Foods & beverages are always evaluated based on their nutrient content or if they appear appealing to the consumers. But in any event, the food must appear attractive, should taste right, and should contain the right kind of texture. Considering all these facts, flavours play a very crucial role in the acceptance and consumption of food and its quality.
Flavouring agents:
Flavouring agents are a high-concentrate mix of a variety of ingredients that are combined together to reinvent the desired flavour. Flavouring agents can be natural or synthetic, but in earlier times, most of the flavouring agents were acquired from natural sources only such as herbs, spices, and aromatic seeds. It doesn’t matter whether these agents are natural or synthetic, the one thing that they have in common is the aromatic component.
Flavouring agents are the single largest group of food additives. Their applications include fruit, dairy, nuts, spice blends, seafood, vegetables etc. They can magnify, modify or supplement the aroma of the foods. There are approximately 1200 different flavouring agents that are used in foods to impart flavour or restore flavours that are often lost or get diminished during processing or cooking. Esters, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, MSG and protein hydrolysates are a few examples of flavouring agents.
Natural flavouring agents are sourced from plants, spices, herbs, animals or microbial fermentation.
A few examples of natural flavouring agents include:
Warm & Aromatic
- Calamus root
- Angelica root/seed
- Lovage root
- Zedoaria
- Valerian
Sweet Balsamic
- Laurel berry
- Juniper
- Myrtle
Species
- Cumin
- Turmeric
- Celery seed
- Sassafras
- Cubeb
- Dalmatian sage
Menthol
- Peppermint
- Cornmint
- Elecampane root
- Woody
- Pimpinella root
Pungent
- Capsicum
- Black pepper
- Ginger
- Galanga root
Grains of paradise
Synthetic flavouring agents are chemically sourced but are pretty similar to their natural counterparts. When compared to natural flavouring agents, these are considered to be less expensive, readily available and they provide increased consistency.
Examples of synthetic flavouring agents include:
- Allylpyrazine - Flavour
- Colour - Roasted nut
- Methoxypyrazines - Earthy vegetables
- 2-Isobutyl-3 Methoxypyrazine - Green pepper
- Acetyl-L-Pyrazines - Popcorn
- Aldehydes - Fruity, green
- Alcohol - Bitter/medicinal
- Esters - Fruity
- Ketones - Butter/caramel
- Pyrazines - Brown/burnt/caramel
- Phenolics - Medicinal/smokey
- Terpenoids - Citrus/piney
Widely used flavouring agents around the world:
- Essiccum®
- Aniseed oil
- Liquorice Block Extract
- Ethyl Vanillin
- Monosodium Glutamate
- Menthol
- Vanilla Crystals
- Nucleotides
- Sodium Diacetate
Flavouring agents market (current trend):
The Beverage sector is dominating the present global market because of a drastic jump in the consumption of beverages due to the hot climate. With the changing lifestyle, there is a huge rise in ethnic drinks. Plus the demand for juices, hot drinks, alcoholic drinks, carbonated soft drinks and sports/nutrition drinks has always been high.
The demand for dairy flavoured products has also significantly increased with the growth in demand for probiotics, and other dairy products that are fortified with nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium etc.
Conclusion:
There is a great demand for ready-to-eat and ready-to-serve foods in the market and due to this flavouring agents are playing an important role worldwide. But with this increasing demand, consumer safety has become one of the major concerns. Natural flavouring agents are in much demand but they are expensive when compared to the simulated synthetic flavours. Cost-effective production techniques for natural flavours with safety analysis of synthetic flavours is the need of the hour. The demand is bound to increase with the development of several functional foods & beverages that require flavour modification.
