Artificial flavors.It tastes so real..How do they make those?

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Artificial flavors have ingredients which are either a combination of natural and synthesized ingredients or completely synthetic. Typically the process begins with a research chemist who attempts to isolate significant flavor constituents. He/she separates components of natural foods and identifies fragrances and aromas by some very complex methods.

By doing chromatography on the juice of a pineapple, for example, is allowed to seep through an absorbent in which different compounds are absorbed by different layers. Various components, thus isolated, may be analyzed further by a mass spectrometer. Here the component is spun over a magnet and at the same time bombarded by electrons. This causes the component to break down within the magnetic field, and a chemist can observe the particular pattern of breakdown. Knowing the chemical makeup of the component, he may then be able to reassemble the parts artificially.

Some constituents, however, have isomers, or molecules that are identical in composition but whose atoms are positioned differently. They may exist in various configurations, twisted together, for example, yet each has its own particular effect on the flavor of the food.

Some may have a sweet taste, others a sour flavor, and so on. It is thus necessary to separate them, and this process is carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance. Molecules of the substance are spun over a magnet, broken apart, and radio waves used to key on the vibrational energies emitted by the molecules. The radio waves then relate this information to an oscilloscope, which charts the pattern. Experts can then read those charts and determine the actual form of the configuration.

By these and other techniques, research chemists analyze the natural flavors in foods. Some are immediately apparent; others are incredibly elusive. Furthermore, flavor scientists insist that were analysis all that was necessary for finding the formula that most accurately imitates nature, the creation of artificial flavors would be simple.

A flavor scientist would smell and/or taste a beaker of real pineapple juice and then sample twenty, thirty, perhaps sixty other substances formulated according to the findings of the research chemist.

There are literally thousands of natural and synthetic aromatics with which flavor scientists construct “taste complexes.” These include esters, alcohols, lactones, ketones, phenols, aldehydes, ethers, acetals, hydrocarbons with botanical tinctures and essential oils.

Flavor advocates point out that artificial flavors have greater stability and can withstand greater temperature changes than natural ones. They are more readily available, cheaper, and always the same in color and composition, a comfort to many modern consumers.