Great expectations

17-Nov-2004 - Last updated on 14-Mar-2017 at 08:32 GMT

When it comes to flavours, consumers have increasingly sophisticated expectations. But manufacturers and flavour houses are rising to the challenge, as Susan Birks discovers

Consumers are getting more demanding when it comes to flavours. They are eating out more and are travelling further afield and as a consequence have a wider experience and appreciation of foods and ingredients from around the world. Their familiarity with a growing range of products, also means their preferences are becoming more complex. Just take a look at coffee -- where once there was a choice of instant or filtered, now there is cappuccino, latte, mocha and decaf, each with a distinct flavour.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, want fresher, higher impact flavours that will outperform their rival's products and are constantly seeking new flavours to tempt consumers.

To satisfy this demand, the flavour houses are introducing many new exotic flavours and are providing more complex combinations of some of the more familiar favourites.

By drawing on its experience in the Far East, Belmay has introduced its Adventures of the Orient -- a range of exotic fruit flavours that can be used in beverages or dairy, bakery and confectionery products. The range includes lesser known varieties of fruit, such as the pummelo (or pomelo) -- an ancestor of the grapefruit -- and the calamansi or Philippine lemon, alongside the yuzu -- a tangerine like fruit with its own unique citrus flavour.

Other interesting fruits include a Thai variety of water melon called tang mo, or maproa -- a variant of the coconut -- or the rambutan, a lychee-like fruit but with a more subtle flavour.

Mediterranean flavour

Closer to home but equally popular among product developers is Mediterranean cuisine. Belmay suggests fruits from this region such as pomegranate and persimmon are up and coming. But for something more sophisticated, it says dessert flavours such as cannoli and zabaglione (both Italian puddings) and rose-scented rhubarb with Rizogala (greek rice pudding) or Kazandibi (turkish delight) could provide a point of difference in dairy products.

When we talk of taste we are really talking about aroma, as scientifically speaking 80% of what we taste is actually aroma, says Suzanne Johnson, R&D manager at flavour house Fona UK. And if you don't believe her, hold your nose while eating a banana -- it tastes of little until you release the nose and then the familiar banana flavour bursts through.

This is because the volatile chemicals in food pass through the front of the nose as the food approaches the mouth, and via the back of the throat as we chew on it, and are then sensed by the olfactory bulb located at the back of the nose.

To some extent we also taste with our eyes, linking colour strongly with flavour. Sensory experts have found consumers will often believe a green drink tastes of apple because of the colour, even though it has actually been flavoured with strawberry.

Consumers' perception of flavour is made even more complex by the fact that our likes and dislikes are linked to our memory of good and bad experiences. Favourite flavours often relate to pleasant experiences -- the comfort of eating mum's apple pie or the pleasure of ice creams on day trips and the excitement of new foods tasted while travelling abroad. The challenge for manufacturers is to meet all these expectations.

"Success with flavoured convenience products requires an understanding of consumer expectations, and then the ability to translate this into descriptive terms that a flavourist can work with," says Johnson.

Over the years this task has become ever more complicated as consumers' familiarity with products means they have developed preferences. For example, everybody would recognise the taste of apple but, depending upon its product application, apple flavour could now mean one of many things -- a green apple, red apple, cooked apple, sour apple or apple pie. Likewise, tomato could mean ripe, green, sundried, fried or even ketchup.

So while favourites such as strawberry, chocolate and coffee, remain top of the hit list, familiarity with flavoured products has produced preferences such as strawberries and cream, praline chocolate and cappuccino.

Recognising this increasing level of sophistication flavour houses are producing tools to help manufacturers define precisely the flavours they want. This even extends to preference in cooking techniques. For example, flavour supplier Quest has produced tools to help manufacturers define meat flavours produced through roasting, grilling or frying.

Quest chef Matthew Walter says: "Careful analysis of various cooking techniques enabled us to identify specific aroma and taste components that are prevalent in fresh meats, but are currently missing in industrial prepared foods."

This more precise flavour classification means manufacturers can, for example, capture the succulence of slowly roasted chicken or the taste of sauteed aubergines for Mediterranean cuisine. Quest has extended the concept to mushroom, onion and tomato and coffee flavours.

application challenges

Identifying the desired flavour is only half the battle, however. The real challenge comes in getting it to work in the desired application. Factors such as the presence of protein, fat, starch, salt, gum as well as pH and viscosity can all affect the final outcome.

"A flavour's profile can change just because of the presence of acid, so you need to make sure your flavour is a good pick for your base," says Hedy Kulka, technical manager and flavourist at Fona UK.

She says that some dairy bases like yoghurt can enhance fruit flavours. Some flavours are attracted to protein, but if they happen to bind to the protein they can be harder to taste. Similarly, at low levels sweeteners can enhance flavour but at high levels they may mask them.

These interactions provide many challenges, particularly in the production of today's healthy products, where manufacturers may want to replicate the taste of a full-fat product in a low-fat format, or reduce calorific value by replacing sugar with synthetic sweeteners or even to mask the healthy but unpleasant tasting nutrients.

Processes such as encapsulation can help reduce the undesirable interaction of ingredients, and protect flavours from harsh processing techniques but they also add to the cost.

Today, the choice of flavour formats is wider than ever. While natural flavours with clean label declarations are popular with consumers and marketing departments, and more of them are being offered by suppliers, they come at a high price.

More common, are the nature identical flavours -- effectively the same molecules but obtained from a different source -- or synthetic/artificial flavours which are produced from chemical building blocks. Both can have their own benefits in terms of taste, consistency and cost.

The final hurdle in meeting consumer expectation is in the packaging. While manufacturers want to make the pack as tempting as possible, strict legislation is in place to prevent misleading product names or images.

In simple terms, the legislation states that the flavour of the food being described should come "wholly or mainly" from the food named in the description. So in a strawberry fool the strawberry flavour has to be mainly or wholly from strawberries or a nature identical strawberry flavouring. If a synthetic flavour is used then the product must be called a strawberry flavour fool. However, it is left to the manufacturer to decide what is meant by wholly or mainly, says legislation expert Sue Woodruff of Leatherhead Food International.

Use of images on packs is also restricted and must reflect what is listed in the ingredient declaration. Here, growing product sophistication in chocolate products has given rise to even more confusion, says Woodruff: "In times gone by people would expect a chocolate sponge cake bought from a shop to be made of cocoa powder. But ever since Delia and other celebrity chefs started using real chocolate in their cakes, consumers see slabs of chocolate on packaging and think it means the product contains real chocolate."

One wonders if manufacturers or consumers really want to see 'cocoa powder flavour cake' labels on packs.

It seems to be the case, however, that meeting consumers' ever more sophisticated preferences could mean ever more complex regulations in future.FM