Article for International Food Ingredients November 2000.

Suddenly, Affordable Saffron.

Saffron.

The saffron plant (Crocus sativus L.) and its spice are shrouded in a glorious and expensive air as well as some ignorance, even among scholars and chefs. The crocus was first domesticated in Crete during the late Bronze Age, where the flavour and colour of the elongated stigmas were prized. It came to be cultivated throughout Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

The spice has traditionally been presented as either a bundle of the cut and dried stigmas of the crocus, or a ground product in sachets. Part of the mystique of saffron comes from the huge number of flowers, about 170,000, to make a kilogram of saffron, compared to the relatively small number of strands actually required to colour and flavour a meal. The current world production of saffron is 130 tonnes per year, growing at some 5% annually. This year's harvest, being completed as we go to press, is healthy and prices look to be steady for the foreseeable future.

Saffron is a completely natural ingredient, but is perceived as luxurious and expensive, hence its restricted use as a food colour and flavour. Surprisingly, the main reason for the expense is not the intrinsic price but the ineffectiveness of cooking in extracting the active principles. Typically, on boiling saffron with rice, the yield is only about 20%. Try this experiment: place 5 strands of a good quality saffron in a glass of water (hot or cold). It will take fully 24 hours for the colour to finish developing because the saffron strands contain plant materials that inhibit extraction, so only a fraction of the active flavour and colour compounds are released, even during cooking.

New Potential of Saffron Extracts:

The goal of a cheaper saffron has been elusive until recently. Now a new Spanish company, Azafrán Los Molinos De La Mancha SL, owner of the international patent for the manufacture of Safrante as well the brand, has started to produce cost-effective saffron under a patented extraction process. By removing masking materials such as cellulose, the flavour and colour can be concentrated into a water soluble form and then dried on industry-friendly maltodextrin. This instantly soluble food ingredient, trade-marked under the name Safrante, is being adopted by food and beverage producers in Europe, North America and the Far East. A number of trials are in progress with major UK manufacturers.

Potential users considering adoption of Safrante have asked about label implications, purity guarantees and organic claims. Particular care has been taken to make the product as close to natural as possible, hence the unwanted plant materials have simply been replaced with the carrier maltodextrin. The patented extraction process utilises freeze drying thereby eliminating the need for solvents. ISO certification is being obtained and since neither pesticides or herbicides are used in the fields, Safrante qualifies as an organic product.

How does Safrante compare with the other natural yellow and orange colours?.

Perhaps surprisingly, saffron and its extracts are very light stable, in stark contrast to the carotenoids and turmeric, all of which fade when the food product is exposed to light. Saffron and Safrante are also heat-stable and survive, for example, boiling with savoury rice or cooking in milk puddings. The shade is unaffected by pH. The main benefit of Safrante, however, is its solubility. It is presented as a powder which is instantly soluble in cold or hot water, unlike almost all the other natural colours which require acid or alkaline solution, or emulsifiers and stabilisers to render them usable. Exceptions are beet red and anthocyanin colours which are water-soluble as powders, but even so, are most often presented as liquids which need to be stabilised with sulphur dioxide.

Legislation on Safrante Colour.

Safrante comes under the same ruling as saffron itself (CI 75100), and can be added to any appropriate food and labelled as "saffron". Maltodextrin (the carrier) must also be declared. A related product, Safrante-Amber, a concentrated saffron colour with minimal flavour, has potential in new applications such as soft drinks, confectionery and sauces. To complete the formalities, Azafrán Los Molinos De La Mancha SL a dossier has been prepared under 7/12/95 2001 /1995 EC to obtain an E number for Safrante-Amber. Safrante-Amber should do well commercially, being even more cost effective that Safrante and on a par with the other natural colours for cost. A number of trials are also underway in the UK with Safrante-Amber.

Nutraceutical implications.

Most new ingredients manage some nutraceutical claim. And so it is with saffron and Safrante! In Cancer Letters in 1996, Escribano reports work at the Universities of Castilla-La Mancha and Yale, where extracts of saffron were found to inhibit cell growth of human tumour cells. The isolated colouring principle, crocin, was found to produce a range of cellular changes, indicative of apoptosis induction, which is now the favoured mechanism of cancer clearance. It was suggested that crocin was a promising compound to be assayed as an anticancer agent. Of course the pharmaceutical industry could not adopt such a well-known compound because it would be impossible to obtain a product patent, so for the meantime, we can look to saffron-containing foods as a source of this compound.

And a final word on genetics.

The saffron-producing crocus does not grow easily; it flowers only in the second year and thereafter gives only one crop per year. It must be propagated vegetatively from corms because it is triploid (has three sets of chromosomes) making it sterile. Only 3-4 cormlets are produced annually so any increase in the crop takes time. This is not uncommon in the plant world, and it means that any genetic improvement (whether GM or traditional) is difficult. Somatic crosses between strains have been achieved to obtain the most pest-resistant varieties, but there is no danger of a GM strain of this plant for the foreseeable future, giving the purists one ingredient that can happily stay on the shelves.

Further details can be obtained from Azafran Los Molinos De La Mancha SL. (see Contact us).

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

CUTTING THE COST OF SAFFRON

A new, highly cost-effective saffron extract called Safrante has been introduced by Azafrán Los Molinos de la Mancha, S.L. Regular saffron strands contain plant materials which inhibit the extration process during cooking and allow only a fraction of the active flavour and colour compounds to be released into the food. With Safrante, the plant material has been replaced with maltodextrin, which allows it to be instantly soluble. Weight for weight, Safrante contains the same amount of active material as standard saffron. However, its instant solubility means that it offers usage rates of 50% or less, and cost reductions of 30 to 40%. Light, heat and shelf-stable, Safrante is produced by a patented physical process to ensure it contains only saffron’s active ingredients and the maltodextrin. It is free of pesticides and GM ingredients. A cheaper, aroma-free Safrante is offered for food aplications where a natural orange colour is needed without the saffron flavour.

Azafrán Los Molinos de la Mancha, S.L., Málaga, Spain.