Campden BRI case study

We were challenged as part of a project for the Food & Health Innovation Service (FHIS) to reformulate economy beef burgers to make them healthier.

Our aim was to reduce the sodium (salt) content of beef burgers while adding beta-glucan (soluble fibre) because this has been associated with reductions in blood cholesterol concentrations, coronary heart disease risk, and reductions in post-prandial glycaemic responses (the change in blood glucose concentration after a meal).

Economy beef burgers contain a minimum of 47% beef and ‘fillers’ are used as a bulking agent. Whilst the ‘fillers’ can help manage the cost of the burger, they also provide an opportunity to re-formulate the nutritional content.

Our food development scientists worked in our pilot plant to create three variations of the economy beef burger using fine milled oat bran, milled oats or ground quick oats to replace low fibre rusk filler. The sodium content, cook loss and taste of the reformulated beef burgers were then compared to the ordinary economy burger. Cook loss is the inevitable loss in burger weight during cooking.

The three reformulated beef burgers contained almost a third less sodium than the ordinary economy burger and all met the category-specific 300 mg Na/100 g target set by the Department of Health for 2017.

All the beef burgers were cooked to an internal temperature of 70°C for 2 minutes and weighed to determine the cook loss. The burgers made with oat bran filler retained moisture best and had a similar cook loss to the ordinary economy burger – 26.9g compared to 26.1g respectively.

Informal tastings showed that the beef burgers containing oat bran filler were preferred to the ordinary economy burger.

The work showed that substituting rusk filler in economy beef burgers with oat bran filler produced a burger that contained less sodium, more fibre and crucially had a preferred taste to an ordinary economy burger.

To find out more about how Campden BRI can help make your ideas a reality and support improved nutrition through innovative new product development, please contact:

Philip Richardson, Head of Food Manufacturing Technologies
+44(0)1386 842036
philip.richardson@campdenbri.co.uk