Nutmeg as a food flavor

Nutmeg, which is an apricot-like fruit of an evergreen tree up to 20 m high with grayish brown smooth bark, dense foliage and small dull-yellow flowers, is cultivated in Madagascar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Nutmeg contains about 6% protein, 35% fat, nearly 50% carbohydrates and 4% crude fiber.

The main fatty acid of the fat is myristic acid, a 14-cabron saturated fatty acid. About 75% of the triglycerides are trimyristin.

Most active ingredients of the nutmeg flavor are sabinene, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and myristicin. It is pale yellow liquid with a pleasant, warm, spicy, aromatic odor.

Having plenty of saturated glycerides, the fat of nutmeg is a semisolid product which, because of its consistency is popularly called nutmeg butter. Nutmeg bitter contains saturated fats 90% and unsaturated fats 10 percent.

The flavor of nutmeg is sweet, with a warm, spicy undertone. It is used to season both sweet and salty foods.

Nutmeg is an excellent in baked pastries, sweet roll doughs, puddings, sauces, curries, processed meat and vegetables.

Nutmeg is an ingredient in liquors, mulled wine, and various other beverages. Nutmeg goes particular well with milk products.
Nutmeg as a food flavor

Flavor Trends Category

There have been many flavor trends affecting out eating habits over the last few years.

The key category of flavour trends can be divided into three application directions:

Salty snacks
Salty snacks with mostly typical flavours (cheese, salt, chili) hot and new flavours which indicate potential growth segment (meaty flavours, ethnic flavours in new ways). The research showed that Hispanics had the greatest interest in snacks flavored with chili, citrus and cheeses seasoning.

Flavored snacks are a valued added item. The seasoning can make or break a product and sufficient sensory and market testing in necessary to produce an acceptable flavor.

Juices
Juices with orange being predominant or extremely fragmented flavour blends –orange plus other flavours such as aloe vera, mango, hibiscus, vitamin fortified.

Citrus flavors are among the most important ingredients in food processing and are widely used in mainly in fruit juice containing beverages, soft drinks, dessert, frozen yoghurt and bakery products.

Sugar confectionary
Sugar confectionary strawberry on top on all regions and regions with very specific flavours and generally a high geographic diversity (chocolate within the top ten of Asia, liquorice in Europe, tamarind in Latin America, sour in North America.

Additional, strong increases are for ethnic offering in meals. Unique flavour trends and changes in ethnic foods are influencing the spice and seasoning market. Many of the new ethnic cuisine and flavour trends of the new millennium have strong, unique uses of spices.
Flavor Trends Category

Definition of Flavor

Definition of Flavor
Flavor can be defined as follows: “flavor is the sensation produced by a material taken in the mouth, perceived principally by the senses of state and smell, and also by the general pain, tactile and temperature receptors in the mouth.

Flavor also denotes the sum of the characteristics of the material which produce that sensation.”

This definition makes clear that flavor is a property of a material (a food) as well as of the receptor mechanism of the person ingesting the food.

The study of flavor includes the composition of food compounds having taste or smell, as well as the interaction of these compounds with the receptors in the taste and smell sensory organs.

Following an interaction, the organs produce signals that are carried to the central nervous system thus creating what we understand as flavor.

Although flavor is composed mainly of taste and odor, other qualities contribute to the overall sensation.

Texture has a very definite effect. Smoothness, roughness, granularity and viscosity can all influence flavor, as can hotness of spies, coolness of menthol, brothiness or fullness of certain amino acids, and the tastes described as metallic and alkaline.

Flavor regardless of the medium in which they are dissolved, do not stay at the same intensity day after day, but diminish over time.

Sensory chemists and flavor technologists know that one way to keep the food products sold by manufacturers from losing their appeal is to prevent the volatile compounds responsible for flavor from deteriorating, escaping or reacting with other substances.
Definition of Flavor

Acidulants in food

Acidulants in food
From the root world, acid in acidulants, one can conclude that this class of compounds tends to lower the PH of any food in which the compounds are incorporated. They also enhance desirable flavors, and in many cases, such as in pickled products, are the major taste component. Vinegar (acetic cid) is added to relishes, chili sauce, ketchup and condiments as flavor component and to aid in the preservation of these products.

Since the microbial spoilage of food is inhibited as the PH of a food is lowered, acidulants are used for that purpose in many cases. Many acidulants occur naturally in foods (e.g., citric acid in citrus fruits, malic acid in apples, acetic acid – the major component of vinegars; figs contain all three acids). Tartaric acid is widely used to lend tartness and enhance flavor. Citric acid is widely used in carbonated soft drinks. Phosphoric acid is one of the very few inorganic acids used as an acidulants in food. It is widely used, comprising 25% of all the acidulants in foods. Citric acid accounts for 60% of all acidulants used in foods.

In addition to their preservative and flavor enhancing effects, acidulants are used to improve gelling and texture. Acidulants are also used as cleaners of dairy equipment. Acidulants may be used in manufacture of processed cheese and cheese spreads for the purpose of emulsifications as well as to provide a desirable tartness.

Acid salts may be added top soft drinks to provide a buffering action (buffers tend to prevent changes in PH) to prevent excess tartness. In some cases, acid salts are used to inhibit mold growth (e.g., calcium propionate is added to bread to prevent mold growth).
Acidulants in food

Nature of Flavor Components

Nature of Flavor Components
Plant materials used in foods depend for their characteristics aroma and flavor on a complex blend of organic chemicals produced in the plant tissues during its normal growth.

Progress in this field has been rapid and is accelerating s fuller use is made of modern instrumental techniques coupled with computerized data assessment and recovery. Hundreds of chemicals present in natural foods and flavorings have already been positively identified but some still defy categorization. This increased knowledge of plant biochemistry has, in turn given rise to other problems. The most pressing of these is the need to establish meaningful correlations between objectives and subjective assessments of the relative contribution of each component to the overall aromatic profile. This is further complicated by the absence of comprehensive and universally understood favor language to enable meaningful descriptions of the aromatic attributes of the chemical compounds isolated and characterized. Parallel with these predominantly subjective problems is the urgent need to established relative toxicity and safety in used for, as is well known, it is wrong to assume that everything found in nature is automatically safe for consumption.

Nature is complex and does not readily reveal many of her secrets. The techniques necessary to separate aromatic compounds from inert plant tissues are often involved and tedious. One cannot always be sure that essential flavoring components have been lost or modified in the process of extractions and concentration; or not entirely different artifacts have not been created. Many of the chemicals which have most significant on the odor and flavor profile are known to be present only in trace quantity and often demonstrate a very limited stability when isolated and purified. Modern research in this filed has material help us understand some of the biochemical processes which exist in the plant and the extent to which theses are responsible for the flavor of our food.
Nature of Flavor Components

Natural flavors

Natural flavors
Due to characteristically flavorful, many fruits and vegetable are delicious when eaten in their raw state and there is a little to compare with the fine flavor of fresh strawberries, a succulent pear, or a scrip of celery; but cook these and flavor character is entirely changed. For many persons this resultant flavor is less acceptance that of the fresh fruit.

Canned strawberries or pears have totally different flavor profile from that of the fresh fruits. If strawberries are cooked at a higher temperature to make strawberry jam the resultant profile is again further changed. It is knowledge of these different profiles which is so important in the creation of food products. Again, the fruits demonstrated a spectrum of flavor profile which depends upon their state of ripeness at the time of gathering.

Preference for one or the other is matter of individual choice but to the food processing company an appreciation of the different flavor qualities and strength which result on this score is essential when handling fruit as a flavoring component in a product.
Natural flavors

Flavor Impact

Food Flavor
Low Flavor Impact
This group from the basis of a staple diet providing a full range of proteins, fats , carbohydrates and vitamin necessary to maintain the body in good health. However, it is necessary to improve the flavor in this group of food stuff and this can mostly readily be achieved simply by cooking or, more convincingly, by the addition of some of the more aromatic material found in the other two groups of by the use of added compounded flavorings.

Medium Flavor Impact
Those in second group occupy a half way place in that they are usually eaten in their natural state either as part of a meal to produce an entirely different flavor sensation in a mouth, or at the other times as a snack. Because of their attractiveness and wide appeal the flavor of fruits is often incorporated into products which would otherwise have little or no flavor: e.g., sugar confectionary, soft drinks, ets. In such case the added flavoring may be derived directly from the fruits or may be an imitation including composed of synthetic aromatic chemical.

High Flavor Impact
Natural products such as the herbs and spices having a very high aromatic content are the considerable importance. It is the blending of theses various flavor factors which is the cornerstone of haute cuisine and, on the commercial scale, food product development, for it is flavor attributes which to a large extend determine the acceptability or rejection of food and drinks.
Food Flavor