Aroma chemicals may be added directly to foods and beverages or used as raw materials in flavor compositions.
A simple flavor may have 100-300 volatile constituents such strawberry or grape. The thermal generation of volatiles during cooking and processing is one of the key mechanisms for the formation of aroma in food. Foods that are more complex in flavor, for example those resulting from Maillard reaction may contain 900 or more volatile constituents.
Other than Maillard reactions, there are other chemical reactions, including Strecker degradation, caramelization, the degradation of thiamin and ferulic acid and lipid oxidation.
They are partially lipid-soluble organic chemicals of low molecular weight. Many of these have been identified since the invention of gas chromatography.
There are nearly 7000 compounds of aroma chemicals in foods. Many of these aroma compounds are present naturally in foods while other are the result of fermentation, thermal processing or deteriorative reactions e.g. lipid oxidation.
Aroma chemicals
