Page 30 - FMT_March

Ingredients

Food Flavours: Understanding

Food Additives

By Sweta Rai, Sabbu Sangeeta and Santoshi Rawat*

lavour is a sensory is also an essential nutrient. Other are the most common. Acetic acid
phenomenon which is a salts have different tastes, e.g., some produced by fermentation of alcohol
Fcombination of the sensations iodides and bromides are bitter while is common in processed fruits.
of taste, odour or aroma, heat and some salts of lead and beryllium are Ascorbic acid is abundantly present
cold, and texture or “mouthfeel”. The sweet. in fruits and vegetables. Oxalic acid
appearance of food is important, found in spinach and phosphoric
but it is the flavor that ultimately sugar: Sugar is used more to impart acid and its salts are often used in
determines its quality and sweetness than flavor to food. the food industry. Remarkably, the
acceptability. Natural flavouring Fructose present in honey is the hydrogen ion is mainly responsible
materials such as spices, essential sweetest sugar followed by sucrose for sour taste. Except for oxalic
oils and fruit juices have been used and glucose, whereas lactose in acid, all other acids are weak acids
for long in food preparations but as milk is slightly sweet and gives less and the degree of sourness is not
their supply has not kept up with the flavour. Natural sweet compounds proportionately related to the
demand, with a consequent rise in are generally polyhydroxy hydrogen ion concentration.
their cost, natural flavouring agents compounds with a straight-chain
have been largely substituted by structure, such as sugars and Bitterness: It may be due to alkaloids,
synthetic ones. Thousands of these the hexahydroxy cyclic alcohols, glycosides, other classes of organic
synthetic compounds are now being mannitol and sorbitol. Diverse compounds as well as inorganic
used as food additives. There are compounds, such as saccharin, salts. Naringin the bitter principle of
four basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour some peptides and cylcamates are grapefruit is a glycoside of rutinose
and bitter. also sweet. and is not toxic, while amygdalin, a
glycoside present in bitter almonds
salty: Sodium chloride is the only sourness: Sourness of food is due contains gentiobiose and cyanide
salt that has a pure salty taste. to the presence of organic acids group, and it toxic. Mustard and
Besides imparting flavor to food, it of which citric, tartaric and malic horseradish contain the alkaloid

Food Marketing & Technology 30 March 2020