I was sharing a can of bacon flavored pringles at work with some coworkers and we got into discussing the different types of “weird” flavored chips we’ve eaten. Cheeseburger flavor, taco flavor, and oven roasted chicken flavor, pizza flavor, etc. How the heck do they manage to get the chip to taste like a cheeseburger? Bread, cheese, meat, and all? How?
In: Biology
Flavor all comes down to two basic things (as far as I’m aware): chemical composition, and temperature (this affects the movement of the molecules).
If a scientist is able to break down the general composition of a cheeseburger to the basic elements and then create a flavor powder that contains most of the more important chemicals, then with a little bit of psychological suggestion people will taste what they are told it’s supposed to taste like.
Generally speaking, the more complex flavors like oven roasted chicken or pizza you wouldn’t associate with those foods if you were blind tasting the product. For the oven roasted chicken you might think it’s chicken broth flavored and for pizza you might think it’s tomato and cheese flavored.
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