Flavour them up! Exploring the challenges of flavoured plant-based foods

Abstract

Food flavourings are often added to enhance overall flavour experience during food consumption and their use in plant-based food analogues is crucial. The flavour sensory perception is strongly mediated by flavour–food matrix interactions. Aroma molecules establish chemical and physical bonds with lipids and carbohydrates, but proteins play a pivotal role having a strong flavour binding minimizing aroma release and quenching flavour perception. Consequently, final food quality is reduced and so is consumer acceptance. Depending on the chemical structure of the flavour and the type of protein involved, the strength of the flavour–protein binding can vary. It is of great importance to understand if this interaction remains under dynamic conditions such as the oral processing during food consumption. This review aims to gain insights into the influence of the chemical structure and physicochemical features of both proteins and flavours on the binding mechanism. Moreover, the potentiality of coupling in vivo instrumental analysis with sensory methods to study flavour release in real time is explored. Elucidating the drivers of flavour interaction with, and release from, the food matrix is essential to develop flavour solutions for the new generation of plant-based food products.