Wixon Inc.
St. Francis
www.wixon.com
Industry: Manufacturing (Spices)
Innovation: Wix-Fresh Reduced Sodium System
The food industry in the United States is one of the most heavily regulated industries around. For safety, the government enforces particular standards to preserve and protect our food from contamination. According to Scott Gilbertson, flavor chemist at Wixon, Inc., the company expects more regulations concerning sodium to emerge in the food industry as more focus turns to health.
“We want to be ahead of the regulations,” Gilbertson said. “And we want to be able to reduce the sodium in a food product without it tasting any differently.”
Wixon’s Wix-Fresh Reduced Sodium System was released in 2012 after the company made some changes to a process they came up with a few years ago.
“The original process wasn’t as cost-effective as it needed to be,” Gilbertson said. “Now, with the Wix-Fresh Reduced Sodium System, we’re able to reduce the sodium 10 to 50 percent, whatever the customer wants, by using a series of natural ingredients and we can do so without changing the flavor.”
Since Wixon already had a reduced sodium process in place, the latest research was dedicated to finding a production-friendly way of completing the process, Gilbertson said.
The new process doesn’t reduce the shelf life of the product or affect the taste of the product, Gilbertson said.
“That’s what drives us to do what we do,” he said. “If we can be a part of making food healthier while also not changing the taste or the integrity of the food, we’re all about that.”
According to Kim Holman, director of marketing, the process has opened several doors for the company. In addition to positioning Wixon as an expert in the food health and wellness arena, the product has also added more than $1 million in sales during its first year.
