Using aroma compounds to make healthier foods

CUTTING salt, sugar or fat content remains a challenge for manufacturers because it impacts the favored sensory characteristics of their products. And while consumers clamor for healthier products, they still want flavorful foods. There may be a solution for manufacturers with this dilemma, according to researchers who presented their study at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

“Most consumers know that they should be eating more healthful foods made with reduced amounts of fat, sugar and salt. But this is problematic because these are the very ingredients that make many of the foods we like taste so delicious,” says Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Ph.D. “Based on our lab work, we’ve come to believe that aromas can help compensate for the reduction of fat, sugar and salt in healthful foods and make them more appealing to consumers.”

Because the sense of smell is involved in the eating process and enhances the perceived flavors of food or beverage, aromas like essential oils and botanical extracts have long been used in products. According to scientists, the precise way of using aromas can also enhance the taste of foods with lower amounts of fat, sugar or salt.

“If you buy a product made with 30 percent less salt, and you don’t like it because it isn’t very tasty, what do you do?" Thomas-Danguin asks. “You'll probably reach for the table salt and put some into the product. So the target is missed. Our goal is to optimize the reformulation process, so the food industry can produce more healthful products that consumers will like as they are and will choose to eat them regularly.”

Based on Thomas-Danguin’s previous research, the brain can be tricked into thinking there is more fat, sugar or salt in a product, if the right aroma is used in the right amount in the right places in the right food. In this research, participants were asked to taste a custard flan made in layers containing varying amounts of ham aroma and salt. It seemed that the ham aroma, which did not contain salt, increased the perception of saltiness of the flan. Some participants thought one variation of the custard made with ham aroma and salt distributed unevenly in layers throughout it tasted the same as a flan made in the traditional way with 40 percent more salt.

In a new study, Thomas-Danguin and his colleagues at the Centre des Sciences du Goût de l’Alimentation in France, sought to find a new way to isolate aroma molecules associated with sweet tastes. So they created a first-of-its-kind device called a Gas Chromatograph-Olfactometry Associated Taste (GC-OAT) and used it in conjunction with an olfactoscan, which delivers a continuous stream of aromas through a tube to a subject's nose.

Participants were asked to smell real fruit juice aroma through the olfactoscan. Meanwhile, the researchers used the GC-OAT to isolate molecules from the juice. Then, they added the molecules one at a time into the olfactoscan tube. As the participants smelled each of these mixtures, they were asked if the molecule contributed to their perceived sweetness of the fruit juice. Thomas-Danguin says the preliminary results suggest that this new technique could eventually help food manufacturers better formulate more healthful foods without sacrificing taste, aroma or texture of the original products. - physics.org