Flavor intensifiers

Commercially available yeast extracts are made from brewers yeast, from bakers yeast, from alcohol-grown yeast (C. utilis) and from whey grown yeast (K fragilis). Extracts are used ia fermentation media for productioa of antibiotics, ia cheese starter cultures, and ia the productioa of viaegar. They are also exteasively used ia the food iadustry as condiments to provide savory flavors for soups, gravies and bouillon cubes, and as flavor intensifiers ia cheese products. 

USE The disodium salt as flavor intensifier, like sodium... 

Several studies, especially in Australia, have shown that provided cheese of good composition and with a low count of NSLAB is used, the ripening of Cheddar cheese can be accelerated and its flavor intensified by using higher than normal ripening temperatures. Optimum results have been reported at 13-15°C at which the ripening time required for the production of mature cheese can be reduced by 50% (Folkertsma et al, 1996). Such practices are in fact reverting to traditional methods. 

Flavor consists of taste and odor combined. Animals often avoid tastes after only one experience if delayed illness follows it, but odors are not avoided under such circumstances. If an odor and a taste are presented together before an illness is induced experimentally (e.g. with lithium chloride), animals can learn to avoid the odor after just one such experience. When the odor is intensified in such a combined presentation, only the odor aversion increases, not the taste aversion. If the taste is made more intense, both odor and taste aversions increase. As a rule, the odor aversion strength depends on the taste experience, but not vice versa (Garcia etal, 1986). 

The compound is frequently used in flavor compositions for its caramel note, e.g., in beverages and in confectionery. It is rarely used in perfumery, and then mainly as an intensifier. 

Although many routes are known for its synthesis, maltol is still isolated mainly from beechwood tar. It is used in aroma compositions with a caramel note and as a taste intensifier, for example, in fruit flavors (particularly in strawberry flavor compositions). 

Monosodium glutamate lor many years has been the best known and most widely used of the flavor enhancers. MSG is normally effective in terms ol a relatively few pans per thousand, but far less powerful than the newer flavor potentiators. Like enhancers, potentiators do not add any taste of their own to food substances, but intensify the taste response to the flavorings already present in the food. Because a potentiator is more powerful, smaller quantities of the substances are required than in the Case of the enhancers. Generally, the available potentiators are from about 15 to nearly 100 times more effective than tile enhancer. 

POTENTIATOR. A term used in the flavor and food industries to characterize a substance that intensifies the taste of a food product to a far greater extent than does an enhancer. The most important of these are the 5 -nucleotides. They are approved by the FDA. Their effective concentration is measured in parts per billion, whereas that of an enhancer such as MSG is m parts per thousand. The effect is thought to be due to synergism, Potentiators do not add any taste of their own, but intensify7 the taste response to substances already present in the food. 

Aspartame is an intense sweetener first discovered in 1965 by J. Schlatter it is available under the brand names of Nutrasweet , Equal , and Canderel . Chemically, aspartame is N-L-a-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (Fig. 1), withamolecularformulaofC14H 805N2 (MW = 294.30). It is a white, odorless, crystalline powder. It is slightly soluble in water and sparingly soluble in alcohol. The solubility increases as the pH is lowered (2,6,57). It has 100-200 times the sweetness of sucrose and exhibits a sweet, clean taste and a sweetness profile similar to that of sucrose, without bitter or metallic aftertaste (Table 1). However, it displays a slow onset of sweetness coupled with lingering sweet taste. It extends and intensifies tastes and enhances fruit flavors. Aspartame exhibits synergism, a superior taste profile, and improved stability when used with other sweeteners (1,4,14,55,75). 

Positive cooked-beef flavor components as perceived by descriptive sensory panelists are reduced during free radical catalyzed meat flavor deterioration (MFD) while negative flavor notes with descriptor definitions of cardboard and painty intensify, as reviewed recently by Love (13). Although the cardboard and painty off-flavors correlate well with lipid oxidation products and can be measured easily by gas chromatography (1, 14, 18). much less is known about the fate of the positive cooked-beef flavors in this MFD process (13). 

Cheese/hutter flavor. Pregastric lipases, have, been used for years to intensify flavor in Menzyme-modified cheese , and for an intensified butter flavor in lipolyzed butter. Generally the fatty acid residues that need to be split off (to generate the right flavor) are the short chain fatty acids, especially the C to C-jq acids typical of Italian cheeses. The butyric acids are produced from butterfat more specifically by newly developed lipases (really esterases) from Mucor meihei and a very new one, from Aspergillus oryzae, especially for cheddar cheese flavor development. The latter enzyme is marketed under the name Flavor Age (4). Flavors produced in this manner are used widely in cheese-flavored snack foods the value of the intensified cheese flavors is on the order of 50 million, but the. value of the enzymes employed is only about 2-3 million. 

Adenylic deaminase. The deamination of 5 -adenylic acid by 5 -adenylic deaminase results in the formation of 5 -inosinic acid. This process, applied to mushrooms, intensifies the natural flavor (53). 

D-fructose the most readily water-soluble sugar. It does not crystallize from stored juices. Because of its hygroscopicity, it retains moisture in sugar-preserved food and intensifies its flavor and aroma. Metabolism of D-fructose delivers less energy than sucrose. This saccharide neither causes nor accelerates tooth cavities. It accelerates ethanol metabolism. 

A crude enzyme mixture was isolated from the fermentate of Candida rugosa (ATCC No. 14,830), which is reported to produce high activity lipases ( ). The enzyme mixture was added to a 20% butterfat emulsion. A cheese-like flavor developed after 3 hours of incubation at 37°C. A desirable Romano cheese note developed after continued incubation at room temperature for three days. Nelson (6) studied lipolyzed butterfat flavor and concluded that the surface active characteristics of both fatty acids and mono- and diglycerides were important in the lipolyzed system. A tempering period of hours or even days was usually required to establish equilibrium at the interface of aqueous and fat phases. He pointed out that the lipolyzed flavor appeared to intensify as the equilibration proceeded and that this intensification was sometimes mistaken for residual lipolytic activity. 

The future application of biotechnology to bioaroma production is limited only by our own intellectual capacity to apply the technology as it emerges. Increased food crop yields with intensified flavors, total aroma production of specific foods, production of important aroma chemicals previously unavailable and significantly lowered costs are some of the promises of the future. 

Acidulants are added to food directly or indirectly for more than 25 separate purposes (6). Gardner (6) suggests the major functions of acidification are to enhance flavor and reduce thermal processing time. Tartness, if not excessive, adds subtle character to the overall flavor of vegetables. Acids also intensify some... 

Drying intensifies the flavor of herbs, making them three to four times more potent than fresh ones, so use them more sparingly in your cooking. 

The flavor of tomatoes is intensified by slowly roasting them in an oven. Cherry tomatoes are the easiest to use (yellow and red varieties work equally well), and cherry plum tomatoes are particularly good. It s worth preparing as many tomatoes as possible at a time, and use as much garlic and herbs as you like. 

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