Flavor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about flavor as a sensory impression. For the particle property, see Flavour (particle
physics). For other uses, see Flavor (disambiguation).
Flavor (American English) or Flavour (British English; see spelling differences) is the sensory
impression of food or other substance, and is determined primarily by the chemical senses of taste and
smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat, as well as
temperature and texture, are also important to the overall gestalt of flavor perception. The flavor of the
food, as such, can be altered with natural or artificial flavorants which affect these senses.
A "flavorant" is defined as a substance that gives another substance flavor, altering the characteristics
of the solute, causing it to become sweet, sour, tangy, etc.[citation needed]
Of the three chemical senses, smell is the main determinant of a food item's flavor. While only five
basic tastes sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savory) are universally recognized, the number of
food smells is unbounded. A food's flavor, therefore, can be easily altered by changing its smell while
keeping its taste similar. This is exemplified in artificially flavored jellies, soft drinks and candies,
which, while made of bases with a similar taste, have dramatically different flavors due to the use of
different scents or fragrances. The flavorings of commercially produced food products are typically
created by flavorists.
Although the terms flavoring and flavorant in common language denote the combined chemical
sensations of taste and smell, the same terms are used in the fragrance and flavors industry to refer to
edible chemicals and extracts that alter the flavor of food and food products through the sense of smell.
Due to the high cost or unavailability of natural flavor extracts, most commercial flavorants are
"nature-identical", which means that they are the chemical equivalent of natural flavors, but chemically
synthesized rather than being extracted from source materials. Identification of components of natural
foods, for example a raspberry, maybe done using technology such as headspace techniques, so the
flavorist can imitate the flavor by using a few of the same chemicals present.
Flavorants or flavorings
Flavorings are focused on altering the flavors of natural food product such as meats and vegetables, or
creating flavor for food products that do not have the desired flavors such as candies and other snacks.
Most types of flavorings are focused on scent and taste. Few commercial products exist to stimulate the
trigeminal senses, since these are sharp, astringent, and typically unpleasant flavors.
Three principal types of flavorings are used in foods, under definitions agreed in the EU and Australia:
[1]

Type Description
These flavoring substances are obtained from plant or animal raw materials, by
Natural flavoring physical, microbiological, or enzymatic processes. They can be either used in
substances their natural state or processed for human consumption, but cannot contain any
nature-identical or artificial flavoring substances.
These are obtained by synthesis or isolated through chemical processes, which
Nature-identical are chemically and organoleptically identical to flavoring substances naturally
flavoring substances present in products intended for human consumption. They cannot contain any
artificial flavoring substances.
These are not identified in a natural product intended for human consumption,
whether or not the product is processed. These are typically produced by
Artificial flavoring
fractional distillation and additional chemical manipulation of naturally sourced
substances
chemicals, crude oil, or coal tar. Although they are chemically different, in
sensory characteristics they are the same as natural ones.
Most artificial flavors are specific and often complex mixtures of singular naturally occurring flavor
compounds combined together to either imitate or enhance a natural flavor. These mixtures are
formulated by flavorists to give a food product a unique flavor and to maintain flavor consistency
between different product batches or after recipe changes. The list of known flavoring agents includes
thousands of molecular compounds, and the flavor chemist (flavorist) can often mix these together to
produce many of the common flavors. Many flavorants consist of esters, which are often described as
being "sweet" or "fruity".[2]

Chemical Odor
Diacetyl, acetylpropionyl, acetoin Buttery
Isoamyl acetate Banana
Benzaldehyde Bitter almond, cherry
Cinnamaldehyde Cinnamon
Ethyl propionate Fruity
Methyl anthranilate Grape
Limonene Orange
Ethyl decadienoate Pear
Allyl hexanoate Pineapple
Ethyl maltol Sugar, cotton candy
Ethylvanillin Vanilla
Methyl salicylate Wintergreen
The compounds used to produce artificial flavors are almost identical to those that occur naturally. It
has been suggested that artificial flavors may be safer to consume than natural flavors due to the
standards of purity and mixture consistency that are enforced either by the company or by law.[3]
Natural flavors, in contrast, may contain impurities from their sources, while artificial flavors are
typically more pure and are required to undergo more testing before being sold for consumption.[3]
Flavors from food products are usually the result of a combination of natural flavors, which set up the
basic smell profile of a food product, while artificial flavors modify the smell to accent it.[4]
Unlike smelling, which occurs upon inhalation, the sensing of flavors in the mouth occurs in the
exhalation phase of breathing and is perceived differently by an individual. In other words, the smell of
food is different depending on whether one is smelling it before or after it has entered one's mouth.[5]

Color
The color of food can affect one's expectations of the flavor significantly.[9] In one study, adding more
red color to a drink increased the perceived sweetness, with darker colored solutions being rated 210%
better than lighter ones, though it had 1% less sucrose concentration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavor

Flavor Chemistry is the artistic blending of approved chemicals and extracts to achieve a desired flavor
profile for a specific food, or beverage product. The flavor may enhance, shift, or even mask the flavor
of the food itself. In some cases the added flavor provides the full flavor profile of the product.
Process or reaction flavor chemistry seeks to mimic or enhance the flavor of cooked foods. Sugars,
amino acids and fats are used to mimic or enhance the cooking process.

https://flavorchemists.com/faqs/what-is-flavor-chemistry

1. Flavour is evolution's way of making sure we eat a varied diet

Different macronutrients tend to have different flavours. Bread and potatoes and pasta are more similar
than different meats are. "If you eat potatoes, after a couple of hundred grams you won't like the
potatoes quite as much as you did when you started eating them," says Moller. "So there is a decline in
the liking of the thing you have eaten a bit of, but without a decline in liking of other foodstuffs." Or, in
science-speak, we possess neuro-biological systems that are sensory-specific satiety mechanisms.
"Luckily, we don't need a degree in nutritional science to get a balanced diet," quips Moller.
2. We don't just sense flavour with our tongues
Taste, smell, touch, sight, sound, temperature, trigeminality (the irritating component of odour, as
experienced when eating a chilli or horseradish), and interoception (stimuli arising inside the body) are
all involved in creating the sensation in our brains that we call flavour.
3. Colour affects how we perceive flavour
Red wines are usually described in terms of red or dark objects and white wines in terms of light or
yellow objects. The Independent on Sunday's wine expert, Terry Kirby, described Sequillo 2008, a
blended white wine, as tasting of "straw, nuts and honey", and Lirac Clos de Sixte 2006, a blended red,
as tasting of "spices, dark chocolate and black fruits". Had those wines been decanted into opaque
glasses, even Kirby might have described the flavours differently. Researchers at the School of Enology
at Bordeaux University found that when students were given white wine, tinted red with a flavourless
additive, and asked to describe it, they tended to use adjectives usually reserved for red wines.
4. Coffee tastes worse in a flimsy cup than a substantial one
Researchers at Rutgers University and University of Michigan found that the firmness of a cup
influences people's perceptions of taste and quality. Give them the same beverage in a firm cup and
they will prefer the taste to the beverage in a flimsy cup. The subjects were also divided into groups
who like to touch things before they buy them (high autoletics) and people who don't like to touch
before they buy (low autoletics). Oddly, the people who touch everything when out shopping are least
influenced by touch in taste evaluations.
5. Even how food is described can affect its flavour
Protein bars taste less good if they are described as soy protein and yoghurt, and ice-cream is perceived
to be more flavoursome when described as full fat or high fat.
7. Some people have many more tastebuds than the rest of us
They are called super-tasters. That doesn't mean they're connoisseurs, it means they're very sensitive to
bitter tastes. Do you hate the taste of Brussels sprouts? You may be a super-taster.
9. Aroma affects the amount of food we put in our mouths
10. Our liking for flavours develops before birth
A recent study took 24 pregnant women and divided them into two groups. One group was given a diet
containing anise, and the second group was given an anise-free diet. Shortly after the babies were born,
they were presented with cotton soaked in anise. The babies whose mothers had consumed anise during
their pregnancy showed no aversion to the swab, while the babies whose mothers had avoided anise
showed a strong aversion to the aroma.
Some natural flavors can be more dangerous than the artificial ones. Traces of cyanide can be found in
almond flavor, or Benzaldehyde, when derived from nature. That's why in movies, the smell of bitter of
almonds on the victim is often linked to cyanide poisoning.

Most people don't realize that there can be as many chemicals in a food's natural flavor as its artificial
counterpart. The number of chemical ingredients used to make the artificial strawberry flavor in a fast
food strawberry shake, for example, is similar, chemically to the number of chemicals in a fresh
strawberry.
So, both artificial and natural flavors contain chemicals. The distinction between natural and artificial
flavorings is the source of chemicals. Natural flavors are created from anything that can be eaten (i.e
animals and vegetables), even if those edible things are processed in the lab to create flavorings.
Artificial flavors come from anything that is inedible (i.e petroleum) that is processed to create
chemicals of flavorings.