One of the most popular spices in the world isVanilla. It's one of the most labor intensive to produce, and it's also less tasty. Scientists report a profile of 20 key chemicals found in vanilla bean extracts that together create a complex and enjoyable flavor. Improving quick-curing methods could be helped by the work.
At the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society, the researchers will present their findings.
Diana Paola Forero-Arcila says thatVanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world. The curing process that takes up to nine months is one of the reasons it is so expensive.
There are two ways to get around this process. One way to speed it up is to use quick-curing methods that can recreate the luscious naturalVanilla flavor in a fraction of the time. It is possible to make a less expensive alternative to the real thing.
The type of products that fall flat are those that focus on vanillin. The goal of quick curing is to maximize the amount of vanillin in the bean. Although vanillin is an important part of a vanilla bean's flavor, the alternative products are missing many other flavor compounds that are essential to the distinctive vanilla taste. According to Forero-Arcila, it's important that we understand the complexity of the flavor.
An approach called untargeted flavoromics was used by Forero-Arcila to find out which chemicals in the extract are the most important. The researchers made extracts from 15 beans and cured them in different ways. They created a chemical profile of each type of bean. The team asked more than 100 people to taste the extracts and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10.
The researchers were able to connect the dots between the chemical profiles and the taste ratings. Vanillin was expected. According to Forero-Arcila, some of the compounds we identified are well known, but this is the first report of them impacting consumer acceptability. According to the project's principal investigator, several compounds important for the flavor were not known. The researchers are still analyzing the compounds to figure out their final structures, but they have noticed that the compounds have a couple of things in common. Some compounds in the extracts made people dislike them. An isaldehyde has a floral smell. During the curing process, Forero- Arcila found anisaldehyde.
The researchers plan to share their findings with others in the food and agricultural industries. They believe that the profile could help producers and farmers find high-quality, valuable extracts and price them to match their quality. The more you know how to make the materials more valuable, the more value will flow through the system. In the future, curing methods could be used to produce the optimum compound profile for good flavor.
More information: Chemical drivers of vanilla flavor liking, ACS Fall 2022. www.acs.org/content/acs/en/mee … tings/fall-2022.html
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