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Importance of taste & flavour in food choice

The flavor of what we eat and drink is not a static attribute but one which is in dynamic equilibrium, capable of change depending on many factors. In raw materials of both animal and plant origin, it changes during growth and maturation and further during post-mortem or post-harvest handling and preparation for mar­ket. Flavors arising from cooking depend on the time/temperature ratio employed in the prepa­ration of the food; the flavor of the freshly pre­pared product may undergo further modification during subsequent storage. Microbiological growth in products may produce significant flavor changes, some of which are desirable, others detrimental to product acceptability. Flavor changes within the end-product may be due to

• chemical transformation induced by pH, Maillard reaction, hydrolysis, oxidative ran­cidity, etc.
• volatile losses which upset the relative con­centration of aromatic components
• the removal of flavor components by adsorp­tion onto solid surfaces within the product
• differential partition between aqueous and lipid phases which significantly affects flavor perception