MEXICAN ENCHILADA SAUCE - PART I

Formulation

Steve's challenge was to create a product that matched Pedro's existing sauce. He could either experiment with different ingredient combinations or utilize Pedro's formula. The latter was obviously the easiest and quickest. So he approached Julian Estrada, Pedro's Director of Research and Development. Julian readily consented to provide the sauce formula. But it wasn't that simple. Processor's view product formulas as proprietary, and thus will usually not reveal all the details. So the formulation that Steve got wasn't complete. All the ingredients were included, but the percentages were skewed. When he tried to duplicate the product using that formula, he was unsuccessful. Steve asked Julian about this apparent dilemma. The reply was the that he had given them the "official" formula. Little did Steve realize at the time that duplicating the product would be the most difficult and time consuming aspect of the project.

It was obvious to Steve that some details were missing in the formula that Julian had provided. So he set out to figure out what amounts of each of the ingredients was necessary to duplicate Pedro's sauce.

Pedro's sauce contained some 23 ingredients. For Steve to combine the ingredients in the exact way that Pedro's supplier did seemed to be impossible. But he was confident that his team could do it.

The predominate ingredients were tomatoes, jalapeno oil, modified food starch and green chili peppers. The tomato component was relatively easy for Steve to figure out; after all, Milanos had a lot of experience as a tomato processor. Furthermore, Steve knew what kind and how much salsa Pedro's used.

Steve suspected that jalapeno oil was the unique component It was very distinct due to the "heat" and flavor it generates, and was only produced by 3-4 companies. Addition of exactly the right amount was critical.

Modified food starch was a commonly used thickening agent in formulated foods. Since there were literally dozens of these starches available for food use, it was critical to figure out which one (or ones) would provide the appropriate functional properties. Surprisingly, Julian didn't know - or at least, he claimed not to know. Selection of the right starch and the appropriate processing of the product containing it were essential steps. Furthermore, the other constituents in the sauce could influence the functional properties of the starch.

Steve and his assistants spent 70 days on the formulation. And the pressure was on from Pedro. Julian called at least once a week to see how close they were to finalizing the product. He even implied that if Steve was unable to provide the product "soon", they would seek another supplier. This made Steve very nervous because he knew that Milano's reputation as a quality supplier - and perhaps his future - was on the line. Don had made it very clear that this was a top priority for new business development in the company, and had set rather ambitious, but seemingly realistic and attainable business goals.

When the sauce was prepared at Pedro's restaurants, the flavors that were released in the resulting enchilada were "fresh" and intense. When Steve made the sauce in his laboratory and stored it, the flavors in the enchilada were muffled and hard to detect. Therefore, it was clear that the flavors needed to be much more intense in Milano's finished product. Steve decided to use a different type of seasoning.

To add to the difficulty in flavor reproduction, Milano had to find people who were good flavor testers within their own company. It was hard to determine who had the ability to detect these flavors.

The dry seasoning packet that Pedro used in their sauce contained several preservatives to ensure that the sauce tasted fresh in their restaurants. The preservatives also prevented the package contents from clumping. The seasoning mix could be in storage for months, and thus it was important to prevent spoilage, clumping and flavor loss.

Antimicrobial agents weren't necessary in the RTU sauce that Milano was formulating. The composition and the processing ensured that it would be safe. The pH of the product was low enough that C. Botulinum would not be a problem. However, yeasts and molds could cause quality deterioration. To prevent yeast growth, the product was designed for hot fill (190F for 3-4 minutes).

However, the Pedro's formulation did use one preservative - EDTA. Oxidation can cause color changes and thus shorten the shelf-life of these types of products. EDTA prevents oxidation from occurring. Without EDTA, the product would have a much shorter shelf-life.

During their attempts to reproduce Pedro's sauce, Steve got to the point where he was making mexican-style enchilada several times a day. Although the ingredients he used smelled good, the flavor components volatilized quickly. The resulting enchilada was relatively tasteless.

Formulation turned out to be more time consuming than Steve had anticipated. He and his team spent almost a year from the refinement of the concept to getting product samples to Pedro for evaluation. Subsequently, Julian responded with a number of criticisms about the samples Steve provided: too thick, too thin, tomato pieces too big, tomato pieces too small, peppers weren't right, etc.