Licorice products have been developed over the last 30 years to provide solutions for product development where improvements in taste and sweetness of consumer products are required. Experience in applications has shown licorice products to be very versatile in solving a wide range of problems with consumer products in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceuticals and cosmetic industries. This versatility is a result of the following key attributes inherent in all licorice products.

Eliminate Undesirable Aftertastes

Licorice products effectively masks a wide variety of unpleasant tastes in consumer products. These are the bitter, astringent, sour, acidic, metallic and medicinal tastes often encountered in consumer products. Licorice products’ effectiveness at masking undesirable tastes is achieved at very low dosages allowing for economic constraints to be satisfied in product development efforts.

Intensify Sweetness

Licorice products utilizes the natural flavors found in Glycyrrhizic Acid as a basis for its sweet taste. The synergistic properties of Glycyrrhizic Acid, combined with another sweetener, or ingredient containing natural sweeteners, will increase the sweetness peak of consumer products. This peak extension will lead to a more intense sweetness profile which can be optimized within the application to reduce the requirement for a sweetener or other ingredients resulting in a net savings in product development.

Extend Sweetness

The natural flavor of Glycyrrhizic Acid has a sweet characteristic taste which is both delayed in onset and prolonged after onset. When it is used with other sweeteners and flavor ingredients containing natural and artificial sugar substitutes it extends the sweetness profile uniformly. This is very desirable in a wide range of products to achieve consistency when used by consumers.

Enhance and Extend Flavors

Glycyrrhizic Acid improves taste perception in product development by improving the flavor strength and the flavor duration. Applications involving chewing gums, chewable vitamins and lozenges, etc., are particularly well suited for benefiting from this attribute of Glycyrrhizic Acid. Improvement of perception will allow for the flavors to be optimized.

Improve Mouthfeel

Licorice products has two unique properties related to sensory perception: mouthfeel and foaming. Mouthfeel is triggered by the hydro-colloidic effect of certain Glycyrrhizic Acid based licorice products with water and work to create a “silky smooth” texture in reduced and fat free products. Select Glycyrrhizic Acids based licorice products products also have the ability to produce a foamy texture to products. Foaminess is a useful characteristic in applications such as oral care products and selected beverages.