Food Processing - November 2007 - (Page 31)

aroma is the first cousin of taste. In fact, much of what we call taste is an intricately entwined matrix of flavor, aroma chemicals and mouthfeel. – By Mark Anthony, Ph.D., Technical Editor In the 2005 revIew “OdOr/taste Integr atIOn and the perception of flavor,” in Experimental Brain Research, dana small and John Prescott presented psychophysical, neuro-imaging and neurophysiological studies showing how odor and taste are “functionally united [while] anatomically separated.” It’s no wonder food manufacturers are very picky about how their products smell. “Formulating any type of food or beverage involves more than just one’s sense of taste,” says stephen Manheimer, marketing director for Mastertaste (www.mastertaste. com), teterboro, n.J. “You have to consider aroma, texture (mouthfeel) and, in many cases, even appearance. all of these factors contribute to the overall sensory experience that the consumer has when he sits down to eat. aroma in particular is strongly linked to taste. “the taste buds can only perceive five stimuli: salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami – that is, ‘savory’ or ‘meaty’,” Manheimer continues. “Because of this, a lot of what consumers experience when eating actually occurs through their sense of smell, not taste. the natural question that comes to mind is, how do we perceive odors or aromas?” In 2004, neuroscientists r ichard axel of Columbia University, new York, and Linda Buck of Fred hutchinson Cancer research Center, seattle, shared the nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their contribution to our understanding of how we detect odors. Before they published www.foodprocessing.com their work, olfactory scientists knew the cells lining the nose bound a variety of molecules responsible for aroma. these cells relay electrical signals to a specialized area of the brain called the olfactory bulb, which in turn shuttles messages to the brain’s smell recognition center. however, which receptors on the cell’s surface are doing the work and how exactly these signals are relayed had remained a mystery. axel and Buck showed the detection of aromas is highly specific: each aroma molecule activates a specific receptor on a particular membrane cell of the nasal mucosa. when an aroma molecule binds to a receptor, it sets off a sequence of events involving special signal proteins, called g proteins, which control the opening or closing of channels in the cell membrane. the surprising discovery was that each cell that lines the nasal cavity displays only one type of receptor on its surface. that, in turn, can be activated by only certain related aroma molecules. since most odors consist of many molecules that activate different receptor-bearing cells with different intensities, we can recognize about 10,000 different aromas. axel and Buck further showed the receptor-bearing cells send projections directly to the olfactory bulb. this helps explain why we are so immediately sensitive to odors, and why separating taste from odor in food is next to impossible. Most odor molecules are volatilized organic compounds. Odor compounds form during the ripening of plants, the development of oils or during processes such as fermentation. noVemBer 2007 food processing • 31 http://www.mastertaste.com http://www.mastertaste.com http://WWW.FOODPROCESSING.COM

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Food Processing - November 2007

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