Description
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other
substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste
and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants
in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are
also very important to the overall Gestalt of flavor perception.
The flavor of the food, as such, can be altered with natural or
artificial flavorants, which affect these senses.
Flavorant is defined as a substance that gives another substance
flavor, altering the characteristics of the solute, causing it to
become sweet, sour, tangy, etc.
Of the three chemical senses, smell is the main determinant of a
food item's flavor. While the taste of food is limited to sweet,
sour, bitter, salty, umami (savory) pungent or piquant, and
metallic – the seven basic tastes – the smells of a food are
potentially limitless. A food's flavor, therefore, can be easily
altered by changing its smell while keeping its taste similar.
Nowhere is this better exemplified than in artificially flavored
jellies, soft drinks and candies, which, while made of bases with a
similar taste, have dramatically different flavors due to the use
of different scents or fragrances. The flavorings of commercially
produced food products are typically created by flavorists.
Although the terms "flavoring" or "flavorant" in common language
denote the combined chemical sensations of taste and smell, the
same terms are usually used in the fragrance and flavors industry
to refer to edible chemicals and extracts that alter the flavor of
food and food products through the sense of smell. Due to the high
cost or unavailability of natural flavor extracts, most commercial
flavorants are nature-identical, which means that they are the
chemical equivalent of natural flavors but chemically synthesized
rather than being extracted from the source materials.
Identification of nature-identical flavorants are done using
technology such as headspace techniques.
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