How is peach flavoring so easily captured in gummies, water, etc, when so many other flavors taste obviously fake?
In: Chemistry
Flavours are developed by flavour chemists to mimic the flavours for which they are named. But also to local cultural tastes.
Flavours can be:
* Synthetic- made with chemicals that do not exist in nature
* Nature Identical – made with synthetic chemicals that are identical to naturally occurring flavours. For example Synthetic vanillin is about $50/kg. Natural vanillin about $400/kg. Nature identical is classed as artificial in many countries.
* Natural flavours – made up from isolated natural flavour chemicals. Geraniol from Rose geranium, citronellal from lemon grass etc. And blended by the flavour chemist.
* FTNFs (From The Named Fruit). Bansna flavours from banana, strawberry from strawberries etc.
Flavours popular here in NZ may be different to America. Cultural preferences for example. Americans love cherry flavours, Brits like black currant.
Flavour houses may have dozens of different strawberry flavours, grape water melon, banana etc but ultimately the choice of flavour comes down to someone like me – a food technologist who spends time flavouring foods (and pharmaceutical) products to either customer requirements or food panels.
Products that reach the market may not be your ideal flavour but it has passed a team who thinks it either the best they can get or the one with the highest approval from the customer or tasting panel.
I’ve done many products where the customer hates the perfectly flavoured product I’ve done for them and approved something I’m not happy with.
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