Definition of flavor potentiators

Flavor potentiators have been used for centuries to improve food flavor. It is a substance which when present in a food accentuates the taste of the food without contributing any flavor of its own. By definition, it is a substance which increases the "perceived intensity" of a flavor of another substance.

The effect of flavor potentiators is accompanied by changes in the mouth feel or the product thereby inducing a sensation of fullness or satisfaction.

Naturally occurring flavor potentiators in food: beef, cheese, cod, scallop
Compounds used as flavor potentiators in food: monosodium glutamate, monopotassium glutamate, monoammonium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate can intensify the flavor of foods to which it is added, and also can provide its own taste, including a sensation of fullness in the mouth. MSG is normally effective in terms of a relatively few parts per thousand but far less powerful than the newer potentiators.

Monopotassium glutamate: Potassium salt from glutamic acid (E620), a natural amino acid (building block of protein). Commercially prepared from same source as that for Glutamic acid. Less used and not as salty, low sodium salt substitute.
Definition of flavor potentiators

Flavor potentiators

Apart from the food components that trigger the taste, odor and trigeminal impressions, there are some components that are capable of supplementing, enhancing or modifying the flavor of food, although they have little or no flavor of their own at typical usage levels. These substances are commonly known as flavor potentiators.

Flavor potentiators have been used for centuries to improve food flavor. Flavor potentiators are chemicals which themselves have little or no odor or taste. The effect of flavor potentiators is accompanied by changes in the mouth feel of the product thereby inducing a sensation of fullness or satisfaction.

With the increasing demand for convenience and "instant" foods, which are usually produced using high heat processes that decrease flavor, food manufacturers have relied on flavor potentiators to provide the flavor impact that consumers demand at a reasonable cost.

A variety of flavor potentiators are available for use, including monosodium L-glutamate (MSG), disodium 5′-inosinate (IMP), disodium 5′-guanylate (GMP), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and yeast. Salt, although not classed as a food additive, is the most widely used flavour potentiator.
Flavor potentiators

Ethyl butyrate

It is perhaps one of the most commonly used ester. It is small enough in molecular weight to yield a significant vapor pressure, ergo a good lift and impact.

Ethyl butyrate is a natural product of certain plants and has been detected in the volatile components from the following natural foods: US blue cheese, Beaufort mountain cheese, dalieb fruit, ripening bananas, commercial and concentrated aqueous orange essence, concord grape essence, tree-ripened nectarines and ripening kiwi fruit.

Ethyl butyrate has a fruity odor with a pineapple undernote and a sweet and analogous taste. It is virtually insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol.

This ester was granted GRAS status by FEMA (1965) and is approved as GRAS by the FDA for food use. It is used in many sweet products as an important aroma chemical. Ethyl butyrate finds its most usefulness in cherry flavors, rum and butterscotch flavors, apple flavors and chewing gum flavors.
Ethyl butyrate

The functions of flavor enhancer

Flavorings ether imparts a particular flavor to food or modifies flavors already present. Flavor enhancers, on the other hand, intensify flavors already present especially when the desirable flavors are relatively weak.

Flavor enhancers intensify mostly attributes of mouth feel such as dryness and astringency. Flavor enhancers are chemical compounds or materials that are used in very minutes quantities. At the levels of parts per thousand, in which they are usually used they do not add any flavor of their own to the food.

First used in fish and meat dishes they a now intensify desired flavors and mask unwanted ones in beverages, processed fruit and vegetables and bakes goods like breads and cakes.

Monosodium glutamate is one of the best known and is widely used flavor enhancers. Disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate are also common.

Most people are familiar with the use of table salt to enhance the flavor of a wide variety of foods. Salt can be an effective enhancer even at levels far below the threshold for salty taste and is widely used in processed foods such as canned vegetables and soups.
The functions of flavor enhancer

Food additive of table salt

Salt was mentioned in the Old Testament as a food additive with a ritual character. Its use as a food preservative was well known in Ancient Egypt, Middle East and Ancient Rome.

Table salt is sold in various grain sizes. Coarser or finer varieties afford particular advantages depending on the intended use.

A distinction is drawn between sea salt, rock salt, and evaporated granulated salt according to origin. Table salt or sodium chloride (NaCl) is a common additive to many foodstuffs where it plays many roles such as flavoring agent but also as a preservative agent against microbial attack of food stuffs under storage.

Iodized table salt is salt with added iodide and it may also contain an anti-caking agent to promote a free-flowing property of the crystals. Iodide is added in the form of cuprous iodide or potassium iodide, added to prevent thyroid disease. Table salt is regularly consumed by most Americans and it will provide a regular source of this important mineral.

Too much salt in the diet can lead to high blood pressure and increase risk for heart disease in susceptible individuals.
Food additive of table salt

Caramel in food

Historically, the Arabs may have invented the process of making caramels, but caramels were widely consumed throughout the world.

The major food groups containing caramel are sauces and condiments, soft and carbonated drinks, pies and pastries, desserts, soup and cakes.

There are four classes of caramel colors used as food additives and they are defined by the reactant added to the carbohydrate during production.
*Plain caramel – used in spirit
*Caustic caramel – used in spirit
*Ammonia caramel - Beer
*Sulfite ammonia caramel – soft drinks

Caramel is prepared from the following food-grade carbohydrate: dextrose, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, molasses, starch hydrolysates, and fraction thereof and sucrose.

Caramelization is done in the industry with different catalysts to produce either flavor or color. For flavor purposes, sucrose is caramelized in concentrated syrup.

The caramel aroma is mainly due to a group of cyclic alkylenolones, dihydrofuranones, and pyrones.

During food processing, it is important to control caramelization reaction while still retaining the pleasant quality of caramel. Otherwise it can lead to the production of unpleasant, burned and butter products.
Caramel in food

Early food flavor before 19th century

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail to find seasoning. Today the influence of flavor in the world market place is no loess decisive. The rise and fall of corporate empires – of soft drinks companies, snack food companies and fast food chains - is frequently determined by how their products taste.

During the early days of history, people used mainly herbs and spices (whole or ground) to impart flavor to , or modify the flavor of, foods. It is to make food more appetizing, first by using spices and herbs and then by the extraction of fruits and aromatic plants during Middle Ages or distillation of essential oils.

The latter were predominantly used by pharmacists, and it was not until the 19th century that some people found out that essential oils can be used to impart flavor to foods.

It is believed that people began the practice of adding flavor to foods by marinating or soaking them in seasoned and salted liquid between the mid-1600s and the mid–1700s.

In the second half of the 19th century, chemists began to realize the flavoring potential of some synthetic chemicals e.g. vanillin.

Wohler and Liebig synthesized benzaldehyde in 1830 and this substance was identified in 1932 by Robiquet an Boutron-Charlard to be responsible for the odor of bitter almonds.

Thus was born the flavor industry around the middles of the 19th century.
Early food flavor before 19th century

Food flavor

Food flavor normally are compounds, many of which are natural, although there are also many synthetic ones, which are added to foods to flavors or to modify exiting flavors.

Food flavor also may be a single chemical entity of naturals or synthetic origin. In the early days of human existence, salt, sugar, vinegar, herbs, spices were added to foods to improve their taste or to produce special, desirable taste.

The range of natural and synthetic flavorings available to the modern food technologists is very large.

Food flavor includes taste sensations perceived by the tongue- sweet ,salty, sour, bitter and smell perceived by the nose.

Often the term flavor and smell are used interchangeably. Food flavor and aroma are difficult to measure and difficult to get people to agree on.

The flavor if food is created by aromatic chemicals that are biosynthesized during normal metabolic processes in plants and animals and possible further modified by cooking or processed.

This intrinsic flavor of food represents the complex impact made by these aromatic components on the sense of odor and taste.

The definition makes clear that flavor is a property of (a material of food) as well as of the receptor mechanism of the person ingesting the food.
Food flavor

PH Control Substances

PH Control Substances
Natural or synthetic acid or alkali ingredients change or maintain the initial pH of a product.

For example, acidulents flavor, preserve and regulate pH.

The acid ingredients regulate by lowering the pH and preserve foods by inhibiting microbial growth.

Regardless of the acid level of food ingredients, food acids are incorporated into foods in order maintain a constant acid level.

Natural acids include the following acetic acid or vinegar and citric acid from citrus, which control unwanted trace metals otherwise catalyzing oxidation reactions; malic acid (an organic acid from apples and figs); and tartaric acid (a weak acid).

These acids may be added to foods to impart flavor and control tartness.

Lactic acid present in almost all living organisms, is an acidity regulator and is used in balancing the acidity in cheese making, as well as adding tartness to many other foods.

The acid salt calcium propionate is added to control pH of breads.

Sodium lactate (the salt of lactic acid) may be used in processed meat and poultry products.

Examples of alkaline ingredients include sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), an ingredient that balances the acid component of baking powder, sodium hydroxide, used in modified starches, and potassium hydroxide.

Alkaline compounds are used to neutralize excess acid that otherwise could produce unwelcome flavors. In food they leaven and soften hard water.
PH Control Substances

Flavoring Agents

Flavoring Agents
Flavoring agents are the largest single group of food additives. Food and beverage applications of flavors include dairy, fruit, nut, seafood, spice blends, vegetables and wine flavoring agents. They may complement, magnify, or modify the taste and aroma of the foods.

There are over 1200 different flavoring agents used in foods to create flavor or replenish flavors lost or diminished in processing, and hundreds of chemicals may be used to simulate nature flavors. Alcohols, esters, aldehydes, ketones, protein hydrolysates and MSG are examples of flavoring agents.

Natural flavoring substances are extracted from plants, herbs and spices, animals, or microbial fermentations. They also include essential oils and oleoresins (created by solvent extract with solvent removed), herbs, spices and sweetness.

Synthetic flavoring agents are chemically similar to natural flavorings, and offer increased consistency in use and availability. They may be less expensive and more readily available than the natural counterpart although they may not adequately simulate the natural flavor. Some examples of synthetic flavoring agents include amyl acetate, used as banana flavoring benzaldehyde, used to create cherry or almond flavor, ethyl butyrate for pineapple, methyl anthranilate for grape, methyl salicylate for wintergreen flavor, and fumaric acid, which is an ideal source of tartness and acidity in dry foods.

Flavor enhancers such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) intensify or “bring out,” enhance or supplement the flavor of other compounds in food; they have a taste outside of the basic sweet, sour, salty or bitter. Monosodium glutamate was chemically derived from seaweed in the early 1900s, but is manufactured commercially by the fermentation of starch, molasses, or sugar.
Flavoring Agents

Texturing agent

Texturing agent
Texturing agents are used to add or modify the overall texture or mouthfeel of food products. Emulsifiers and stabilizers are the primary additive in this category. Phosphates and dough conditioners are other chemicals that play a major role in modifying food texture. Phosphates are some of the most widely used and serve a number of functions in foods.

Emulsifiers include natural substances such as lecithin and mono- and diglycerides as well as several synthetic derivatives. The primary role of these agents is to allow flavors and oils to be dispersed throughout food products.

Stabilizers include several natural gums such as carrageenan as well as natural and modified starches. These additives have been used for several years to provide the desired texture in products such as ice-cream and are now also finding use in both dry and liquid products. They also are used to prevent evaporation and deterioration of volatile flavor oils.

Phosphates are often used to modify the texture of foods containing protein or starch. These chemicals are especially useful in stabilizing various dairy and meat products. The phosphates apparently react with protein and/or starch and modify the water-holding capacity of these natural food components.
Texturing agent

Flavor Enhancers

Flavor Enhancers
Flavorings either a particular flavor to foods or modify flavors already present. Flavor enhancers intensify flavors already present, especially when the desirable flavors are relatively weak. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of the best known and most widely used flavor enhancers. This compound occurs naturally in many foods and in certain seaweed that was used for centuries as a flavor enhancer for soups and other foods.

It is only within the last hundred years that the reason for the effectiveness of the seaweed was discovered to be MSG. The way in which MSG enhances flavor is not yet fully understood. While it is effective at relatively low levels (part per thousands), there are other compounds called flavor potentiators that also enhance flavors but are extremely powerful, effective in parts per million and even per billion. These compounds have been identified as nucleotides, and their effect is attributed to their synergies properties (properties that intensify that effect of natural flavor components).
Flavor Enhancers