I dolcificanti isovanillici come additivi in formulazioni alimentari

The great boost that the scientific sector has given to studying chemoreception and chemesthesis may be justified by the fact that both food and pharmaceutical industries have been steadily searching for new compounds to be used as additives and substitutes for existing molecules. In a previous study (Pagliarini et al., 2006) both the natural sweetener R-(+)-Phyllodulcin and its synthetic derivative (±)-2-(3-hydroxy-4’-methoxyphenyl)-3,1–benzoxathiane, in aqueous solution, have been found to be characterized by intense sweet taste, liquorice flavour, as well as cooling sensation, that persist over time, thus reducing their applicability in food products. It is well-known that acceptability of a given sweetener depends on affinity of its sensory characteristics for saccharose because consumers may dislike compounds, which, when added to actual formulations, may show either aftertaste or persistent excess of sweet taste. The aim of this work was to evaluate persistence over time of sensory attributes of the above-mentioned isovanillic compounds in jelly candies, by using the Time-Intensity method. In these products consumers usually like presence of sweet taste, cooling sensation and liquorice flavour, if any. In contrast to what has been observed for aqueous solutions, only sweet taste has been perceived in jellies, whereas cooling sensation resulted to be absent and flavour was not an intense flavour. This result points to the importance of investigating thoroughly the behaviour of active molecules on taste in the presence of other compounds, with particular reference to synergy and interaction, which are established when multiple molecules are used in actual product.