What Gives This Flavor to Products Saying “Flavored”?

What we find in supermarket aisles ‘with taste, flavour, aroma’ Although expressions such as these may make us think that the product is made from the food written on it, we have bad news for you. It’s just an artificial flavoring used in those foods.

When we get into the chemistry of the matter, while everything is so developed, “artificial flavors Why can’t it mimic real fruit flavors?” One cannot help but think. The answer to this question lies within a complex chemical world!

Why can’t artificial flavors fully taste like real fruit?

This is because the aromas produced with old methods cannot fully reproduce the taste and smell of real fruit. For example, artificial banana flavor tastes weirder than regular banana flavor. This is because this taste is actually Gros Michel, which tastes like artificial bananas This is because it belongs to an old banana variety called. When this variety succumbed to the fungal disease, it was replaced by the Cavendish variety.

If you thought it was that simple, you were wrong. Because flavor producers actually They did not try to imitate this particular essence. The reason why artificial banana flavor is bad is the same reason why strawberry gum or watermelon-flavored juice doesn’t taste like real fruit: chemistry.

Professor of nutrition at Rutgers University Paul Breslin, “If you tasted strawberry gum in the ’70s, you’d see the artificial strawberry flavor. It was weird; you knew what to expect, but you felt something was missing. They couldn’t get it quite right.” says. According to Breslin, this was due to the assumptions flavor manufacturers accepted at the time.

When creating strawberry flavor, chemists would start by crushing actual strawberries and then analyze the puree to look for chemicals released into the air.

At the time, everyone thought that the most abundant volatile molecules were the most important. According to Breslin, while this is true in a sense, it has been forgotten that small amounts of components can also be important. Instead of crushing 400 strawberries to get a strawberry scent The same conclusion can be reached by using 20-30 of them. But in the 70s, only a few berries were used for this.

A few chemical components are enough to understand the aroma. When you eat something strawberry, sometimes you can taste real strawberries. All that is needed is to find a molecule that will give the essence of the aroma and provide an instant connection with the aroma. Of course, these alone are not enough to capture the real fruit aroma.

Flavoring uses not the most common and volatile chemicals; It is also being developed taking into account more components.

According to Breslin, in some fruits – especially those with seeds and berries – associated with an unpleasant odor when you smell it alone There are certain chemicals. The presence of these chemicals affects the overall aroma of the fruit and determines our perception of taste.

For example a chemical found in fruits such as raspberries, It is not pleasant when you smell it alone, but it is not possible to create the characteristic smell of the fruit without this chemical. Therefore, some fruit flavors require individual molecules to be analyzed and isolated, which has become possible with modern technology.

The cherry flavor may also resemble maraschino rather than actual cherries. grape aroma It is generally more like concord grapes rather than fresh grapes. The development of these flavors dates back to the late 1800s. In this way, any desired flavor is possible, albeit with minor differences.

In our country, new standards have been introduced for market labels on this issue.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry According to the decision taken, misleading sentences such as ‘banana flavor’ and ‘strawberry flavor’ that we see in the shelves will no longer be used, on the grounds that they play with the customer’s perception. It was announced that penal action would be taken against businesses that continue to use it. The decision is expected to be published in the Official Gazette and implemented as soon as possible.

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