Enhancing taste to combat obesity….

Scientific American ran an interesting article about “flavor modulation.” What exactly does that mean? It means that food companies are using chemicals to make foods taste sweeter, saltier, etc. with less sugar, salt, and so on. I suppose this is the food industry’s version of the fake “new car smell” applied to “pre-owned” vehicles.

According to the article, Senomyx is manufacturing compounds that are currently used in bouillon by Nestle (and one wonders if these compounds are in Jenny Craig, too, as they are owned by Nestle). Coca Cola and Cadbury have plans to start using these Senomyx compounds in their products, too.

Looks yummy????

Senomyx has analysed over half a million synthetic and natural compounds that contribute to taste. Are these safe? According to Sciam, the quantities of these taste additives are so small that they do not qualify for the FDA’s rigorous “food additive” testing. Instead, new compounds are reviewed for safety by a panel of scientists in the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) program of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (couldn’t find an active website for this group–Karen would probably not consider that a great example of PR).

Cynics suggest the whole point of this process is to allow food manufacturers to substitute cheap ingredients for more expensive things, like sugar. On the positive side, though, safe, tasty substitutes for fattening ingredients might help the public lose some weight.

Robert Karl Stonjek, our intrepid moderator of the evolpsych newsgroup, made an interesting observation: “Senomyx is also designing bitterness blockers….That will go a long way to masking poisons, which is probably not a good thing….”

In the meantime, I tend to stick with the shopping rule that suggests you’re best off shopping the perimeter of the market. The less you go down the aisles (processed food), the healthier you’re likely to be.

Here is a list of publications at Senomyx. This might make some interesting reading for my next Sensation/Perception course.

And here are their current corporate partners.