Food Flavors Flashcards
What is sweet flavour elicited by/due to?
electronegative elements of organic molecules (ex. O & N)
What type of molecules obtain a sweet flavour due to oxygen? What are examples of each?
- alcohols (glycerol, glucose, xylitol)
2. aldehydes (cinnamic aldehyde)
What type of molecules obtain their sweet flavour due to nitrogen? what is an example?
certain amino acids (D-Histidine)
Relative sweetness of sugars uses what molecule as a reference? What number is it assigned?
sucrose: 1
What is the relative sweetness of:
- Sucrose
- Lactose
- Maltose
- Glucose
- Galactose
- Sorbitol
- Mannitol
- Glycerol
- Fructose
- Aspartame
- 1
- 0.27
- 0.5
- 0.5-0.7
- 0.6
- 0.5
- 0.7
- 0.8
- 1.1-1.5
- 100-200
Glucose and Fructose have the same molecular formula, so why is fructose sweeter than glucose?
Exam question
What is the definition of flavour?
sensations produced by a food in the mouth and nose
What are the 3 components of food flavour?
- taste
- odor or smell
- mouthfeel
What are the 5 different tastes sensed in taste buds?
- sweet
- sour
- salt
- bitter
- umami
What are the 7 different odors received in nasal epithelial?
- ethereal (nutty/earthy)
- pungent
- putrid (rotten/decomposed)
- floral
- minty
- musky (really strong/sweet)
- camphoraceous (woody)
What 3 things is mouthfeel perceived with?
- tongue
- teeth
- jaws
What are 3 examples of mouthfeel?
- pain
- temperature
- tactile sensations
What are the two groups of amino acids? What are these two groups based on? How do they differ in taste?
Two groups based on optical activities.
- L-isomers
- D-isomers: sweeter
What is the difference in taste between the L and D isomers of the amino acids:
- Asp-NH?
- Glu
- His
- Ile
- Try
- L: tasteless; D: sweet
- L: meaty; D: tasteless
- L: tasteless to bitter; D: sweet
- L: bitter; D: sweet
- L: bitter; D: very sweet
In that 3 ways are flavours from food perceived by our brain?
- smell signals from the nose
- taste signals from the tongue
- mouthfeel from teeth, jaws and tounge
Interactions with molecules in mouth
What are 5 examples of traditional sweetners?
- sugar (sucrose)
- invert sugar
- conventional corn syrup
- high fructose corn syrup
- maltodextrin
What two monosaccharides is sucrose made up of? what is the bond between them?
glucose + fructose
beta 1-2 bond
What happens if you add the ________ enzyme to sucrose?
Invertase.
Cleaves beta(1-2) bond between fructose and glucose - making a mixture even sweeter than sucrose
What is invert sugar?
solution of glucose and fructose created from applying invertase to sucrose
Steps and enzymes to break down corn starch into high fructose corn syrup
- add amylase –> glucose hydrolysate (conventional corn syrup)
- add glucose isomerase –> glucose + fructose hydrolysate (high fructose corn syrup)
Maltodextrin
white powder - super processed
Honey:
- Texture?
- Made by?
- Mixture of (%)?
- Contains a significant content of?
- sweet syrupy liquid
- honeybees
- fructose (33-40%) + glucose (32-42%) + water (15-20%)
- phenolics
How do honey bees produce honey?
suck nectar and take it to their hive. Pass it mouth to mouth one bee to another (massaging it and treating it with enzymes). When the honey stomach of bees is full they release the honey into the honeycomb
Is all honey that manufactures obtain sweet? What might manufacturers add and what might this be considered?
No, therefore manufacturers may add sugar which may be considered adulteration unless they are adding the sugar to make a uniform material
How many stomachs do bees have?
2, regular and honey stomach
What 4 things is maple syrup a mixture of?
- glucose
- fructose
- sucrose
- pigments
How is maple syrup obtained? What produces the brown color?
by boiling the sap of the sugar maple tree. Brown color due to boiling and polyphenolic compounds in the tree
What is molasses? What 2 plants does it come from?
the dark syrupy liquid left after recovery of sugar from either sugar cane or sugar beet. Has variable composition
How is molasses obtained in processing?
sugar cane or sugar beet crushed to obtain juice, then heated to concentrate it. The sugar crystals are separated from syrup, then the syrup is further reduced. Repeat separation step
Sugar cane and molasses have a high content of what 6 nutrients?
- Vitamin B6
- Potassium
- Iron
- Calcium
- Manganese
- Magnesium
What are the 8 different criteria for selecting alternate sweetners?
- carcinogenicity
- sweetness equivalent
- solubility
- hygroscopicity
- heat of solution
- viscosity
- laxative effect
- cost
- What is carcinogenicity of alternate sweeteners dependent on?
- What group of alternate sweeteners are resistant to fermentation? Therefore?
- How does this compare to common sugars?
- susceptibility of fermentation by oral microorganisms
- polyols, therefore formation of cavity causing fermentation plaque acids by mouth bacteria is minimal, therefore pH remains at normal. A declined pH would result in decay of tooth enamel
- Common sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose) are all metabolized by mouth bacteria to produce lactic acid that causes decline in pH which solubilized tooth enamel
What are the two main requirements in terms of the sweet taste of synthetic sugars?
- Sweetness Equivalence to sugar (sucrose)
2. no aftertaste
- What 3 things can solubility influence?
- It is desirable for alternate sweeteners to have similar _______ profiles as traditional sugar.
- Alternate sweeteners with ____ solubility result in products with a ______ mouthfeel.
- What is the requirement for replacement/synthetic sugars in terms of solubility?
- mouthfeel, texture, and onset of sweetness perception of the product
- solubility
- low; chalky
- must be soluble in water and be able to dissolve at the same rate as common sugars
- How may synthetic sweaters alter the texture/characteristics of a product? Is this desirable?
- _______ is less viscous than sugar (sucrose) which could yield a poor bodying effect
- ________ has a higher viscosity than sucrose
- Combinations of _______ with _______ help to produce desired viscosity?
- may add body which increases texture/viscosity in comparison to common sugar - not desirable
- xylitol
- polydextrose
- xylitol + polydextros
What is todays challenge in terms of artificial sweeteners?
provide good tasting sugar free products (low calorie, non carcinogenic sweetners)
What are 3 examples of groups of sugars that are approved for food use?
- Pylyols: xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol, Maltitol, lactitol
- polydextrose
- fruit juices
What is hygroscopicity?
molecules tightly absorb water
What can hygroscopicity affect?
shelf-stability
_______ are considered to be fairly hygroscopic, but ______ and ______ are non-hygroscopic
- Polyols
- mannitol
- isomalt
Shelf life of products from ____ hygroscopic materials is relatively short
high
How are highly hygroscopic products wrapped in order to increase shelf-stability?
individually wrapped
What sensation do we get in our mouth when we ingest crystalline polyols?
They dissolve - the relatively lower heat of the solution (versus sugar) produces a pleasant cooling effect in the mouth
What is an example of a product that contains crystalline polyol?
Mint flavours - cause heat from inside our mouth to do into the sugars, making it seem like a sharp cooling feel
Which synthetic/common sugars produce:
- the highest cooling effect?
- significant cooling effect?
- marginal cooling effect?
- limited cooling effect? Which is similar to the cooling effect of what other sugar?
- xylitol
- mannitol, sorbitol
- isomalt
- sucrose - similar to Maltitol
What products take advantage of this cooling effect?
chewing gum, tablets, mints, lozenges, coatings, fondants, hard candies, some chocolates
What two synthetic sugars produce a laxative effect? Why?
Polyols and poly dextrose because they are incompletely digested and slowly absorbed
Foods that provide ____ amount of sorbitol/day, ____ mannitol/day or ____ polydextrose/day are required to pose a label warning statement concerning the potential laxative effect.
> 50g
> 20g
> 15g
What is the price of Maltitol relative to corn syrup?
5x more expensive
What is the price of sorbitol relative to sugar?
2 to 3 times