FlavourArt

How to use flavors

Our flavors are realized to perform when used at 1 up to 5 grams of flavor for a Kg of finished product. In order to help our users to dose them correctly, we offer the opportunity to purchase a set of plastic pipettes. Five drops out from this pipette, represents 0,1 g of flavor, so an amount useful to flavor 100 g of food product. Before use our flavors on larger amount of food, we suggest to experiment a little bit. Try them in a 100 ml of vegetable oil, add 5 drops and taste. If too much reduce, if low, increase. Moreover, plese keep in mind that cooking process, cold or iced food, amount of fat, sugar and proteins reduce the flavor intensity, so when flavors are used in such conditions, a little over dosing might be required. Flavours bind very well with food matrix and fat, sugars, proteins "catch" the flavor molecules, thus make them less available for the taste buds.

Generally speaking, richer the food, less the flavor will be perceived. Super fat or high protein foods will require flavor overdosing, to make it comes out well.

Flavor use, food technology and personal taste, are a combination of science and human preferences, so a little experimentation is needed before achieve satisfactory results.



TASTE MECHANISM

Flavor is a complex mixture of sensory input composed of taste (gustation), smell (olfaction) and the tactile sensation of food as it is being munched, a characteristic that food scientists often term
“mouthfeel.” Although people may use the word “taste” to mean “flavor,” in the strict sense it is applicable only to the sensations arising from specialized taste cells in the mouth. Scientists generally describe human taste perception in terms of four qualities: saltiness, sourness, sweetness and bitterness.
Some have suggested, however, that other categories exist as well—most notably umami, the sensation
elicited by glutamate, one of the 20 amino acids that make up the proteins in meat, fish and legumes. Glutamate also serves as a flavor enhancer in the form of the additive monosodium glutamate (MSG). Taste cells lie within specialized structures called taste buds, which are situated predominantly on the tongue and soft palate. The majority of taste buds on the tongue are located within papillae, the tiny projections that give the tongue its velvety appearance. (The most numerous papillae on the tongue—the filiform, or threadlike, ones—lack taste buds, however, and are involved in tactile sensation.) Of those with taste buds, the fungiform (“mushroomlike”) papillae on the front part of the tongue are most noticeable; these contain one or more taste buds. The fungiform papillae appear as pinkish spots distributed around the edge of the tongue and are readily visible after taking a drink of milk or placing a drop of food coloring on the tip of the tongue.

SALTS, such as sodium chloride (NaCl), trigger taste cells when sodium ions (Na+) enter through ion channels on microvilli at the cell’s apical, or top, surface. The accumulation of sodium ions causes an electrochemical change called depolarization that results in calcium ions (Ca++) entering the cell. The calcium, in turn, prompts the cell to release chemical signals called neurotransmitters from packets known as vesicles. Nerve cells, or neurons, receive the message and convey a signal to the brain. Taste cells repolarize, or “reset,” themselves in part by opening potassium ion channels so that potassium ions (K+) can exit.

ACIDS taste sour because they generate hydrogen ions (H+) in solution. Those ions act on a taste cell in three ways: by directly entering the cell; by blocking potassium ion (K+) channels on the microvilli; and by binding to and opening channels on the microvilli that allow other positive ions to enter the cell. The resulting accumulation of positive charges depolarizes the cell and leads to neurotransmitter release.

SWEET STIMULI, such as sugar or artificial sweeteners, do not enter taste cells but trigger changes within the cells. They bind to receptors on a taste cell’s surface that are coupled to molecules named G-proteins. This prompts the subunits (a , b and g ) of the Gproteins to split into a and bg , which activate a nearby enzyme. The enzyme then converts a precursor within the cell into so-called second messengers that close potassium channels indirectly. Just as important as ingesting the appropriate nutrients is not ingesting harmful substances.The universal avoidance of intensely bitter molecules shows a strong link between taste and disgust. Toxic compounds, such as strychnine and other common plant alkaloids, often have a strong bitter taste. In fact, many plants have evolved such compounds as a protective mechanism against foraging animals. The sour taste of spoiled foods also contributes to their avoidance. All animals, including humans, generally reject acids and bitter-tasting substances at all but the weakest concentrations. The intense reactions of pleasure and disgust evoked by sweet and bitter substances appear to be present at birth and to depend on neural connections within the lower brain stem.

The strong link between taste and pleasure—or perhaps displeasure—is the basis of the phenomenon of taste-aversion learning. Animals, including humans, will quickly learn to avoid a novel food if eating it causes,or is paired with,gastrointestinal distress.


The “Taste Map”: All Wrong

One of the most dubious “facts”about taste—and one that is commonly reproduced in textbooks—is the
oft-cited but misleading “tongue map” showing large regional differences in sensitivity across the human tongue. These maps indicate that sweetness is detected by taste buds on the tip of the tongue, sourness on the sides, bitterness at the back and saltiness along the edges. Taste researchers have known for many years that these tongue maps are wrong. The maps arose early in the 20th century as a result of a misinterpretation of research reported in the late 1800s, and they have been almost impossible to purge from the literature. In reality,all qualities of taste can be elicited from all the regions of the tongue that contain taste buds. At present, there is no evidence that any kind of spatial segregation of sensitivities contributes to the neural representation of taste quality, although there are some slight differences in sensitivity across the tongue and palate.

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