Food flavors: benefit and harm

Almost all foods contain food flavors that give themcharacteristic aroma. This is beneficial to the producers, because the consumer is most often oriented not only to the look, but also to the smell of the purchased products.

Food Essences and Flavors: Harm, Benefit and Species ^

Food flavors are natural or chemical compounds that make products have an attractive scent and taste. They are used practically in all spheres of industry and are made by distillation, extraction or pressing.

What are the types of food flavors:

• As of: emulsion, liquid, pasty, powder;
• On application: confectionery, beverage, fat and oil, gastronomic;
• By the method of production: smoke, technological, composite.

Made from food flavors

The production of flavors in the food industry is as follows: for example, strawberry berries have to be pressed to produce strawberry flavors, to extract the orange flavor, essential oil is extracted from the rind of the fruit, and for distillation of water from the squeezed juice.

What does food flavors consist of:

• Juices, spices, sugar salt, etc. natural ingredients;
• Additives - enriching agents, tonic elements, bitterness, biologically active substances and other non-natural components.

In the food industry, flavors and food additives are divided into natural, identical to natural and artificial, but, as a rule, the first still contain chemical compounds that can negatively affect human health.

The harmful food colors and flavors

Regardless of the method of manufacture and composition, the harmfulness of food flavors is very high:

• Synthetic vanillin, which is used in confectionery production, contains coumarin, which has a bad effect on liver function. It can be replaced with natural, but the price will be much higher;
• Frequent use of chemical flavors can cause cancer cells to grow and negative changes at the cellular level.

It is best to give preference to natural food flavors, but here you need to take into account several nuances:

• They have the ability to lose their useful properties during heat treatment. Harm from them will not, but also benefit;
• Because of the high costs of producing natural additives, manufacturers produce limited batches, and finding them can be very problematic;
• Natural flavors may not suit allergy sufferers.often cause exacerbation of the disease. Especially it concerns vanilla powder and citrus additives.

Lists of food flavors ^

Liquid food flavors

This group is used for the production of jam, cream, marshmallow, pastille, marmalade, juices, spread, margarine or ice cream. They are a combination of natural and similar natural supplements obtained from the following products:

• Apricots, oranges, pineapples, bananas, anise, barberry, cranberries, vanilla, grapes, cherries;
• Pears, melons, grapefruits, strawberries, coconut, raspberries, nuts, plums, cottage cheese, cream, melted butter or milk, blueberries, apples.

Food flavorings for alcohol

For the production of alcohol can be used as natural and synthetic flavors. They can also be purchased as a separate concentrate, and used depending on what kind of drink is planned:

• Cognac: mountain ash, prunes, cherries, coffee, almonds;
• Liqueur: herbs, anise, coffee;
• Vodka: vanilla, anise, wormwood, black currant.

Artificial Flavors

By artificial fragrances means a composition containing molecules of substances that do not exist in nature. These include additives that do not fit the term "natural" and do not contain extracts of plants, but have a smell similar to natural ones.

Most often they are used for making chips, crackers, lemonade, juices and other harmful food or drinks.

Chemical flavors identical to natural

In the process of producing such flavors, chemical synthesis is performed in the laboratory, as a result of which they acquire the same composition as natural ones. They are considered the most dangerous for children, because after getting into the body they cause a malfunction of the nervous system.

Of course, such a negative effect becomes noticeable not immediately, because the digestive organs suffer first and people usually write it off for chronic illnesses. When choosing products, it is recommended to carefully study the composition - it should be indicated that they contain only natural supplements.

Food flavors powder

Most often, such additives are found in meat, seafood, chips, sour cream, cheese, some berries and fruits, as well as in chocolate and confectionery. Like other analogues, they are divided into natural, identical to natural and chemical.

Chemical composition and caloric content of food flavors ^

Those who are on a diet are advised to discard products containing any flavors in favor of natural vegetables, fruits and meat, because the most non-nutritional supplements contain from 200 Kcal or more per 100 g,which increases the calorie content of the dishes in which they are present. Examples:

• Lemon natural - 299 Kcal;
• Vanilla - 280 Kcal;
• Almond - 692 kcal.