Are natural flavors natural? Yes, but are they good for us? NO!
Today we learn from my friend, writer and author Mark Schatzker. Mark started his journey into agriculture seeking what he thought would be a simple and fun task; to find the best piece of beef he could find. That search lead him to write the book Steak: One Mans Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef. In that process he found that the best steak he ate was a grassfed steak. Unfortunately, the worst steak he ate was also a grassfed steak. That lead Mark to another burning question about flavor and taste. What made one grassfed steak the best and the other the worst? Why do junk foods taste so good? Mark wanted an answer to these questions which lead to research on his latest book on natural flavors; The Dorito Effect.
You might be wondering what this has to do with livestock production. It has a LOT to do with livestock production. People will buy your product because they believe it is a healthier product. People will buy your product because they believe it is better for the environment. People will buy your product because they like your story. People will buy for a lot of reasons and this is true if you are selling direct to the consumer or to a beef buyer. People will generally ONLY buy a second time for ONE REASON ... taste! If your product doesn't taste good, people will generally not buy it again. Certainly there are those 2 percenters that will eat something they don't like because it is supposed to be good for them but as producers we can't survive on the 2 percenters. We have to have the other 98% to survive and thrive. At the end of the day, if our product doesn't taste good, people will NOT buy it again.
In this training we don't talk about how to specifically improve the taste of your beef, we talk about that in other training's like this training with Dr. Anibol Prodomingo or this training. We also talk about with improving your beef and genetics with Dr. Allen Williams in a two part series here and here.
In this training we talk about natural flavor additives that we found in most foods on the store shelves today. Understanding this new challenge will help you in telling your story and to explain one more attribute that makes your product better. This training will be helpful to anyone that buys food at the grocery store or cares about their families health. So be ready to learn a lot about food in this training on the new book by Mark Schatzker - The Dorito Effect which I highly recommend you read. Mark is a great writer and story teller, so listening to Mark and reading his books will help you tell your story better.
So who is Mark Schatzker? Mark is a food journalist specializing in flavor and nutrition. He is the author of two books, Steak and The Dorito Effect, and his writing has appeared in publications that include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Men’s Journal and Best American Travel Writing. Mark is also a field reporter for The Dr. Oz Show and is a radio columnist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three children.