Our taste buds help us to choose what kind of food to eat; it helps us avoid poisonous food. Edible plants generally taste sweet, and harmful food taste bad. Today our food now can taste like the very poison we could try to avoid only if we knew what they really are. The taste of a food can be radically altered by minute changes in the flavoring combination. The Taste buds on our tongue can detect the presence of half a dozen taste from sweet, sour, bitter, salty, astringent, including an UMAMI (A taste discovered by Japanese researchers- a rich and full sense of deliciousness triggered by amino acids in foods such as meat, shellfish, mushrooms, potatoes and seaweed). However, our taste buds is limited when it comes to detecting flavor and smell but our nose can perceive many thousands of chemical aroma or food. The aroma of food is greatly associated with its taste, when we chew, drink or suck on substance using our mouth, volatile gases are released, these gases flow out of your mouth and up your nostrils or up the passageway in the back of your mouth, to a thin layer of nerve cells called the olfactory epithelium located at the base of your nose, right between your eyes. Then after this happens, your brain combines the complex smell signals from your olfactory epithelium with the taste signals from your tongue and gives flavor of what's in your mouth; at this point you're either saying yummy this taste good and smells like bananas or yakie this is disgusting it taste like fuel with a chocolate smell; and then it helps you decide if you would like to eat it or not.
Our mind focuses intently on some of the aromas that surround us and filters out the overwhelming majority. People can grow accustomed to bad smells or good smells; we stop noticing smell or taste that once seemed overwhelming. Aroma and memory are inextricably linked. A smell can suddenly evoke a long-forgotten moment. The flavors of childhood foods seem to leave an unutterable mark, and as we become adults we often return to them, without always knowing why. Childhood memories of Happy meals, which come with french fries, can translate into frequent adult visits to McDonald's, a fact that fast food chains can use to their advantage.
"The American flavor industry now has annual revenues of about $1.4 billion. IFF annual revenues have grown almost fifteen fold since the early 1970s and approximately 10,000 or more new processed-food products containing natural and artificial flavors are manufactured every year in the united states". If you read the food labels you'll find many preservative, color and "natural flavor"- flavor or scent of foods that has been created in the laboratory by well-renowned flavorist at companies such like IFF, the world's largest flavor company located in Dayton united states. One of the first artificial flavors known as methyl anthranilate was discovered by a legendary German scientist by accidentally mixing chemicals in his laboratory, that resulted to a sweet smell of grapes; today methyl anthranilate has become the chief flavor compound in grape Kool-Aid.
A typical strawberry flavor found in a burger king strawberry milk shake, contains amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate,ethyl heptylate, ethy lactate, ethyl methyl phenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), alpha-ionone,isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol,rose, rum ether, y-undecalactone, vanillin and solvent. These many ingredient make up the artificial strawberry flavor in strawberry milk shake served by most fast food companies however only the dominant aroma strawberry is noticed. The chemical added to food, gives food, its particular flavor and taste. Artificial strawberry flavor gives highly processed food a strawberry like taste. Ethyl-2-methyl butyrate will smell just like an apple. Methyl-2-pyridyl ketone will make certain food taste like popcorn. Ethyl-3-hydroxy butanoate taste just like marshmallow. 3-methyl butanoic acid will smell like body odor, hexanal will smell like freshly cut grass. You may not find this in your food however processed food could be made with aroma chemicals without affecting the nutritional value and appearance of food; most flavor compounds often contain more ingredients than the foods to which they give taste. Man-made flavor additives are used mostly in baked goods, candies, and soda and often cost less than its packaging. Flavor additive are usually labeled next to last on food product list of ingredients. Soft drinks such like coke-cola contains a larger proportion of flavor additives than most products.
Consumer usually prefer to see natural flavors on food product labels instead of artificial flavor because they think is more healthy or natural, this is not essential true of natural flavors. natural flavor are sometimes extracted by chemical we would not like to put in our mouth. natural flavors are based more on how it has been made than what it contains. Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods. For example, Amyl acetate provides the dominant note of banana flavor. when it is distilled from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a "natural flavor". when it is produced by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol and adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst , amyl acetate is an "artificial flavor". Either way it taste and smells the same. According to FDA "natural flavor" must be derived from natural sources such as herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, yeast, bark, roots, natural oils etc; however an Almond flavor-benzaldehyde derived from natural sources, such as peach and apricots pits, contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison. McDonald's chicken McNuggets,Wendy's Grilled chicken sandwich. Burger king's BK Broiler chicken breast pantry contain beef extract and "natural smoke flavor" manufactured by Red Arrow company by charring sawdust and capturing the aroma chemicals released into the air. The smoke is captured in water and then bottled, so that other companies can sell food that seems to have been cooked over a fire. Natural flavor is now listed among the ingredients of almost everything food, you will find "Natural smoke flavor" in barbecue sauces, snack foods, processed meats.
Tip: check the ingredients of what you eat, the food and flavor industry is a billion dollar industry that create flavors and food for profit. Companies that want profit advantage over their competitors employ flavoring and coloring so they're generally not so much interested in how it affects the consumer's health. Frankly we are not forced to eat these things although it is almost unavoidable because it is added to almost 8 out of 10 drinks and food item you find at the store. Even drinks such like green tea natural drinks contain "natural flavor". Natural flavor could mean anything from a combination of chemicals which may react with other ingredient to a single ingredient that probably has been extracted using a toxic chemical; the line between natural and artificial flavor is pretty close. A natural flavor is not necessarily more healthy or purer than an artificial flavor.
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