Soy Sauce Essence
Soy sauce essence is a compounded flavouring that reproduces the aroma and taste of brewed soy sauce in a concentrated form, so that a manufacturer can obtain the character without carrying the water, salt and colour load that liquid soy sauce brings with it. It comes as a liquid concentrate, a paste or a spray dried powder, and is dosed at a fraction of the level at which soy sauce itself would be used.
The profile it reconstructs is the product of a long moromi fermentation. Aspergillus enzymes hydrolyse soy and wheat protein to peptides and free amino acids, glutamate above all, while yeast and lactic acid bacteria generate the volatile fraction. The characterising compounds are 4 hydroxy 2 ethyl 5 methyl 3 furanone and its homologue HEMF, which give the sweet caramel soy note, together with guaiacol and 4 ethylguaiacol for the smoky phenolic edge, methional for the cooked note, and a spread of pyrazines, esters and alcohols contributing to the whole.
Commercial essence is usually built on a concentrated soy sauce or a hydrolysed vegetable protein base with those aroma compounds added or generated by reaction on top. It is dark brown, strongly savoury and either water soluble or, in powder form, freely dispersible in warm water. The furanone notes are heat sensitive and oxidise on storage, so the material is packed under nitrogen and added late in a process.
We source bulk Soy Sauce Essence from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Guangdong. 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.
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- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Dark brown liquid, paste or free flowing brown powder |
| Odour and Taste | Characteristic brewed soy sauce, savoury and slightly caramel, no burnt note |
| Identification | Sensory panel and gas chromatography profile conform to retained reference |
| Total Solids, liquid grades | Not less than 50% |
| Moisture, powder grades | Not more than 5.0% |
| Total Nitrogen | Not less than 1.5% on dry basis |
| Amino Nitrogen | Not less than 0.6% on dry basis |
| Sodium Chloride | As declared per grade |
| pH, 10% aqueous solution | 4.5 to 5.5 |
| 3 Monochloropropane 1,2 diol | Not more than 20 microgram/kg |
| Lead | Not more than 1.0 mg/kg |
| Arsenic | Not more than 0.5 mg/kg |
| Total Plate Count | Not more than 5,000 cfu/g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades separate first on the base. A concentrated brewed grade is made by evaporating genuine fermented soy sauce and building the aroma back on top of the residual solids, and it allows a natural declaration. A hydrolysed protein grade uses acid or enzyme hydrolysed vegetable protein as the savoury base and reaches the profile with reaction chemistry and compounded aroma at a lower cost. A wholly compounded grade contains no fermented material at all and is a flavouring in the strict sense.
Format grades cover liquid concentrates quoted on total solids and total nitrogen, pastes at higher solids for wet dosing, and spray dried powders on maltodextrin or salt carriers for dry blends, with the last of these losing part of the volatile top note during drying. Salt content is specified separately because it varies from near zero in a desalted concentrate to over forty percent in a plated powder. Wheat free grades are made where a gluten declaration must be avoided, and low sodium grades are offered for reduced salt reformulation.
Applications
- Instant noodle and soup seasoning sachets, supplying soy character without the moisture of a liquid
- Dry seasoning blends and coating mixes, where liquid soy sauce cannot be used
- Snack seasonings tumbled onto crisps, rice crackers and extruded snacks
- Meat marinades, injection brines and tumbling systems for teriyaki and roast profiles
- Retorted ready meals and sauces, dosed after sterilisation to restore aroma destroyed by heat
- Sauce and gravy bases in central kitchen production, standardising batch to batch profile
- Sushi, rice seasoning and sushi vinegar preparations
- Plant protein products, adding fermented depth that the base protein lacks
- Bakery and cracker doughs in savoury varieties, using a heat stable powder grade
- Pet food palatants, contributing fermented savoury notes to the coating
China Manufacturers of Soy Sauce Essence
Top Soy Sauce Essence 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
Soy sauce essence is a flavouring rather than a food additive, so it carries no E number. In the European Union its individual flavouring substances must appear on the Union list of flavouring substances authorised for use in and on foods, and any reaction base falls under the thermal process flavourings provisions of the flavourings framework, which restrict the starting materials, cap the reaction temperature and duration and limit specified process contaminants in the finished flavouring. In the United States compounded flavours of this class are cleared through the FEMA GRAS programme, and hydrolysed vegetable protein and fermented soy sauce are established food ingredients in their own right.
Two compliance points recur. Soy and, where a wheat base is used, gluten are declarable allergens in all major markets and must appear in the ingredient list even when the material is described as a flavouring. Where the savoury base has been made by acid hydrolysis rather than by fermentation or enzymatic hydrolysis, chloropropanols are formed as process contaminants and are subject to maximum levels in hydrolysed vegetable protein and soy sauce in the European Union, with Codex addressing the same contaminants through its code of practice for their reduction. Manufacture in the United States sits under the preventive controls requirements for human food.
Manufacturing Process
Where the base is fermented, brewed soy sauce is filtered and concentrated under vacuum at low temperature, and the aroma stripped during evaporation is captured in a condenser and rectified so that it can be returned to the concentrate rather than lost. Desalting by membrane or by crystallisation is carried out where a low sodium grade is wanted. Where the base is hydrolysed protein, defatted soy meal or wheat gluten is hydrolysed by acid or by protease, neutralised, decolourised over carbon and filtered to give a clear savoury liquor.
The aroma layer is then built. A reaction step in a jacketed pressure vessel cooks reducing sugars with amino acids, cysteine and the protein hydrolysate through a controlled temperature and time curve to generate the furanones, pyrazines and Strecker aldehydes that carry the soy character, after which the batch is cooled quickly and neutralised. Compounding adds heat sensitive top notes, guaiacol and related phenolics, esters and the recovered fermentation distillate to the cooled base, together with glutamate and ribonucleotides where a taste contribution is specified. Liquid grades are standardised, filtered and filled under nitrogen. Powder grades are blended with a carrier, homogenised into a feed slurry and spray dried, then sieved and packed with a moisture barrier.
