Lamb Flavour
Lamb Flavour is a savoury flavour concentrate that reproduces the aroma and taste of cooked sheep meat. Its species character comes from a small group of branched chain fatty acids deposited in ruminant fat, principally 4-methyloctanoic acid, 4-methylnonanoic acid and 4-ethyloctanoic acid, which are formed by rumen microbial metabolism and which give the distinctive mutton note. Around that sit the general cooked meat compounds, pyrazines, thiazoles and sulphur substituted furans from the Maillard reaction, and the aldehydes and ketones generated by oxidation of the fat during cooking.
The trade sells it as a light to dark brown paste, as a spray dried powder on maltodextrin or salt carrier, and as an oil soluble liquid where the flavour goes into a fat phase. Paste and oil grades carry the fullest species character because the branched chain acids are lipophilic and are retained better in a fat matrix than in a spray dried powder. The Maillard top note fraction is volatile and is lost above roughly 120 degrees Celsius, so retort and extrusion applications use a reinforced or encapsulated grade or add the flavour after the thermal step.
We source bulk Lamb Flavour from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Hebei. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
or call +86-21-6858 0751
- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Light to dark brown paste or free flowing powder, uniform |
| Odour and Taste | Characteristic cooked lamb, savoury, no burnt or rancid note |
| Moisture | Not more than 5.0 percent for powder grades |
| Total Solids | Not less than 60.0 percent for paste grades |
| Total Nitrogen | Not less than 3.0 percent |
| Amino Acid Nitrogen | Not less than 1.0 percent |
| Fat | 5.0 to 25.0 percent as declared |
| Sodium Chloride | As declared, plus or minus 2.0 percent |
| pH at 1 percent dispersion | 5.0 to 6.5 |
| Peroxide Value | Not more than 5.0 meq per kg |
| Lead | Not more than 1.0 mg per kg |
| Arsenic | Not more than 0.5 mg per kg |
| Total Plate Count | Not more than 10000 cfu per gram |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades split first between reaction flavour grades, in which the whole profile is generated from hydrolysed protein, reducing sugars, cysteine and a fat source under controlled heat, and extract grades, in which a genuine sheep meat or tallow extract contributes part of the base and gives an authenticity that reaction chemistry alone does not reach. Combinations of the two are usual, and the balance sets both price and labelling status.
Intensity of the species note is the second axis, quoted as a mild grade where the branched chain acid load is deliberately held down for markets that find strong mutton character unappealing, and a full grade where it is raised. Beyond that, buyers specify physical form, salt content, which runs from under 10 percent in a concentrate to over 40 percent in a salt carried powder, flavour strength as a recommended dosage band, and whether the product carries a natural or halal declaration. The halal declaration matters in the main lamb consuming markets.
Applications
- Lamb and mutton soup bases, including instant noodle sachets in lamb variants
- Hot pot bases and dipping sauces built around a lamb profile
- Skewered and grilled lamb seasoning blends, applied as a dry rub
- Lamb sausage, meatball and reformed products, reinforcing flavour in high yield formulations
- Frozen dumpling and bun fillings with a lamb claim
- Bouillon and stock powders sold to retail and catering
- Retort ready meals and canned lamb dishes, where an encapsulated grade survives sterilisation
- Snack seasoning dusts for extruded snacks in cumin lamb variants
- Plant based lamb analogues, supplying the species character the protein base lacks
- Pet food palatants, where the meaty and fatty fraction drives acceptance
China Manufacturers of Lamb Flavour
Top Lamb Flavour manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
In the United States a preparation of this type is handled as a flavour under 21 CFR 101.22. Process flavours built from hydrolysed protein, sugars and amino acids are permitted where each starting material is itself an approved food ingredient, and the branched chain fatty acids used to build the species note carry FEMA GRAS listings as flavouring substances. Hydrolysed protein must be declared by a name identifying the source protein under 21 CFR 102.22, and where the flavour is used in a meat product the labelling rules administered by the Food Safety and Inspection Service also apply.
In the European Union Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 regulates thermal process flavourings, setting the permitted starting materials, the maximum reaction temperature and time, and limits on certain reaction by products. The individual flavouring substances used must appear in the Union list with an FL number. Codex has adopted general guidelines for the use of flavourings, and JECFA has evaluated the aliphatic branched chain acids, the pyrazines, the thiazoles and the sulphur substituted furans as flavouring groups. Soy, wheat and milk derived components trigger allergen declaration in both jurisdictions.
Manufacturing Process
The base is prepared from hydrolysed animal or vegetable protein, produced by treating the raw protein with a bacterial or fungal protease at its pH and temperature optimum until the target degree of hydrolysis is reached, then inactivating the enzyme by heat and filtering out insolubles. Where an extract grade is being made, sheep meat trimmings and bone are cooked in water under pressure, the tallow is separated by centrifugation and part is added back at a controlled level, and the liquor is concentrated under vacuum.
The concentrate is dosed with reducing sugars, cysteine, thiamine, the branched chain fatty acids or a tallow fraction that carries them, and any further precursors, then held in a jacketed pressurised reactor at controlled temperature and time so that the Maillard and lipid derived fractions develop together. Reaction conditions are the critical control, since running the step too long gives a burnt profile and stopping it too early leaves the flavour thin. The reacted mass is cooled, standardised against a reference sample by gas chromatography and sensory panel, and finished according to form: hot filled as paste, emulsified with carbohydrate carrier and spray dried as powder, or spray chilled into a fat matrix where encapsulation is required.
