Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
emulsion. The amounts of essential oils, aroma chemicals or oleoresins used in a
fl avouring are, individually often only around 0.1-1.0% and about 10% w/w
overall.
Flavourings are typically added to beverages at the rate of 0.1% w/v in the
fi nished product. Since in most beverage production operations the product is
made in the form of a 'syrup' that is fi ve or six times concentrated and to which
carbonated or still water is added as a fi nal stage, the actual level of fl avour
addition will often be around 0.5% w/v. At that level fl avour solubility may be a
problem and considerable formulation expertise is required to develop a mixture
of permitted solvents that will carry the actual fl avouring components into the end
product. If the soft drink is sweetened by the use of sugar or another carbohydrate,
dissolution or dispersal of the fl avouring is often assisted. For label declaration
purposes, individual components of a fl avouring are not normally stated and are
stated as 'fl avouring or fl avour preparation' in an ingredient list.
15.5.3 Aqueous and aqueous alcoholic extracts
Some well-known product types such as cola drinks, ginger beer and elderfl ower
rely heavily on the use of an aqueous extract to deliver important fl avour, aroma
or other characteristic to a product. In many instances the use of such an extract is
enhanced by the use of fl avouring.
Recent years have seen the development of so-called nutraceutical drinks
where use is made of extracts of botanical materials such as ginseng, St John's
wort and many other materials that possess some remedial activity. An important
distinction must be drawn between soft drinks (in most countries defi ned under
the general description of 'food'), herbal medicine and licensed medicines. (In
some countries a form of licensing also exists for herbal products.) The principal
reason for consumption of a soft drink is for hydration coupled with a pleasant
drinking experience. In the case of both herbal and licensed medicine, the
consumer is using the product in the expectation usually of symptomatic relief
rather than for the pleasure of drinking. In most instances, it is the level of addition
of a typical botanical extract that makes the above distinction.
An adverse effect of using an aqueous alcoholic extract at 20% ABV is that it
may only be used at a level of less than 2.5% by volume in the end product to avoid
contributing an alcohol level of greater than 0.5% ABV. In the UK, this level is
effectively the maximum allowed for a soft drink. Careful evaluation of all the
ingredients containing or likely to contain ethanol must be applied as, even though
relatively small amounts are added, the maximum level of 0.5% ABV can easily be
exceeded. A further complication is that, in the UK, products do not attract excise
duty until they reach the level exceeding 1.2% ABV but in the window between
0.5% and 1.2% ABV products may only be sold in appropriately licensed premises.
In some legislatures the use of alcohol is completely forbidden and the use of
aqueous alcoholic extracts is thus eliminated.
As mentioned above, the aqueous alcoholic extracts rarely provide any
signifi cant fl avour impact and are thus often incorporated for the purpose of
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