Flavour is a biological perception, a sensation
produced by a material taken in the Mouth. It is the aggregate of the
characteristics of the material that produces the sensation of flavour.
Flavour is perceived principally by the aroma receptors in the nose and
taste receptors in the mouth.
It is said that there are basically five flavours namely sweet, sour,
bitter, salt and savoury. What we experience as flavours is a combination of
these with the odours. A flavour can in other terms be called the essence of
food. Earlier it was considered that there are just four flavours. It was
just in the recent years the fifth flavour, that of natural amino acid
glutamic acid and certain nucleotides was observed. This flavour is best
noticed in Monosodium Glutamate. The Japanese named this flavour umami and
it was translated as savoury in English.
Natural products have aroma chemicals that together with the taste create
the flavour. Coffee for example contains over 800 aroma chemicals other s
may have them in lesser number yet more in quantity as in vanilla where the
major flavouring component is vanillin. Some of the synthetic flavourings
are prepared using these major components and others are complex mixtures.
Some flavours are created due to certain chemical processes like
fermentation, roasting, or frying etc. These processes initiate chemical
reactions in the food leading to specific flavour generation. For example
the flavour of fried onions is due to a reaction that takes place between
its proteins and carbohydrates.
Almost all the flavours can be classified into following categories:
Fruit, Vegetable, Spice, beverage, Meat, Fat, Cooked, Empyreumatic and
Stench.
Chemicals Associated With Particular Flavours
| Chemical |
Flavour |
| Allylpyrazine |
Roasted nut |
| Methoxypyrazines |
Earthy vegetables |
| 2-Isobutyl-3 Methoxypyrazine
|
Green pepper |
| Acetyl-L-Pyrazines |
Popcorn |
| 2-Acetoxy Pyrazine |
Toasted flavours |
| Aldehydes |
Fruity, green |
| Alcohols |
Bitter, medicinal |
| Esters |
Fruity |
| Ketones |
Butter, caramel |
| Pyrazines |
Brown, burnt, caramel, |
| Phenolics |
Medicinal, smokey |
| Terpenoids |
Citrus, piney |
