Natural food and beverage flavour enhancers - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 93

increased, irrespective of whether sucrose or aspartame/acesulfame-K were used
(King et al. 2006).
Lactones are a defi ning feature of dairy products; a series of smaller volatile
lactones and larger semi-volatile lactones are present in full-fat cream. By spiking
cream with individual lactones it has been found that one semi-volatile lactone,
δ -tetradecalactone, enhanced the retronasal creamy fl avour of the product (Schlutt
et al. 2007).

4.6 Future trends
A busy future lies ahead for fl avour enhancement with current trends toward
lower salt, sugar and fat levels in food, 'cleaner' food labels, more controlled use
of fl avours within the European Union, growing numbers of consumers preferring
to buy natural products, an ever-demanding need to keep ingredient costs down
and a progression towards processes that have minimal environmental impact.
Non-volatile tastants will be increasingly used to maximise umami taste and
hence increase overall savoury fl avour and help to reduce product sodium levels.
Research continues to understand the role that volatile fl avour compounds and
controlled fl avour release could have on enhancing salt and sweet tastes, with the
ultimate goal of enabling salt and sugar reduction.
Identifi cation of 'new' fl avour enhancers from peptides and Maillard-derived
compounds has escalated in the last 10 years due to improved analytical techniques
and this trend is likely to continue, perhaps with more focus on searching for
sweet fl avour enhancers or sweet taste modulators. Within the area of volatile
fl avour compounds, greater attention is currently being given to the use of
biotechnology, through fermentation and/or enzymology, to generate fl avour
compounds. This may lead to the better utilisation of plant materials as
carbohydrate and protein sources in bio-reactions, leading to the production of
fl avour enhancers as well as character impact, specifi c, fl avour compounds, or
complete natural fl avours if the starting material is the from the named source (i.e.
apples for apple fl avour!). Finally, the future of fl avour enhancers will also be
driven by a greater understanding of the mechanism of fl avour enhancement, at
both the receptor and cognitive level.

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4.7 References
ALIANI M , KENNEDY JT , M c ROBERTS CW and FARMER LJ ( 2010 ), ' Formation of fl avour
precursors by the AMP pathway in chicken meat ', in Blank I , Wust M and Yeretzian C
(eds.), Expression of Multidisciplinary Flavour Science, Proceedings of the 12th
Weurman Symposium , Switzerland, ICBC , pp. 288 - 292 .
AJINOMOTO (2003), 'Food and amino acids: Amino acids are what deliciousness is all
about ', www.ajinomoto.com/amino/eng/food.html [accessed November 2011 ].
ANDERSEN LT , ARDO Y and BREDIE WLP (2010), 'Study of taste-active compounds in the
water-soluble extract of mature Cheddar cheese', Int. Dairy J. , 20 ( 8 ), 528 - 536 .