Varieties and classifications of food flavor and fragrance

1.The variety of food flavor and fragrance
The proportion of food flavors is very small, but it needs to carry out a certain safety and health evaluation, and can be used only after meeting the requirements of relevant health regulations. There are many kinds of food flavor, divided into solid and liquid according to the dosage form. Solid flavor has microcapsule flavor and so on. Liquid flavors can be divided into water-soluble flavors, oil-soluble flavors and emulsified flavors. In addition, it can also be classified by flavor and use.
Microcapsule flavor is made of flavors and coating agents (such as modified starch, etc.) through emulsification and spray drying, which has the characteristics of preventing oxidation and volatilization loss, and is mainly used for adding flavor to solid drinks and seasonings. Water-soluble essence is made of distilled water or ethanol as diluent and edible spices, mainly used in soft drinks and other flavoring. Oil-soluble flavor is made by mixing propylene glycol with food flavor, etc., mainly used for sweetening candy and cookies. Emulsifying essence is an oil phase composed of food flavor, food oils, specific gravity regulators, antioxidants, preservatives, etc., and a water phase composed of emulsifiers, colorants, preservatives, thickeners, sour agents and distilled water, etc., made by emulsification and high pressure homogenization, mainly used for soft drinks and cold drinks, flavor enhancement, coloring or turbidity.

2.The classifications of food flavor and fragrance
Food flavor is an essential food additive in food industry. In food additives it is its own body, there are more than a thousand varieties. Flavor types can be divided into:
(1) Natural flavor. It is a completely natural substance extracted from natural plants and animals (spices) by physical methods. Usually, the carriers of natural aroma substances can be obtained from fruits, animal organs, leaves, tea and seeds. The extraction methods are extraction, distillation and concentration. Vanilla extract, cocoa extract, strawberry extract and so on can be obtained by extraction method. Peppermint oil, fennel oil, cinnamon (osmanthus) oil, eucalyptus oil can be obtained by distillation. Orange oil, lemon oil and citrus oil can be obtained by distillation. Apple juice concentrate, mango concentrate, orange juice concentrate and so on can be obtained by the concentration method. There are more than 5,000 raw materials that can extract food flavors in the world, and more than 1,500 are commonly used.
(2) Natural identity flavor. This kind of flavor is obtained by chemical treatment of natural raw materials or artificial synthesis and natural flavor substances exactly the same chemical substance.
(3) Synthetic flavor. It is obtained by artificial synthesis and other chemical methods and has not been confirmed that the natural chemical molecules of the substance. If found in nature and dominate the same chemical molecules, it is equivalent to natural flavor. As long as there is a raw material in the essence is synthetic, that is, artificial synthetic essence.
⑷ Flavor prepared by microbial method. It is an essence obtained by microbial fermentation or enzymatic reaction.
(5) Reactive essence. This kind of flavor is derived from the Maillard reaction of heating protein and reducing sugar, and is often used in meat, chocolate, coffee, malt aroma.

According to the status of the flavor classification, food flavors include: liquid flavor (water-soluble, oil-soluble, emulsifying), of which aroma substances accounted for 10%-20%, solvent (water, propylene glycol, etc.) accounted for 80%-90%; Emulsion flavor, including solvent, emulsifier, glue, stabilizer, pigment, acid and antioxidant, 80%--90%; Powder flavor, in which the aroma substance accounted for 10%-20%, the carrier accounted for 80%-90%.

The development of powder flavor is rapid, and it has a wide range of applications in beverages, snacks, baked goods and so on. There are three types of powder flavors commonly used:
(1) Powder flavor in the form of mixing: several powdered flavor substances are mixed with each other, such as five-spice powder, curry powder, etc.; Most of these scents come from natural plant spices, and in the preparation of meat flavors; Vanilla powder, vanillin, etc., are also powder flavors in the form of mixing.
(2) Powder flavor in the form of adsorption: the essence is extremely adsorbed on the surface of the carrier, and the composition of this flavor should have low volatility; Various meat flavors are mostly powder flavors in adsorbed form.
(3)The coating form of microcapsule powder flavor is the most used powder flavor in the food industry today.
The microgelatinization of flavor is a special means for packaging, isolation, preservation, slow release and liquid curing of flavor, its main purpose is to keep the original flavor for a long time, and better preserve the flavor to prevent the deterioration of flavor caused by oxidation and other factors.
This effect is of special significance and wide practicability to other powder flavors in food industry applications. Briefly as follows: the traditional solid beverage production mostly uses spray drying method, vacuum drying method and boiling drying method to produce, the production process uses liquid flavor, need to be heated to remove the solvent, the flavor of the product will be affected.

Dry powder mixing method is used in the production of solid beverage. In the production process, various powder ingredients are directly mixed with microgel powder essence, without heating, and the product flavor remains unchanged. The use of microgel granule powder flavoring for solid drinks is easy to operate, easy to mix evenly, does not increase the temperature of flavoring products, products maintain the original powder state, and will not change color in white sugary products.
Because the fragrance components are encapsulated in the capsule, volatilization loss is inhibited, thus extending the preservation time. The fragrance components are isolated from the surrounding space to prevent the possibility of flavor deterioration due to factors such as oxidation, thus greatly extending the retention period of the product. The use of liquid flavor flavoring operation is not convenient, not easy to mix evenly, increase the water content of flavoring products, so that the product is easy to form caking phenomenon, in the white sugary products will gradually turn yellow, flavor can only be added to the surface, exposed to space resulting in rapid volatilization, maintain the fragrance time is short, large area of flavor contact with the air, susceptible to oxidation, promote the flavor deterioration, short retention period.