Flavour in Food

Andree Voilley, Patrick Etiévant

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781855739604
• eBook ISBN: 9781845691400
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The first part of the book reviews the way flavour is detected and measured. The first two chapters discuss our understanding of how humans perceive and then process information about taste compounds. Chapter three reviews current practice in the sensory analysis of food flavour. Chapter four discusses choosing from the wide range of instrumental techniques which have been developed to identify aroma compounds. The final chapter in Part One discusses the complex issues in matching instrumental measurements with the results of sensory evaluation of foods.Part two reviews key research in the way flavour compounds are retained within foods and the factors determining the way they are released. There are chapters on flavour compound interactions with lipids, emulsions, protein and carbohydrate components in food. Other chapters review modelling aroma interactions in food matrices and mechanisms of flavour retention in and release from liquid food products. The final part reviews what we now know about how humans experience flavour release, together with some of the key factors influencing this process. There are chapters on the process of flavour release in the mouth, the way texture-aroma and odour-taste interactions influence this process, psychological factors and the development of flavour perception during infancy.Flavour in food seeks to distil key developments in flavour science and summarise their implications for the food industry. It is a valuable reference for R&D staff, those responsible for sensory evaluation of foods and product development, as well as academics and students involved in flavour science. - Understand how flavour is detected and measured - Analyses key research in the retention and release of flavour compounds - Examines how humans experience flavour release

1

The human perception of taste compounds

B. Bufe and W. Meyerhof, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Germany

1.1 Introduction

Food intake is essential for the survival of every living organism (Lindemann 2001). The failure to detect spoiled or toxic food can have lethal consequences. Therefore, it is not surprising that humans use all their five senses to analyse food quality. A first judgement about the value of a food source is made on its appearance and smell. Food that looks and smells attractive is taken into the oral cavity. Here, based on a complex sensory analysis that is not only restricted to the sense of taste but also includes smell, touch and hearing (Linden 1993, Drewnowski 1997), the final decision about ingestion or rejection of food is made. Frequently, these complex interactions between different senses is inappropriately referred to as ‘taste’ although it should be better called flavour perception (Linden 1993), because it uses multiple senses.

The five basic taste qualities are exclusively mediated by specialised epithelial receptor cells that are located in taste buds. Most taste buds lie within taste papillae on the human tongue, but some of them are also distributed on the palate and epiglottis (Skramlik 1926). The taste buds in the oral cavity are innervated by gustatory fibres of the VII, IX and X cranial nerve (Smith and St John 1999) Thus, the perception of the five basic taste qualities sour, salty, sweet, bitter and umami has a distinct anatomical basis.

1.2 The sense of taste

The basic taste qualities contribute differently to the assessment of the value of food (Skramlik 1926). Sweet taste is predominantly elicited by carbohydrates and indicates energy-rich food sources (Drewnowski 1995). The broth-like umami taste, that is mainly triggered by glutamate and enhanced by ribonucleotides such as inositol monophosphate (IMP), identifies protein-rich food (Bellisle 1999, Yamaguchi and Ninomiya 2000). Both taste qualities indicate valuable food components, and thus sweet and umami tastes are coupled to attractive behaviours in mammals. Salt taste is elicited by sodium chloride and other salts and contributes to electrolyte homeostasis (Lindemann 2001, Daniels and Fluharty 2004, Skramlik 1926). Consistent with this function, salt taste is attractive at low concentrations and repulsive at high concentrations (Daniels and Fluharty 2004). Strong sour taste is also repulsive and prevents the ingestion of unripe fruits and spoiled food, which often contain acids (Skramlik 1926, Lindemann 2001). Bitter taste is evoked by many compounds that belong to multiple chemical classes (Chon 1914, Delwiche et al. 2001). The common denominator of most bitter compounds is their pharmacological activity or toxicity (Skramlik 1926). Therefore, due to its task to avoid harmful compounds strong bitter taste is aversive (Skramlik 1926). Nevertheless humans can accept moderate bitter taste or even find it attractive. A reasonable explanation for this observation is that bitter and sour tastes should not deter us from advantageous food containing low concentrations of harmful compounds.

The five basic taste sensations are mediated by specialised epithelial cells, the taste receptor cells, that are located within the taste buds of the papillae on the surface of the tongue. These elongated taste receptors cells are deeply embedded in the surrounding epithelium and just contact the outside world in the gustatory porus of the taste buds. Thus, the porus is the place where tastants interact with the taste receptor molecules that are located at the apical site of the taste receptor cells. In contrast to obsolete textbook knowledge, humans can perceive all taste qualities on any area of the tongue that contains papillae (Häning 1901, Lindemann 2001). Only the perceived intensities of the taste qualities differ depending on the tongue region and papilla type (Häning 1901). Sweet taste saccharin for instance is ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Related titles
• Copyright
• Contributor contact details
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The human perception of taste compounds
• Chapter 2: Processing information about flavour
• Chapter 3: Sensory analysis of food flavor
• Chapter 4: Choosing the correct analytical technique in aroma analysis
• Chapter 5: Matching sensory and instrumental data
• Chapter 6: Flavour retention and release from the food matrix: an overview
• Chapter 7: Lipid–flavour interactions
• Chapter 8: Emulsion–flavour interactions
• Chapter 9: Protein–flavour interactions
• Chapter 10: Carbohydrate–flavour interactions
• Chapter 11: Modelling aroma interactions in food matrices
• Chapter 12: Flavour release from liquid food products
• Chapter 13: The process of flavour release
• Chapter 14: Genetic influences on taste
• Chapter 15: Texture–aroma interactions
• Chapter 16: Odour–taste interactions in flavour perception
• Chapter 17: The learning of human flavour preferences
• Chapter 18: The development of flavour perception from infancy to adulthood
• Index