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Thursday, 07 December 2006 07:37 |
This month's expert:
Steven Landau
Chief Technology Officer, ScentSational Technologies
Q: How does smell affect taste and how can aroma technology enhance a
consumer's taste experience of a particular beverage?
A: First, it's important to understand the relationship between smell and taste. What most people believe to be taste is actually a result of the sense of smell. This is why if you hold your nose while eating or drinking it's very difficult to experience any flavor. This is due to the fact that the tongue actually only tastes five sensations, sweet, sour, bitter, salty and Umami (something discovered by the Japanese—described as a sensory enhancer). All other taste is a result of the sense of smell. When people eat and drink, aroma volatiles are released into the nose and the mouth. These aroma vapors travel up the back of the mouth behind the sinuses until they reach the olfactory bulb, where the aroma is translated as taste by the brain.
When beverage companies formulate beverages, they greatly rely on flavor additives, which are mostly in the form of aromatics. Since water and oxygen are an unfriendly environment for flavors, they begin to degrade almost immediately. Encapsulated Aroma Release technology keeps these aromatic flavor additives fresh and stable in the structure of the plastic packaging components. This technology can be added to closures in the form of liners or to the entire closure itself. The Encapsulated Aroma fills the headspace of the product up with fresh and stable aroma, which lasts significantly longer than aromatic flavors in just a liquid environment. This effect not only results in improved aroma and taste of the product, it also has the ability to extend shelf life by allowing a fresher profile for extended periods of time. Another benefit is that Encapsulated Aroma Release technology mitigates the effects of flavor scalping from packaging components as well as migration of off aromas from plastic packaging.
Now beverages such as chilled coffee, exotic fruit juices, tea, beer, soy, and FAB's can have that fresh brewed, fresh squeezed or fresh made profile which previously had been unattainable.
Posted December 7, 2006
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