How is peach flavoring so easily captured in gummies, water, etc, when so many other flavors taste obviously fake?
In: Chemistry
Flavours are developed by flavour chemists to mimic the flavours for which they are named. But also to local cultural tastes.
Flavours can be:
* Synthetic- made with chemicals that do not exist in nature
* Nature Identical – made with synthetic chemicals that are identical to naturally occurring flavours. For example Synthetic vanillin is about $50/kg. Natural vanillin about $400/kg. Nature identical is classed as artificial in many countries.
* Natural flavours – made up from isolated natural flavour chemicals. Geraniol from Rose geranium, citronellal from lemon grass etc. And blended by the flavour chemist.
* FTNFs (From The Named Fruit). Bansna flavours from banana, strawberry from strawberries etc.
Flavours popular here in NZ may be different to America. Cultural preferences for example. Americans love cherry flavours, Brits like black currant.
Flavour houses may have dozens of different strawberry flavours, grape water melon, banana etc but ultimately the choice of flavour comes down to someone like me – a food technologist who spends time flavouring foods (and pharmaceutical) products to either customer requirements or food panels.
Products that reach the market may not be your ideal flavour but it has passed a team who thinks it either the best they can get or the one with the highest approval from the customer or tasting panel.
I’ve done many products where the customer hates the perfectly flavoured product I’ve done for them and approved something I’m not happy with.
Some flavors like banana or peach only have 3-5 taste defining chemicals where as strawberry, raspberrys and watermelon rely on a more complex chemistry sometime relying on the fiber content holding it together for flavor too. I will try to find a source later. Too drunk and too mobile to sause ATM
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Maybe someone can shed some light on this as well, why does artificial watermelon flavor never taste like watermelon?
Peaches have less chemical complexity than something like a watermelon for instance. With a peach, scientists have discovered the right set of flavor molecules, sometimes referred to as esters, that create the proper taste of a peach. I also believe the main molecular component that gives a peach its taste can be used as a food additive, like the molecule found in apples.
In contrast, the flavor molecule that makes up the most common watermelon taste; red innards, green rind, is referred to as an aldehyde, and isn’t as simple. This molecule is too unstable to be made into a food additive. To top it off, watermelons (like bananas) have an incredibly rich and complex flavor profile in terms of chemical makeup. You also have far more varieties of a watermelon (also like bananas) than you do a peach, making it ever the more complicated. Unless somebody finds something that mimics the watermelon aldehyde properly, or can create a stable compound using it, you’re stuck with not really watermelon flavored watermelon candy and/or treats.
EDIT: My new top comment is about peaches, watermelons, and bananas. I’m confused.
Not an expert, I just feel very strongly about fruit; here’s what I know. Fruit flavors are caused by alcohols called esters. The overall flavor is a combination of those alcohols, sugars, and acids. Strawberry is a pretty complex flavor, so synthesizing all the molecules to replicate it is very difficult and/or costly, so most strawberry candy, while reminiscent of the fruit, is far too simple and artificial to pass. I couldn’t tell you about peach, it likely is composed of fewer alcohols would be my guess. So, likely fewer molecules would need to be synthesized to taste more like actual peach.
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Time for me to shine! Like what a few others have said, different foods have different chemical “markers” which help define what the food is supposed to taste and smell like. Some examples would be iso amyl acetate(banana) and peach lactone(peach). These chemicals alone would only give a very artificial flavour and have to be mixed with many other chemicals which may provide the necessary balance such as slightly grassy(some hexenols) or fruity(ethyl butyrate) which make the flavour overall more balanced and start to move towards a more “natural” flavour. This would be done by a flavorist who has years of experience to know the perfect Balance is to achieve the desired flavor.
To answer your question, although it is true that some flavours may be harder to reproduce, current flavours actually mimic the “natural” flavours really well! However, flavours are always limited by the cost, as to create a better more natural flavour, the greater mixture of chemicals may increase cost of production. This would require a perfect balance between the companies’ requirement for the best flavour along with minimal cost. Furthermore, some flavours may actually be directed to be more “artificial” depending on the target audience. One example would be watermelon flavoured chewing gum which is normally directed to be more artificial to match children’s taste buds. Peach is actually a simple combination of chemicals to achieve a “natural” flavour and has already been a “set”standard flavour.
Currently you can definitely find almost all flavours ranging from different meats to all sorts of fruits well replicated!
Source: am studying flavour chemistry
I thought they always got the banana taste wrong in candies. They did not. Our bananas are wrong.
I went to Cameroon and ate real banana, it tastes exactly like banana flavoured candy.
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