Our choice of food mainly depends on the flavour or taste as well as the nutrients it provides but we tend to be more tilted towards flavour. Flavour is the main reason that we choose our food. Although we can’t separate the flavour from other food characteristics such as the texture, temperature or colour, but these other characteristics get overridden by the taste and flavour we seek from whatever we eat.
This necessitates food and flavour manufacturers to properly do their homework, study the market and work in tandem with each other in order to come out with mouthwatering flavours that consumers feel is appealing to them.
From a business perspective, creating an ideal flavour that sells is not at all an easy task. It takes years of experiments, lots of trials and errors by food experts or flavourists to put together particular combinations. One single flavour may contain 50 to 100 different compounds, which makes this process more difficult. It is said that the success ratio for any new flavour stands at less than 3%.
Among many reasons for such less success ratio is flavour interactions. Once a flavour is added to food, unwanted chemical reactions, solubility, starches contained in the food can ruin the flavour. You might have heard that our foods are made up of different chemicals and these chemicals tend to react with each other during the process. It is this chemistry of reactions that can make or break the flavour. Additionally, frying, baking or heating process can further add on to the damage already being caused due to chemical reactions.
Another major reason behind the success or failure is the level or quantity of flavour to be added to a particular product. High quantity or level of flavour can override the actual taste of a product. A little bit less of flavour and the product may lack the punch you need. So, it becomes very crucial that the flavourist try at least 2 to 3 different levels of flavour in the product to get the exact amount. They also need to ensure the correct level of sugar, salt and acidity once the level of flavour to be used is determined. Finally, when a new product is ready for tasting, its preferred that it is given ample time to rest and cool down so that all the necessary flavours can settle down and all the flavours get fused into the product.
In order to obtain flavour optimization, one can follow the statistical experimental design. This technique is the best and direct, quick, and cost-effective route to obtain optimized products. This technique enables you to determine the exact levels of sugar, salt, acid, flavours and colours to be added with keeping your consumers’ palate in mind.
Site Title 