In the early days of human existence, salt, sugar, vinegar, herbs, spices were added to foods to improve their taste or to produce special, desirable taste.
The range of natural and synthetic flavorings available to the modern food technologists is very large.
Flavor s determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. Taste refers to the actual connection of the tongue and taste buds in the mouth to recognize the basic tastes of sweet, sour, bitter salty and umami.
While the taste of food is limited to the basic tastes, the smells of a food are potentially limitless. The sense of smell involves the olfactory nerve endings in the upper part of the interior of the nose.
The flavor of food is created by aromatic chemicals that are biosynthesized during normal metabolic processes in plants and animals and possible further modified by cooking or processed.
This intrinsic flavor of food represents the complex impact made by these aromatic components on the sense of odor and taste.
Flavors can be divided into many different categories that cover the range of foods and beverages, e.g., fruit flavors, sweet brown flavors, spice/herbs, etc.
What is food flavor?
