Suel Anglin media release
Advances In Food Chemistry Allow American Quality Foods To Create Sugar-Free Desserts Without Sacrificing Taste
MILLS RIVER, NC (April 20, 2010) – “We tested over 2000 variations on our muffins, 12 at a time, to settle on our current five flavors,” explained Suel Anglin, product development chemist at American Quality Foods in Mills River, NC. “Some ingredients with long technical-sounding names are being replaced with more answers from the natural side of biochemistry. Lots of changes in fruit production, for example, are giving us new products we use instead of highly processed compounds.”
Anglin plays a pivotal role at AQF, which creates and manufactures high quality, delicious-tasting desserts for healthcare facilities, corporations, schools, casinos and hotels with its line of low- or no-sugar, reduced fat, low calorie low sodium muffins, cakes, cookies, pies, gelatins, puddings and mousses. “I think about my grandmother’s recipes,” he said. “Here was this petite North Carolina mountain woman producing huge amounts of delicious food at a moment’s notice. Everything tasted so good – and that’s my approach. To be inspired first by the taste of mom’s recipes but to translate ‘a pinch of this’ into grams.”
With over 5,000 food service accounts across the United States, AQF began as a producer of desserts for diabetics. But the company, which now occupies a 17,000 square foot facility and employs 32 people, has found a much broader audience of food service clients who want healthy but good-tasting desserts. “We start with the taste,” said Anglin, “and then we worry about the numbers.”
From a food chemistry standpoint, one of the biggest challenges is to understand how to replace not only the sweetness when sugar is removed but also the fiber and bulk in sugar-free baked goods. New and better ways to use fiber-boosting by-products – pre- or pro-biotic ingredients which also boost absorption of nutrients and minerals – results in superior taste, texture and appearance.
“One of the best out there is inulin, which is derived from chicory root or Jerusalem artichokes,” said Anglin. “It’s dehydrated as a powder and when used in our mixes, has the texture and consistency of sugar. It’s a good fiber source, is a low-glycemic compound, and helps with absorption of nutrients. It also mimics fat, helping you retain the ‘mouth feel’ of a sugary, buttery dessert.”
If Anglin’s language sounds like a wine connoisseur, it’s because that’s where he started his career – at high-end resorts and hotels. His palate for wine and wine and food pairings serves him well in his current role at AQF. When he first began, he was struck by the less-than-appetizing presentation of other products on the market when he attended food service trade shows. So he began with the aesthetics of presenting the company’s products. “I knew there was an opportunity for broader appeal,” said Anglin. “So I took our products and simply made ‘high tea’ out of them.”
Balancing the need for quality, taste, nutrition, texture, digestive compatibility and visual appeal, AQF now offers over 100 different desserts, frostings, drinks and fillings. Anglin is at work on developing a sugar-free pie crust, along the same lines as a graham cracker or vanilla wafer crust, but with a better flavor and taste than the products currently in the market.
“It requires me to pull from my education in bio-chemistry but also my work in the hospitality industry,” he said. “Even in creating things of great beauty, you have to have discipline.”
American Quality Foods, founded and headed by CEO Kathy Milner, is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and for the past three years has been listed as one of the top 100 fastest growing food companies in the United States by INC Magazine. Located in Mills River, North Carolina, 15 miles southwest of Asheville, the company produces over 100 premium, diet, and low-fat dessert mixes. Additional information may be found by visiting www.americanqualityfoods.com
Please direct inquires to Randy Fluharty, American Quality Foods, 353 Banner Farm Road, Mills River, NC 28759. The company may also be reached by calling 1-800-348-7416 or by emailing randyf@americanqualityfoods.com.
