Food Science and Food Safety

Food Flavours

Flavor, or flavour, is the perceptual print of food or other substances as determined primarily by the chemical senses of the gustatory and olfactory system. The “trigeminal senses”, which descry chemical annoyances in the mouth and throat, as well as temperature and texture, are also important to the overall gestalt of taste perception. The taste of food can be altered naturally or instinctively.
Of the three chemical senses, smell is the main determinant of a food item's flavor. Five introductory tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami are widely honored, although some societies also include pungency and oleogustus. The number of food smells is unbounded; a food's flavor, thus, can be fluently altered by changing its smell while keeping its taste analogous. This is instanced in instinctively seasoned jellies, soft drinks and delicacies, which, while made of bases with an analogous taste, have dramatically different flavors due to the use of different scents or spices. The seasonings of commercially produced food products are generally created by flavorists.