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Food Science

Periodic Graphics

Periodic Graphics: Faking flavors with chemistry

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning provides a taste of how chemists identify and make artificial flavors.

by Andy Brunning, special to C&EN
April 18, 2021 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 99, Issue 14
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Most Popular in Food

 

To download a pdf of this article, visit cenm.ag/fakeflavors.

References used to create this graphic:

Braga, Adelaide, Carlos Guerreiro, and Isabel Belo. “Generation of Flavors and Fragrances through Biotransformation and De Novo Synthesis.” Food and Bioprocess Technol. (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s11947-018-2180-8.

Herman, Alison. “The Absurd History of Artificial Flavors.” First We Feast, June 12, 2015.

Mermelstein, Neil H. “Flavor Analysis.” Food Technology Magazine, Jan. 1, 2009.

Poornima, K., and Radhakrishnan Preetha. “Biosynthesis of Food Flavours and Fragrances: A Review.” Asian J. Chem. (2017). DOI: 10.14233/ajchem.2017.20748.

A collaboration between C&EN and Andy Brunning, author of the popular graphics blog Compound Interest

To see more of Brunning’s work, go to compoundchem.com. To see all of C&EN’s Periodic Graphics, visit http://cenm.ag/periodicgraphics.

CORRECTION

We updated this graphic on June 23, 2021, to correct the description of flavor molecules extracted from plants. Those molecules can be described as natural flavors under US law. The original description of them as artificial flavors was incorrect.

 

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