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A flavorist (or flavourist [lower-alpha 1] ), also known as flavor chemist (or flavour chemist), is someone who uses chemistry to engineer artificial and natural flavors. The tools and materials used by flavorists are almost the same as that used by perfumers with the exception that flavorists seek to mimic or modify both the olfactory and gustatory properties of various food products rather than creating just abstract smells. Additionally, the materials and chemicals that a flavorist utilizes for flavor creation must be safe for human consumption.
The profession of flavorists came about when affordable refrigeration for the home spurred of food processing technology, which could affect the quality of the flavor of the food. In some cases, these technologies can remove naturally occurring flavors. To remedy the flavor loss, the food processing industry created the flavor industry. The chemists that resolved the demand of the food processing industry became known as flavorists. [ citation needed ]
Educational requirements for a flavorist are varied. Flavorists are often graduated either in Chemistry, Biology, or Food Science up to PhDs obtained in subjects such as Biochemistry and Chemistry. Because, however, the training of a flavorist is mostly done on-the-job and specifically at a flavor company known as a flavor house, this training is similar to the apprentice system.
Located in Versailles (France), ISIPCA French School offers two years of high-standard education in food flavoring including 12 months of traineeship in a flavor company. This education program provides students with a solid background in Flavoring formulation, flavor application, and flavor chemistry (analysis and sensory).
Every year The British Society of Flavourists together with Reading University provides, a three-week flavorist training course for flavorists from all around the world. [1]
In the United States, a certified flavorist must be a member of the Society of Flavor Chemists, which meets in New Jersey, Cincinnati, Chicago, and the West Coast 6 to 8 times a year. To be an apprentice flavorist in the society, one must pass an apprenticeship within a flavor house for five years. To be a certified member with voting rights, one must pass a seven-year program. Each level is verified by a written and oral test of the Membership Committee. As an alternative to training under a flavorist, rather than the above-mentioned cases, a 10-year independent option is available. At any given time there are approximately 400 certified and apprentice flavor chemists in the US.
In the United Kingdom, a flavourist can join The British Society of Flavourists, which meets near the London area. To acquire membership, applicants must be sponsored by at least two voting members, shall not be under thirty years of age, and shall have been engaged as a creative flavourist for a period of at least ten years. To be an associate member, applicants must be either a full-time creative flavourist with at least four years' experience, a flavour application chemist, or a food technologist responsible for flavour blending, assessment, and evaluation for a period of at least five years, or a person of such standing in the flavour-producing or using industries as satisfies the Membership Committee that he/she is eligible for membership. An Associate Member must be proposed by two voting members. To be a student member, the applicant must be a new entrant to the flavour industry, not yet able to qualify as an Associate, and proposed by one voting member. To be an affiliate member, applicants must be Technical and Marketing Consultants, Commercial and Technical Managers having a direct relationship to the flavoring industry, and sponsored by three voting members.
Grandma would make this concoction with rice and the sauce that she had; it was a combination of brown sugar and butter. It tasted good, obviously. They'd put it over the rice and eat it as a kind of a treat on Sundays...
– William Low, Pamela Low's brother [2]
Pamela Low, a flavorist at Arthur D. Little and 1951 graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a microbiology degree, [2] developed the original flavor for Cap'n Crunch in 1963 — recalling a recipe of brown sugar and butter her grandmother served over rice [3] [4] at her home in Derry, New Hampshire. [5]
Robert (Bob) Reinhart developed a technique in the manufacture of Cap'n Crunch, using oil in its recipe as a flavor delivery mechanism — which initially presented problems in having the cereal bake properly. [6] The cereal required innovation of a special baking process as it was one of the first cereals to use the oil coating method to deliver its flavoring. [6]
Having arrived at the flavor coating for Cap'n Crunch, Low described it as giving the cereal a quality she called "want-more-ishness". [7] After her death in 2007, the Boston Globe called Low "the mother of Cap'n Crunch." [3] At Arthur D. Little, Low had also worked on the flavors for Heath, [7] Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars. [8]
A flavoring, also known as flavor or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gustatory and olfactory systems. Along with additives, other components like sugars determine the taste of food.
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives have been used for centuries as part of an effort to preserve food, for example vinegar (pickling), salt (salting), smoke (smoking), sugar (crystallization), etc. This allows for longer-lasting foods such as bacon, sweets or wines. With the advent of ultra-processed foods in the second half of the twentieth century, many additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin. Food additives also include substances that may be introduced to food indirectly in the manufacturing process, through packaging, or during storage or transport.
Cap'n Crunch is a corn and oat breakfast cereal manufactured since 1963 by Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo since 2001. Since the original product introduction, marketed simply as Cap'n Crunch, Quaker Oats has since introduced numerous flavors and seasonal variations, some for a limited time—and currently offers a Cap'n Crunch product line.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC), known as Croque-Cannelle in French Canada and Curiously Cinnamon in the UK, and as a variant called Cini Minis in other European and Latin American countries, is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills and Nestlé. First produced in 1984, the cereal aims to provide the taste of cinnamon toast in a crunch cereal format. The cereal consists of small squares or rectangles of wheat and rice covered with cinnamon and sugar. The cereal is puffed and when immersed in milk, it makes a "snap" noise, similar to Rice Krispies. In most European countries and North America, the product is sold in boxes, but in Poland, Slovakia and Russia the cereal is sold in bags. The product was originally marketed outside Europe with the mascot of a jolly baker named Wendell. Wendell was replaced as a mascot by the "Crazy Squares", sentient Cinnamon Toast Crunch squares that often eat each other in commercials.
Firmenich SA was a Swiss company in the fragrance and flavor business. The company has created perfumes for over 125 years and produced a number of well-known flavors. Founded in 1895, it merged in May 2023 with the Dutch company DSM to form dsm-firmenich.
Quisp is a sugar-sweetened breakfast cereal from the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced in 1965 and continued as a mass-market grocery item until the late 1970s. Subsequently, the Quaker Oats Company marketed Quisp sporadically, and with the advent of the Internet, began selling it primarily online. Quisp made its return to supermarkets as a mass-market grocery item in late 2012.
An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavoring, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficiently volatile for transmission via the air to the olfactory system in the upper part of the nose. As examples, various fragrant fruits have diverse aroma compounds, particularly strawberries which are commercially cultivated to have appealing aromas, and contain several hundred aroma compounds.
Liquid smoke is a water-soluble yellow to red liquid used as a flavoring as a substitute for cooking with wood smoke while retaining a similar flavor. It can be used to flavor any meat or vegetable. It is available as pure condensed smoke from various types of wood, and as derivative formulas containing additives.
Cocoa Krispies is a breakfast cereal produced by WK Kellogg Co, coming both as a boxed cereal and as a snack bar with a 'dried milk' covered bottom. It is a cocoa flavored version of Rice Krispies that contains real chocolate. In Canada, Rice Krispies Cocoa is their variant of the cereal, with a lighter chocolate flavor. Off-brand "coco krispies" are sold by other companies.
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) products are foodstuffs obtained by protein hydrolysis and are used as ingredients to create a bouillon (broth) taste without the vegetables, bones, simmering, or other standard elements of creating bouillon from scratch.
A perfumist is an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes referred to affectionately as a nose due to their fine sense of smell and skill in producing olfactory compositions. The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained in depth on the concepts of fragrance aesthetics and who is capable of conveying abstract concepts and moods with compositions. At the most rudimentary level, a perfumer must have a keen knowledge of a large variety of fragrance ingredients and their smells, and be able to distinguish each one alone or in combination with others. They must also know how each reveals itself over time. The job of the perfumer is very similar to that of flavourists, who compose smells and flavourants for commercial food products.
Chocolate is a food product made from roasted and ground cocoa pods mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Chocolate ice cream is ice cream with natural or artificial chocolate flavoring. One of the oldest flavours of ice creams, it is also one of the world's most popular. While most often sold alone, it is also a base for many other flavours.
Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as meat, poultry, lettuce, beer, milk as examples. It is similar to biochemistry in its main components such as carbohydrates, lipids, and protein, but it also includes areas such as water, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, food additives, flavors, and colors. This discipline also encompasses how products change under certain food processing techniques and ways either to enhance or to prevent them from happening. An example of enhancing a process would be to encourage fermentation of dairy products with microorganisms that convert lactose to lactic acid; an example of preventing a process would be stopping the browning on the surface of freshly cut apples using lemon juice or other acidulated water.
Pamela Low was an American flavorist, best known for developing and creating the flavor coating for the oatmeal breakfast cereal Cap'n Crunch.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
TheInternational Fragrance Association (IFRA) is the global representative body of the fragrance industry. It seeks to represent the collective interests of the industry and promote the safe use of fragrances through regulation.
The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national advertising campaign for Quaker Oats.
Stephen V. Dowthwaite is an English perfumer, perfumery educator, programmer and writer. He is the founder of PerfumersWorld, a resource for professional perfumers. He is known for developing The ABC's of Perfumery, a comprehensive system of odour classification and perfume creation, and a training course in The Art and Technology of Perfumery.