Potassium Chloride Appeals to New Product Manufacturers
Many ready meal manufacturers are formulating with potassium chloride, and this industry is the leading category of new food and beverage products using sodium replacers as an ingredient.
Many ready meal manufacturers are formulating with potassium chloride, and this industry is the leading category of new food and beverage products using sodium replacers as an ingredient. The first three quarters of 2017 has already seen more ready meal launches that include potassium chloride as an ingredient than all of 2016, which signals a return to 2015 new product inclusions, Innova Market Insights reports.
Potassium chloride’s inclusion in new ready meal products is not surprising as the food industry moves to reduce sodium chloride in its products. Frozen entrees, especially, have come under scrutiny in recent years for their nutritional content, including sodium levels. For example, some frozen entrees contain nearly the same amount of sodium per serving as the daily amount spelled out in the key recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines 2015-2020—2,300 milligrams of sodium per day.
Consumers are being urged to pay closer attention to sodium levels in frozen meals. In turn, food manufacturers are reformulating and launching new frozen entrees with lower sodium levels using potassium chloride as one of their formulation options. Meat manufacturers, too, are searching for ways to reduce sodium in their products due to consumers’ healthful eating trends. Processed meat manufacturers, in particular, have been interested in formulating with potassium chloride because it functions similarly to sodium chloride in preserving meat and keeping it tender.
Potassium, a mineral acknowledged by nutritionists as lacking in many Americans’ diets, is also an electrolyte that plays important roles in regulating fluid balance, blood pressure and kidney function in the body. In recent years, potassium chloride is being formulated into several new sports nutrition product launches, including supplement powders and drinks. Other health-driven categories, such as supplements and clinical nutrition products, along with baby and toddler products, have steadily been including potassium chloride in new product introductions as well. In fact, data from the first three quarters of 2017 indicate new meat, fish and egg product launches, which include potassium chloride as an ingredient, are tracking ahead of quarters 1 through 3 in the prior year, 2016. That’s more evidence the potassium chloride trend is on the upswing.
Bottom line: Potassium chloride is an ingredient to watch in the coming years as we continue to develop alternatives that help reduce sodium consumption in American diets.
Innova Market Insights. Go to: http://www.innovadatabase.com
USDA, USDHHS, Dietary Guidelines 2015-2020. Go to: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/chapter-1/key-recommendations/
NPR, “When Food Firms Cut the Salt, What Do They Put In Instead?” by Alan Y. Aug. 4, 2016. Go to: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/04/486960237/when-food-firms-cut-the-salt-what-do-they-put-in-instead
National Provisioner, “Reducing Sodium in Meat and Poultry Products,” by Elizabeth Fuhrman. July 6, 2017. Go to: https://www.provisioneronline.com/articles/105015-reducing-sodium-in-meat-and-poultry-products