CHEM 181 Chapter : woc 14- improving taste with artificial flavours.docx

• School: McGill University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 181
• Professor: David Harpp

Document Summary

It just means that all of the components have to come from natural sources: using strawberry juice would be the ideal, but there is just not enough in the world. So a flavor chemist (flavourist) has to reproduce the flavor and aroma of strawberries (aroma is a major contributor to taste) by blending together readily available natural components. Real strawberry juice is used as the base, but other substances such as the essence of cloves or extract of orrisroot are added with the hope of mimicking an overall strawberry aroma and taste. But blending artificial or synthetic substances can come close. The creation of artificial strawberry flavor requires the expertise of analytical chemists, synthetic organic chemists and flavourists: first, an analytical chemist identifies the compounds that make up the flavor of strawberries. This is made easier with the advent of modern instrumentation- specifically gas chromatography, mass spec, and nmr spectrometry.