In a test kitchen in the basement of an Old Mill office building, chef Joshua Hobbs has been busy whipping up new varieties of sauces, cookies, pickles and rolls. Everything he makes is designed to better understand one ingredient: salt.
Hobbs is cooking for Nu-Tek Food Science, a firm led by four former ConAgra employees who say they have made a scientific breakthrough with a new low-sodium salt product, Salt for Life. With a patent and industry awards to show, Nu-Tek is now shopping the product to supermarket chains, packaged food manufacturers and suppliers, restaurants and institutional food service providers.
The story of the product's development sheds light on the ways food makers are responding to consumers' health concerns, the challenges manufacturers face and the conflicted relationship consumers have with products billed as more healthful. While processed food sometimes is blamed for the nation's problem with obesity and other health ills, Nu-Tek's makers say the interest in their product shows an industry making efforts to improve Americans' diets.
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