Food flavourings are the most popular additives; know more!

 

Food flavours are probably the most popular additives among processed foods. Appropriate use of flavouring can contribute to the success of food produced at an artisanal and/or industrial level; to meet the needs of the food industry, but also of artisans as well as cooks. Let’s know more about it below;

 Food flavours: what are they?

Food flavorings are substances added mainly to industrial foods, to improve or enrich them in terms of taste and smell. Often these substances are used to recover degraded flavors during production or to prevent their loss, which can occur during long storage. The least appropriate use, at least from the consumer's point of view, is instead the one that aims to drastically change or correct the taste of food.

The aromas do not have nutritional properties, but they can make palatable and pleasant a product that would be basically uninviting or almost tasteless. These substances, however, cannot completely replace natural ingredients on an organoleptic level. In orange juice, for example, the use of aromas cannot completely replace orange juice, which although in a reduced quantity, must be present for the sensory recognition of the product.

Creating aromas

The original aromas of food are very complex, on the molecular level even more than from an organoleptic point of view. Not surprisingly, there are hundreds of molecules that intervene in the aromatic definitions. The artificial flavour industry synthetically reconstructs some of the most "representative" molecules from a sensory point of view compared to individual foods, often combining substances that have very little to do with the original products. These difficult operations are taken care of by experienced aromatics, depending on the final effectiveness of the formulated substance.

 Artificial flavors and natural flavors

Regardless of the legal definition on the label – which we will discuss shortly –, these substances can be divided into three types.

1. Natural flavours. They are extracted only from natural raw materials (fruits, flowers, roots, leaves, etc.), which, however, may apparently have nothing to do with the finished product. They are the most expensive and generally the least used, also due to the greater perishability compared to artificial flavours. As we will see later, however, even on this type of aromas weigh doubts and criticisms.

2. Artificial flavours. They are obtained by synthetic chemical processes and contain high percentages of alcohol; they have a much stronger and more intense taste than natural and natural-identical aromas. Among them, we can mention ethyl vanillin.

3. Natural-identical artificial flavours. Despite being aromas of artificial origin, from the sensory point of view, they are almost the same as their natural counterparts, while on the chemical level they are identical to the corresponding natural molecules. They are preferred by the food industry for their ability to replicate natural tastes, reduced costs, and shelf life. Vanillin is also part of this type. It is a very common substance in confectionery and ice cream; compared to ethyl vanillin it is less powerful but on the organoleptic level, it is much more attributable to the taste of natural vanilla. Until 2003, natural-identical flavours could be labelled as natural, but subsequent provisions classified them according to their synthetic origin.

 

Food flavors: what to do?

The general indication, even net of future research results, is to limit as much as possible the consumption of foods containing flavours, even more so if of artificial origin. To be preferred are fresh foods or in any case without added aromas. In addition to the potential unhealthiest of these substances, it must be borne in mind that food for which the addition of these substances was necessary cannot be considered a high-quality product. As we remembered, in fact, the use of aromas is always a sort of fall back to improve palatability.It must be said, however, that even for aromas the principle of quantity applies: it is always the dose that makes the poison. Extra care in avoiding foods containing aromas should be reserved for feeding children and pregnant or lactating women. For the little ones, inclined to consume sweets and soft drinks, containing the ingestion of food flavorings may not be easy. Foods physiologically free from these additives are very few, especially among processed products. Finally, it must be remembered that aromas are contained not only in food. Cosmetics, cleaning products, and tobacco are also a source of exposure.