Sponsored by Voyage Foods
Operators can replace popular nut-based spreads such as a peanut butter or hazelnut cocoa spread using nut-free products that have been carefully developed to mimic the flavor and other attributes of the original versions.
Nut-free spreads such as the Peanut-Free Spread and Hazelnut-Free Spread from Voyage Foods can be used as allergy-friendly replacements in menu items that will allow customers who suffer from food allergies to enjoy dishes they would otherwise avoid. Consider recipes such as Nut-Free Smoothies or Hazelnut-Free Swirled Banana Bread for breakfast, Peanut-Free Salad Dressing for lunch, or Peanut-Free/Hazelnut-Free Milkshakes or Peanut-Free Donuts for dessert.
Ensuring allergy-friendly menu offerings in a foodservice environment can be a challenging and complicated undertaking, says Adam Maxwell, founder and CEO of Voyage Foods. It requires a top-down approach in which leadership embraces the importance of the mission and implements processes and procedures that support it.
“Keeping the importance of allergy-friendly solutions front and center at the leadership level, making sure that people have enough training, and ensuring these solutions are actually implemented is really the most important thing,” he says.
Voyage has made significant investments to ensure that its products provide a taste experience that is similar to the products they replace, and that they can be substituted in recipes as a 1:1 replacement for traditional seed and nut butters and spreads. The company has several patents and some two-dozen research-and-development specialists working on its products.
Easy to swap
Voyage Foods uses seed blends and other ingredients to mimic the taste and texture of the products they replace so that they can easily be swapped out in existing recipes, Maxwell says.
“If you were making a hazelnut cream-filled doughnut, you could make that with our Hazelnut-Free Spread, just like you would use a standard, commercial hazelnut paste,” says Maxwell.
Because of their sweet flavor profiles, the products have seen significant uptake in baked goods and dessert items, he says, noting that they are also designed to work well in savory dishes such as peanut-free sauces and dressings.
“They really do have the flexibility of the ingredients they are replacing,” he says.
Chef Eli Kirshtein says foodservice menu-development professionals can start simply by substituting the peanut butter or hazelnut spreads in their existing recipes with the Voyage Foods Peanut-Free Spread and Hazelnut-Free Spread, respectively.
“Don't overthink it,” he says. “Any application you would normally use nut- or allergen-inclusive products in are great jumping off points.”
The nut-free products also don’t have to be the focal point of the recipes, Kirshtein says.
“Using them as a flavor or a background note is totally fine,” he says.
He agrees that desserts and baked goods such as donuts and brownies are often the first place operators look to swap out their traditional nut butters and spreads, but also notes the opportunities for savory applications to incorporate nut-free replacements.
“For savory applications, I love being able to use nut-free pastes in Southeast Asian flavors like pad Thai or in hoisin-based dipping sauces,” Kirshtein says.
Educating staff about why allergen avoidance is important should always be the first priority for operators, he says.
“Make sure to emphasize that you are doing these things in order to be more inclusive and to bring your food to more people,” he says. “Secondly, make sure to really educate the risks of allergens and why it is important to be very vigilant around them.”
Working with vendors who have developed alternative ingredients, whether they are gluten-free, dairy-free, or nut-free, like Voyage Foods, is a good way for operators to create innovative products that satisfy the dietary preferences of their customers – without compromising on great flavor, Maxwell says. Voyage Foods has also supported foodservice operators with display materials and other collateral that helps convey the allergen-free attributes of the products.
Voyage Foods makes its Peanut-Free Spread and Hazelnut-Free Spread using seed blends and other ingredients that are produced in facilities certified free from the top 9 allergens. In addition, the ingredients that the company uses are also better for the environment and upcycled where possible. The products have clean labels and are nutritionally similar to their traditional nut-based counterparts.
For more information about how Voyage Foods can provide allergen-free solutions to support your menu development, visit VoyageFoods.com.