Food Flavour

1. Introduction

Dr Ian Fisk
University of Nottingham

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 General Information
• Venues: Gateway Building B01/B02; Tea and
coffee is in the Gateway foyer downstairs, where
you registered
• Catering: A buffet lunch will be served each day at
1pm, in the upstairs restaurant in The Barn
• There is a course meal this evening at 6pm in the
downstairs bar area of The Barn. All are very Venue: Gateway Building
welcome to attend.
• On Wednesday evening there is the option of
joining us at an Indian restaurant in Kegworth –
please sign up in reception as soon as possible.
Lifts will be available! (Jee-Ja-Jees)
• Parking: all delegates need to display a parking
permit – if you don’t have one please go to the
registration desk to collect one
• Tours: We will be giving tours of the facilities here
at Sutton Bonington tomorrow lunchtime

Venue: The Barn

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 General Information

• Timetable: Latest version is in the folders

• Lectures: All are on Moodle; Handouts printed and available
after each lecture
• Recording: Lectures will be recorded on Echo360, the
audience is not being filmed and cannot be heard.
• Copyright: please do not record or share documents
provided to you.
• Photos/filming: Photos and filming will take place for
marketing purposes – please let us know if this is a problem.
• Fire Exits

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 Coursebook
• Contains information on module

– aims and objectives

– personnel Food Flavour D24AF1
25-27 April 2017

– practicals Module Convenor – Dr Ian Fisk

www.nottingham.ac.uk/facts/training-courses.aspx

– timetable
– overview of each topic with
references and further data
– assessment procedures

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 Aims of module
• Pre-course reading
– Introduce specific problems encountered in flavour research
– give overview of mechanism of flavour perception
• During module
– Flavour compounds
– Measuring flavour
– Flavour release
– Flavour formulation and applications
• After module
– develop in depth understanding of one area

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 Structure of module
• Tuesday
– Introduction
– Origins of Flavour and Flavour Analysis
• Wednesday
– Flavour Analysis
– Flavour Legislation and Labelling
– Taste and Flavour Behaviour
• Thursday
– Taste and Flavour Behaviour
– Flavour Applications
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Lectures

• Vary in length (30-45 min)

• Vary in presenter

• Vary in style

• Aim – deliver lots of

knowledge in the most
acceptable way
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 Scope of module

• Food flavour is sensed when chemical

components are sensed by receptors in the
mouth and nose and/or when structures are
broken down in-mouth
• Flavour =AROMA+Taste+mouthfeel+pain
• Proportions of each component vary according
to food type

• This module focuses on desirable flavour

University of Nottingham 8
 Flavour is firstly aroma and taste
but also much more…
AROMA TASTE OTHERS
• There are a 5 Tastes • Mouthfeel
vast range of • Sweet
volatile • Temperature
• Bitter
aroma • Metal ions
compounds • Salt
• Humans are • Sour • Pain
sensitive to • Savoury • Context
5000-10,000 (Umami) • Expectation
volatile • And more….?
compounds • And more….
 Challenges of flavour research
• Rare to find one chemical entirely responsible
for a flavour
• Interactions between flavour compounds
occur
• A few compounds seem to be sensed in-
mouth and in-nose e.g. menthol
• Some flavour compounds widely distributed
– e.g. hexanal, methyl butanals
• Others are species specific
– e.g. sulphur compounds in onions, capsaicin in
peppers
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 Sulphur based compounds
Allium sativum Brassica oleracea

diallyl disulfide methyl methanethiosulfinate

Coffea arabica Brassica Nigra

2-furfurylthiol allyl isothiocyanate

 Challenges of flavour research

• Chirality of compounds can affect perceived

flavour

• Carvone is the classic example where one

form tastes minty, the other of caraway

• Chiral analysis therefore essential part of

flavour analysis
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 Flavour thresholds
• Concept is that there is a minimum detectable
concentration of chemical compound
• Sensory tests used to determine taste and
odour thresholds
• Threshold defined as:
– concentration at which 50% of a panel can detect
or recognise flavour
• Values vary as people have different genetics
and day-to-day variation
– complete and selective anosmia
– screening important for panellists
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 Compilations of odour threshold
data
• Rychlik, Schieberle &
Grosch
Compilation of odor • Devos, M., Patte, F.,
thresholds, odor quality Rouault, J., Laffort, P
and retention indices of and van Gemert, L.J.
key food odorants, Standardised human
1998 olfactory thresholds,
ISBN 3-9803426-5-4 IRL Press, Oxford, 1990

• van Gemert &

Nettenbreijer 1977
now out of print
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 Odour thresholds of pyrazines

• Compound Threshold in water

(ug/kg or ppb)

• Pyrazine 175000
• 2,5-dimethylpyrazine 1800
• 2-methoxypyrazine 700
• 2-methoxy-3-methylpyrazine 4
• 2-methoxy-3-ethylpyrazine 0.4
• 2-methoxy-3-hexylpyrazine 0.001

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16
 It is not simple
1200

1000
Trans-non-2-enal (ppb)

800

600

400

200

0
Woody Fatty Unpleasant Cucumber
 Relationship between perceived
flavour and concentration
• Example trans-non-2-enal

– Detection threshold of 0.1 ppb smells woody

– Above 8 ppb smells fatty

– At 30 ppb becomes unpleasant

– At 1000 ppb in water has flavour of cucumber

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 Synergism and antagonism
• Example of antagonism
– cis-3-hexenal at 1ppm smells of green beans
– mixture of cis-3-hexenal at 13.2 ppm plus trans,
trans-2,4-decadienal is almost odourless and
tasteless

• Example of synergism
– ketones at low concentrations have no odour but
a mixture has a definite aroma (Nawar &
Ferguson, cited in Fisher and Scott)
– 4-hexanolide (subthreshold levels) enhances
aroma of jasmine tea (Lto 2005)
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 Location of receptors/sensors
• Receptors are:
– on tongue (non-volatiles e.g. sugar, acids)
• 0.5% sugar just detectable (5000 ppm)
– in-nose (volatiles)
• ppb (ng per g) or ppt (pg per g) concentrations
detectable
• difficult to find chemical assays with same degree of
sensitivity
– in mouth (trigeminal receptors for pain, heat,
cooling)
– in jaw muscles
• sense mechanical effort required to break down structure
during eating
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 Overall flavour

• Flavour is perceived as a combination of all

signals received from receptors
• Signals interact
• Signals are also compared with built in library
of learned responses and preferences
• Other signals enhance/reduce perception
– e.g. drugs, mood, setting

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Aroma generation originates from many
sources

Amino acids and • Maillard Chemistry

reducing sugars

Polyunsaturated • Lipid Oxidation

fatty acids

Small chain sugars • Caramelisation

Various • Pyrolysis

Glycosidic • Glycosidases
compounds
 Measurement of flavour

Chemical analyses

• Flavour composition of foods

• Volatile fraction in headspace
• Actual concentrations that reach sensors
• Neural signals from sensors (animals only)
• Brain mapping
• Sensory analysis (humans only)
Sensory analyses

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 Brain imaging

• Measures oxygen content as a map of the brain

• Areas of brain activity require more blood and cause a

localised increase in oxygen

• Oxygen changes are measured in a magnetic field

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fMRI – the role

The average
number of
neurons in the
brain = 100
billion.
Electrical activity of neurons

When neurons are

active they consume
more energy and need
more oxygen

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Brain separated into grey and whiter - Grey matter contains neurons
fMRI – how it works

Blood: flow + volume + oxygenation

0 4 8 12
TASTE Time (seconds)
fMRI – how it works
TASTE TASTE TASTE TASTE

on on on on
Stimulus
pattern off off off off off

MR Haemodynamic
BOLD signal Response
~ 2 -4 % at 3T
time

Locate brain areas whose NMR Statistical Map

signal time series matches the superimposed on
stimulus pattern. anatomical MRI
image
e.g. using SPM5, brain voyager
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 R L

Cortical areas activated by glucose taste (p= 0.005).

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Areas activated due to the odour of vanilla, p=0.001
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 Interpretation of MRI images

• Plot “blobs” onto a unified • Different areas are

human head to compare activated but what is
people’s reactions interpretation?

• Release during eating • Do different people

possible but under limited exhibit the same
conditions pattern for a series of
(e.g. swallow a solution) volatiles?
• Nasal stimulation with
volatile compounds
possible
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 Role of flavour science

• Consumers unlikely to repeat purchase

products if flavour experience not satisfying
• In industry, flavourists increasingly combine
scientific tools with expertise to formulate
flavour
• Relationship between growing conditions,
genetics and flavour essential to production
of quality food

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 Active topics in flavour science

• Advances in molecular biology of odour and taste

receptors shedding light on mechanisms
• Neurobiology/MRI explaining signal transduction
processes
• Reformulating flavours for low fat, sugar and salt
foods
• Effect of flavour on satiety and food intake
• Relationship between chemical composition and
sensory perception

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