Modifying Bitterness in Functional Food Systems

Abstract

The functional foods sector represents a significant and growing portion of the food industry, yet formulation of these products often involves the use of ingredients that elicit less than desirable oral sensations, including bitterness. Promising new functional ingredients, including polyphenolics, may be more widely and readily employed in the creation of novel functional foods if their aversive bitter taste can be significantly reduced. A number of approaches are used by the industry to improve the taste properties and thus the acceptance of conventional foods that elicit excessive bitterness. This article reviews the most commonly employed techniques, including the use of bitter-modifying additives, which may prove useful for successfully introducing new functional ingredients into this rapidly growing sector.

Keywords:

• Bitterness
• functional foods
• functional ingredients
• taste modification
• bitter blockers
• polyphenolics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Sustainable Production Systems Research Program, and The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for their financial support. We also thank Dr. Paul Zelisko for assistance with chemical structure editing, and the reviewer for helpful improvements to the manuscript.