Flavour-modifying

Flavouring adjuvants may also include flavour modifiers. 

Masking via enhancing positive sensory drivers can lead to the suppression of negative sensory drivers. This can be done by addition of sweeteners/ acidulants, congruent flavours with the ability of suppression and round-off, and real taste-masking and flavour-modifying components. 

Lactic acid is one of the most widely distributed acids in nature and it is used to a great extent by the food industry. Its use in beverages, however, is limited. It has a mild taste relative to the other acids and is used in soft drinks as a flavour modifier or enhancer rather than as an acidulant. 

Some food components that have little or no contribution to taste or odour at typical usage levels are capable of enhancing, decreasing, or modifying the taste and odour of foods. These components may be termed "flavour modifiers". 

The flavour of a food consists of odour, taste, and haptic and tactile sensations in the mouth ( mouthfeel ) (Fig. 3.52). This means that a flavour modifier may affect odour, taste, and/or mouthfeel of a food. Usually, only taste and/or odour are affected, although maltol and ethyl maltol have been reported to be effective in improving the mouthfeel in low-fat food systems [7]. Because of lack of a clear definition, I shall classify flavour modifiers into the five categories shown in Table 3.46. Based on this... 

Other flavour modifiers Miraculin Sour tasting substances are perceived as sweet tasting for approx, two hours... 

In the following, the most important flavour modifiers as well as some less important ones will be discussed. 

Although vanillin, ethyl vanillin and sucrose are normally not considered as flavour modifiers, they nevertheless have flavour modifying properties Isolated from the leaves of Gymnema sylvestre, a tropical plant Glycoprotein from miracle fruit, the fruit of a West African shrub... 

Fig. 3.60 Chemical structures of some important flavour modifiers...

Furaneol is formed when the sugar rhamnose is heated in the presence of a substance containing an amino group through a Maillard reaction (Fig. 3.62). HMF results from heating of fructose (Fig. 3.63). Both furanones occur in various foods. For example, Furaneol has been identified in pineapple, strawberries and popcorn both Furaneol and HMF have been found in meat broth [21 [. Both furanones are applied as flavour modifiers in foods where maltol and ethyl maltol are used [1[. 

There are several flavour modifiers which are of minor industrial importance at present. These include natural and synthetic substances. A selection is presented in Tab. 3.53. Studies aimed at using miraculin and curculin as low-calorie sweeteners are in progress [23]. 

BMP may become a savoury peptide and a flavour modifier of the future [26]. It occurs naturally in beef. One method of production of BMP already initiated by several concerns is biotechnology [28[. The taste threshold of BMP has been reported to be 1.600 ppm [28[. There are also reports in the literature claiming that BMP cannot be considered as a flavour modifier and that its occurrence in beef is highly unlikely [30, 31 [. 

Table 3.53 Selection of less important flavour modifiers [2, 21, 23-29]...

Thaumatin (trade name Talin ) Masks bitter taste. Sweet tasting protein (molecular weight 22,000) isolated from the fruit of the West African perennial plant Thau-matoccus danielli. Although the primary taste property of thaumatin is sweetness, its main use is as a flavour modifier. 

Tab. 3.46 classifies flavour modifiers according to their ability to enhance or decrease flavour and whether or not they contribute to flavour at usage level. Another possible classification is based on the types of food they are used in. This is given in Tab. 3.54. 

Table 3.55 Examples of complex materials used as flavour modifiers...

Fruits are the main player in the world of flavours A vast number of fruits grow in nature and are planted throughout the world. They are consumed not only for their nutritional and health value, but mainly for their highly esteemed flavour and taste. More and more fruits are commercialized worldwide from all continents. People experience new tastes and flavours when travelling abroad. Thus processed fmits are used in many industrial food products as main ingredient or as flavour modifier. 

The use of flavours and flavour modifiers represents the first attempt to improve pharmaceuticals in masking undesirable organoleptic properties such as taste, odour and feel factors (for a review see Adjei et When this approach is ineffective, chemical modifications have to be considered. 

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