Nature of flavor components

The range of natural and synthetic flavorings available to the modern food technologists is very large. Essential oils form a major source of flavorings.

Essential oils are odorous components of plants and plant materials that are characteristics odors of the materials form which they are extracted. Because of the large production of orange juice, quality of essential oil of orange are produced as by products.

For this reason, there is little need for the production of synthetic orange flavorings. Fruits extract has being used as flavorings, but these are relatively weak when compared to essential oils and oleoresins.

An oleoresin is a solvents extract of spices from which the solvent, usually a hydrocarbon, has been removed by distillation. Because of their weak effects, fruits extract may be intensified by combining them with other flavor.

Synthetic flavorings are usually less expensive and more plentiful than natural flavorings. On the other hand, natural flavorings are often more acceptable. However, they are quite complex and difficult to reproduce synthetically.

In fact, one of the problems with natural flavorings is that they may vary according to their season and their uncontrollable variance.

Synthetic flavorings, however, can be reproduced quite accurately, many artificial flavors, such as amyl acetate (artificial banana flavor), benzaldehyde(artificial cherry flavor), and ethyl caproate(artificial pineapple flavor), are added to confectioneries, baked products, soft drinks, and ice cream. These flavorings are added in concentrations of 0.03% or less.
Food Flavor