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Food & perfume technology In Patrick Suskind's novel, "Perfume", the lead character has an astonishingly highly developed sense of smell. "The finest nose in all Paris, and no personal odour." Even though he is a thoroughly sinister character, the book revels in his miraculous ability to detect and blend the most subtle, rare and sensuous of fragrances.
For most of us, taste and smell may be our most utilitarian senses and certainly not something we'd see as a path to a career, unless we're aiming at wine-tasting. But there is an entire industry built around taste and smell, hidden from the eyes of the average consumer "In Touch" visited Dr Santi Vorster at her laboratory. Santi is a Doctor of Microbiology at Quest International, South Africa's leading flavour house. You know those crisps you love to nibble? Those sauces that liven up your dinner? Chances are the flavour was developed here in Santi's laboratory.
In order to work in a flavour house, even if you're not directly involved in flavour creation, your senses of smell and taste need to be exceptional. Ernie Mackleston is responsible for testing prospective employees at Quest International.
Taste tests are held under a red light. It seems that our sense of taste and smell can be fooled by sight: if you're given dark brown ice cream to taste, chances are you'll be convinced it's chocolate, even if the flavour is Vanilla or Strawberry. Don Kaka, flavourist at Quest International explains: "If you taste something, say I give you a sweet flavoured with orange, and you block your nose, put the sweet in your mouth, you won't be able to tell me what it is because the tongue on its own can only identify, bitter, sweet, salt and acidic - those types of products. The flavour and the aromatic components of the flavour as such, you will not be able to pick up on your tongue alone, it has to do with the olfactory senses as well. "
The flavours are manufactured in great quantities for the various clients: most savoury flavours, for example crisp flavourings, come in a powder form, while the sweet flavours are manufactured as liquids. But in the health conscious nineties, this astonishing display of chemistry begs the question: what is the impact of all these artificial flavours and colourants on our systems? Santi Vorster comments: "We, as an international company, abide to all the international food laws - for instance, the FDA laws and also the European Union laws. We also know - and our customers also know - that some colourants do have an effect on hyperactive children, therefore we try to cut out on these products as much as possible"
Sally Tarlton a dietitian shares: "There is quite confusions in this whole area of nutrition in relation to your food allergies and your food intolerants. It is a pretty grey area and a difficult area to get on top off, because your food intolerances are not always easy to test and they can have a profound effect on the welbeing of the child or patient. I have definitely had patients in my practice where colourants have made a difference to their behaviour. Especially your hyperactive child or your ADD child or other learning problems in the child. In some cases we have taken colourants out of their diet and there has been a vast improvement, either in their behaviour or in their learning problems". Adopting a life style free of artificial flavourents and colourents is hard work. You have to dedicate yourself to a life without processed and convenience food. For Mary-Ann Shearer, the work has been worth it, and the health benefits of this lifestyle have been enormous.
It's always going to be a controversy. However, our standards for food substances are constantly under revision, and testing continues to establish the safety of various chemicals. Still, the flavour houses will always be in work, if only to satisfy our cravings for delightful taste sensations.
Contacts
Don Kaka. Technical Sales Support Manager, Beverages.
Ernie Mackleston. Marketing Services
Sally Tarlton. Registered Dietitian
Mary-ann Shearer. Mary-Ann's |
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The creation of scents is a secretive and highly developed science, sadly not practised much in this country; almost all of our scents are imported from Europe and America. Still, the person with the finest nose in Gauteng still has job opportunities.
Santi explains: "Savoury flavours are usually powdered flavours, for example the cheese and tomato flavours. It is built out of basic carriers such as lactose and dextrose etc. We will use certain components such as bitter notes, sweet, acid and salty notes and we also make use of processed flavours and top notes".
Says Ernie: "We have three levels of entry within the group. The initial one is a very basic test, where I test the people for sweet, acid, salt and bitter. The second and third levels of entry require tasting five levels of sweet, acid, salt and bitter, basically just from the trace element through to a fraction that is something very delicate to taste. We also test olfactory senses which is sense of smell. This is an eight or tenth smell test, but for the people who want to be flavourists, the test is more exhaustive."
Flavour creation doesn't end with chips and cold drinks. In fact, in your cupboard or fridge right now there are probably hundreds of flavoured goods, everything from yoghurt, to baked goods, salad dressing, even gin is flavoured.
While we're assured that the use of these substances is completely safe, there are many medical and paramedical practitioners who would disagree. Anecdotal evidence abounds from doctors, nutritionists and occupational therapists for instance, who swear there is a link between the use of certain colourants and aggravated behaviour in attention deficit children."
" In the beginning it was difficult," says Mary-Ann, "but the effort that I put into it was worth it because I had children that had health that we had not seen before. We didn't need to go to the doctor any more, and it has got to the point where I focus on fresh fruit, vegetables, natural foods, nuts and seeds and unprocessed foods. I would say to anyone out there, if you suspect that one of the additives, colourents, flavourents - something like that - is effecting you or your child's health, that if you don't understand the name or the number of something on the back of one of the bottle or packet, don't buy it".