Lecture-6

Food Color and Flavour

 6.1. Food Color
 Color is the general name for all sensations arising from the activity of the retina
of the eye.
 When light reaches the retina, the eye's neural mechanism responds, signaling
color among other things.
 Light is the radiant energy in the wavelength range of about 380 to 780 nm is the
visible region.
 Cont…
 According to this definition, color (like flavor and texture) cannot be studied
without considering the human sensory system.
 The color perceived when the eye views an illuminated object is related to the
following three factors:
 The spectral composition of the light source,

 The chemical and physical characteristics of the object, and

 The spectral sensitivity properties of the eye.

 Color and appearance are major and the most important, quality attributes of foods.

 It is because of our ability to easily perceive these factors that they are the first to be
evaluated by the consumer when purchasing foods.
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 One can provide consumers the most nutritious, safest, and most economical foods,
but if they are not attractive, purchase will not occur.
 The consumer also relates specific colors of foods to quality. Specific colors of fruits
are often associated with maturity—while redness of raw meat is associated with
freshness, a green apple may be judged immature (although some are green when
ripe), and brownish-red meat as not fresh.
For a few clear liquid foods, such as oils and beverages, color is mainly a matter of
transmission of light. Other foods are opaque—they derive their color mostly from
reflection.
 In addition, color may provide an indication of chemical changes in a food, such as
browning and Caramelization.
 Food colorants

 The colors of foods are the result of natural pigments or of added colorants.

 The natural pigments are a group of substances present in animal and vegetable

products.

 The added colorants are regulated as food additives, but some of the synthetic

colors, especially carotenoids, are considered "nature identical" and therefore are

not subject to stringent toxicological evaluation as other additives.

 Cont…
 The naturally occurring pigments embrace those already present in foods
as well as those that are formed on heating, storage, or processing. With
few exceptions, these pigments can be divided into the following four
groups:
1. Tetrapyrrole compounds: chlorophylls, hemes, and bilins
2. Isoprenoid derivatives: carotenoids
3. Benzopyran derivatives: anthocyanins and flavonoids
4. Artefacts: melanoidins, caramels
 Heme
 The color of meat is the result of the presence of two pigments, myoglobin
and hemoglobin.
 Factors playing a role in color formation are the oxidation state of the iron
atom and the physical state of the globin.
 In fresh meat and in the presence of oxygen, there is a dynamic system of three
pigments, oxymyoglobin, myoglobin, and metmyoglobin.
 The reversible reaction with oxygen is
 Cont…
 In both pigments, the iron is in the ferrous form; upon oxidation to the ferric

state, the compound becomes metmyoglobin.

 The bright red color of fresh meat is due to the presence of oxymyoglobin;

discoloration to brown occurs in two stages, as follows:

Oxymyoglobin myoglobin metmyoglobin

 Chlorophyll

o Chlorophylls are green pigments responsible for the color of leafy vegetables
and some fruits.
o In many fruits, chlorophyll is present in the unripe state and gradually
disappears as the yellow and red carotenoids take over during ripening.
o In plants, chlorophyll is isolated in the chloroplastids.

o The chlorophylls are tetrapyrrole pigments in which the porphyrin ring is in the
dihydro form and the central metal atom is magnesium.
o There are two chlorophylls, a and b, which occur together in a ratio of about
1:25
 Cont…

Chlorophyll b differs from

chlorophyll a in that the
methyl group (CH) on
carbon 3 is replaced with an
aldehyde group (CHO).

Chlorophyll. In chlorophyll a X = CH, and CHO in chlorophyll b

 Cont…

o During overcooking of green vegetables like cabbage the magnesium ion

replaced by protons, forming pheophytins a and b, which have dirty brown

color and the food turns into dirty brown color.

 Carotenoids
 Carotenoid pigments are responsible for most of the yellow and orange colors
of fruit and vegetables.
 They are found in the chloroplasts of green plant tissues alongside chlorophyll
and in the chromoplasts of other tissues such as flower petals.
 Chemically they are classed as terpenoids, substances derived in nature from the
metabolic intermediate mevalonic acid.
 The structures of most of the carotenoids important in foodstuffs are shown
below

-ionone -ionone
 Cont…
 Edible plant tissues contain a wide variety of carotenoids. Red, yellow, and
orange fruits, root crops, and vegetables are rich in carotenoids.
 Prominent examples include tomatoes (lycopene), carrots (- and -carotenes),
red peppers (capsanthin), pumpkins (-carotene), squashes (-carotene), corn
(lutein and zeaxanthin), and sweet potatoes (-carotene).
 Many factors influence the carotenoid content of plants. In some fruits, ripening
may bring about dramatic changes in carotenoids.
 For example, in tomatoes, the carotenoid content, especially lycopene, increases
significantly during the ripening process.
 Cont…
 Three carotenoids have been chemically synthesized on a commercial scale,

1. -carotene,

2. -apo-8’-carotenal (E 160e), and

3. canthaxanthin (E 16 1 g).
 These commercial preparations are being increasingly used in a wide range
of products including margarine, cheese, ice-cream, and some baked goods
such as cakes and biscuits.
 Egg yolk owes its colour to the two xanthophylls lutein and zeaxanthin, with
only a small proportion of -carotene.
 Anthocyanins
 Anthocyanins are responsible for a wide range of colors in plants, including
blue, purple, violet, magenta, red, and orange.
 The word anthocyanin is derived from two Greek words: anthos, flower, and
kyanos, blue.
 Anthocyanins, as previously mentioned, are the most prevalent flavonoids.
Although most yellow colors in food are attributable to the presence of carotenoids,
some are attributable to the presence of non anthocyanin-type flavonoids.
 In addition, flavonoids also account for some of the whiteness of plant materials,
and the oxidation products of those containing phenolic groups contribute to the
browns and blacks found in nature.
 BETALAINES

The characteristic red-purple pigments of beetroot, Beta vulgaris,

used to be described as ‘nitrogenous anthocyanins’.

 ARTIFICIAL FOOD COLORANTS

• The new chemically synthesized dyestuffs had many advantages over ‘natural’
colours.
• They were much brighter, more stable, cheaper and offered a wide range of
shades.
• It did not take long before the toxic properties of these dyes also became
apparent, though mostly through their effects on those engaged in making them
rather than on consumers.
 Cont…
Synthetic colours permitted in the EC together with their E numbers are described below.
 Cont…
Foods restricted in the EC to natural colors
 6.2. Food Flavour
 Flavor is the combined impression perceived via the chemical senses from a
product in the mouth, i.e., it does not include appearance and texture.
 Flavor, as an attribute of foods, beverages, and seasonings, has been defined
as the sum of perceptions resulting from stimulation of the sense ends that are
grouped together at the entrance of the alimentary and respiratory tracts.
It is the impressions perceived via the chemical senses from a product in the
mouth.
Defined in this manner, flavor includes:
• The aromatics. The term “aromatics” is used to indicate those volatile
constituents that originate from food in the mouth and are perceived by the
olfactory system via the posterior nares.
• The tastes, i.e., gustatory perceptions (salty, sweet, sour, bitter) caused by
soluble substances in the mouth
 Cont…

 Flavour is the sensation produced by a material taken in the mouth, perceived

principally by the senses of taste and smell.

 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.
 Taste

Figure.Taste expression
 Cont...

The Basics Tastes

– Saltiness
– sourness,
– sweetness,
– bitterness, and
– Umami
Chemistry
– Sweet—sugars like fructose, sucrose, artificial sweeteners (saccharin and aspartame)
– Bitter—ions like K+ and Mg2+ , quinine, and caffeine
– Sour— Acidity (low pH), H+
– Salt—Na+
– Umami-
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The Organs of Tastes

Papillae
1.Foliate papillae
2.Vallate papillae
3.Fungiform papillae
 SMELL
Functions of Olfaction
• Warns us of danger
– Fire, Gas, Spoiled Food
We all have a unique smell that is inherited
• Able to distinguish between 10,000 different odors
– When we lose smell, the world seems bland and tastes bland too (think about
when you get a cold)
• Lose it permanently: Anosmia
– If we didn’t have it, an apple and an onion would taste the same
 Cont...
Example:
Methylmercaptan added to natural gas to give a distinctive odor and aid leak
detection.
Similar odor used in propane tanks to allow user to know when tank is nearing
empty.
Odor
– Sample of the substance being sensed
– Odors are detected by sites on receptor cells in the olfactory membrane
Enjoy pleasant odors (food, nature, other people)
– Over 1,000 categories of smells
• Very important to all people(perfume)
 Cont...

Everything you smell, therefore, is giving off molecules- whether

it is bread in the bakery, onions, perfume, a piece of fruit or
whatever.

Those molecules are generally light, volatile (easy to evaporate)

chemicals that float through the air into your nose.

A piece of steel has no smell because nothing evaporates from it -

steel is a non-volatile solid.
 Cont...

To be smelled a substance must be:

1.volatile so that it can be sniffed into the nostrils

2.at least slightly water soluble to penetrate the mucus to reach the
olfactory cells

3.at least slightly lipid soluble to interact with the membrane

 Cont...

How Smell Works

Sniffing brings air through the nasal passages to the olfactory epithelium.

Odorants (chemical stimuli in the air) dissolve in the mucus layer before reaching
receptors.

Odorants then bind with cilia of the receptor cells causing G-protein activation
resulting in an action potential.
 Cont...
Humans have seven primary odors that help them determine objects. Listed
below are the seven odors.

Odor Example
Camphoric Mothballs

Musky Perfume/Aftershave

Roses Floral
Peppermint Mint Gum
Etheral Dry Cleaning Fluid
Pungent Vinegar
Putrid Rotten Eggs
 Cont...

The Organs of Smell

Olfactory epithelium
Olfactory receptor cells, supporting
cells, and basal cells
 Cont...

Figure. Organs of olfaction

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Figure. Olfactory epithelium

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Olfactory epithelium: the “retina of the nose”

Three cell types

1.Supporting cells: Provides metabolic and physical support for the olfactory sensory
neurons

2.Basal cells: Precursor cells to olfactory sensory neurons

3.Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs): The main cell type in the olfactory epithelium
» OSNs are small neurons located beneath a watery mucous layer in the epithelium

• OSNs are only kind of sensory receptors that make direct contact with physical stimulus
(i.e., unlike in retina, cochlea, skin, or tongue)
 Cont...

some molecules that have similar structure smell different, and some that have different
structures smell the same

Figure (a) Two molecules that have the same structures, but one smells like
musk and the other is odorless.
(b) Two molecules with different structures but similar odors
 Cont...
Table. Human odor detection thresholds

Compound Odor threshold in air

(parts per billion)(ppb)
Methanol 141,000
Acetone 15,000
Formaldehyde 870
Menthol 40
T-butyl mercaptan 0.3
Question, Comment or Suggestion ?