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Use of flavours for enhancing taste and flavour in foods
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Saturday, 28 November, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Medha Varanasi
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Food is important to maintain our living. Consumers choose their food based on their preferences. Flavour has an important role in creating the preference and in acceptance of food. Flavour is the perceptual impression of food or other substances, and is determined primarily by the chemical senses of the gustatory and olfactory system. Flavour not only has importance for taste but also important for digestion and metabolism. The flavour and taste of food stimulate salivary flow and acid digestion.
Consumers need a balanced nutritional diet which should also be palatable to be accepted in adequate amounts over a prolonged time, making flavouring an essential constituent of human food. There are differences in preferences of flavours from place to place around the world which may be due to the local availability of crops, culture and their habits. Due to urbanisation and change in the lifestyle of consumers lead to the emergence of food industries which have their unique flavour creating a brand in the market and attracting consumers.
This increase in the industries and consumers demand for flavour has led to the extraction of flavours from various sources and scientifically developing artificial flavours to meet the growing demand.Accordingly, flavours are classified as Natural flavours, Natural - Identical flavours and Artificial flavours. Few examples of flavours are Lemon, orange, vanilla, MSG etc. MSG i.e. Monosodium glutamate is commonly used.
Flavour is either intrinsic or formed during cooking or flavours are added to enhance the taste and aroma of food or sometimes to add flavour to food as compensation, which may be lost during processing and cooking. Increased demand for desserts, snacks, confectionaries, soft drinks etc., is the result of urbanisation and our modern way of life which would be most uninteresting without the addition of flavourings.
Our eyes playsurprisingly important role in our perception of flavours as colourless and shapeless foods taste can be difficult to recognise. Visualisation helps in identifying taste and flavour accurately.The brain interprets signals from taste, smell and even vision before turning them into an impression of the food's taste. Different people will find different.
Flavours can also be used to imitate the original flavour of certain substances which may be considered unhealthy or harmful for our health. For example, salt consumed in excess. The addition of certain ingredients with high flavour impact to the cooking or manufacturing process may assist in reducing the need for added salt. For example, the addition of fresh herbs and spices, citrus, mustards, and vinegars that impart distinctive flavourings may sometimes be used instead of or in conjunction with added salt, as has been suggested by many authors writing about strategies for lowering sodium in the diet.
Flavours are sometimes lost when there is spoilage in food which develop off flavour. So, retaining the natural flavour while processing is an art. During processing there maybe development of flavours and loss of flavour.Flavour differences may be seen in different processes and with the addition of different ingredients to food.Alteration, modification or intensification of flavours can be done depending on the process and food product needed. Flavourings agents are widely used in the food industry to:
1. Compensate lost flavour while processing food.
2. Enhance a good flavour. For example, addition of vanilla essence to ice creams.
3. To cover undesirable flavour in food to increase acceptability of food. For example, addition of essence to egg added products.
4. Give exact flavour to food.
Flavour in different foods-
• Caffeine gives strong aroma and has a faint bitter taste.
• Tannin are particularly found in tea leaves, red Grape skins and the bark of trees. This helps in maintain the quality of fine red wines.
• Capsaicinin chilies has a fiery flavour.The heat of the chilly is measured in Sackville units etc.
• Tannic acid is used for flavouring and as a clarifying agent in beer, Wine, cider, and other brewed drinks.
Condiments are aromatic substances added to food to improve its flavour. Condiments and seasoning are used commonly here seasoning are substances added while cooking and condiments are substances at the table after the food is prepared completely.
Condiments are classified according to their dominant flavours: - 1. Acid- vinegar, lemon juice
2. Bitter (aromatic) – pepper, paprika
3. Bitter- garlic, shallot, wheels onion, spring onion, leeks
4. Fat- oil, butter, fats
5. Readymade condiments –English sauces (Worcestershire, Harvey) ketchups, curry Powders, prepared mustards, soy sauce etc.
6. Salt condiments-sodium chloride, sea salt
7. Sweet condiments-sugar, honey.
(The author is M Tech food technology student at Jain University, Bangalore. She can be contacted at varanasimedha@gmail.com)
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