The market for natural vegetable juices has been expanded by this innovation from Diana Vegetal (Valley Cottage, N.Y.), as the juices no longer are limited to applications where high salt and vinegar flavor is acceptable, such as in salad dressings. Newer product applications include soups, sauces, seasonings, salad dressings, prepared meals, baby foods, drinks, flavoring compounds, functional foods, dietetics and other prepared foods in which natural vegetable flavor is desired.
The most widespread use of these highly concentrated vegetable juices is liquid soups. According to Thierry Jones, general manager, one of the company's most popular offerings is the Mire Poix blend. This product incorporates onion, carrot and celery juices to form the traditional culinary vegetable base that has been the cornerstone flavor of soups and sauces for centuries. Jones claims these vegetable concentrates are good for any application where natural is a good fit and, because of this, they are able to go where some flavors cannot. In addition to the single vegetable juice concentrates, Diana Vegetal has launched culinary aid forms of each vegetable, including sautéed, poached and sweated notes. Beyond the normal line of vegetable juice concentrates, the company also is rolling out an organic line, and organic onion, carrot, celery and red beet (color) already are available.