes these products ‘magnificent,’ a little play on word,” Gottsacker said.
Mag-nifique Flavor Technologies allows companies to include healthier ingredients, remove or reduce fats, sodium, sugar and other particulars, and allows them to place health and ingredient claims on labels to attract health-seeking customers.
The line of Mag-nifiques includes products that reduce or do away with the presence of bitterness, sourness, saltiness, sweetness and grassy flavors typical of botanicals. KCLean Salt, a salt substitute that reduces sodium consumption by 50 percent while maintaining the flavor of salt, was introduced shortly after the Mag-nifique line about six months ago after three years of research.
Address: 1390 E. Bolivar Ave., St. Francis
Web Site: www.wixon.com
Industry: Food ingredients
Innovations: Developed new ingredients that enhance flavors and make food healthier.
