Vanillin is the first synthetic flavor, and the synthesis process is simple, the raw material cost is low, the main synthesis methods are: microbial fermentation, enzyme synthesis and plant cell culture method.

The application of vanillin in food storage and freshness preservation

1. Bacteria inhibition
Vanillin is often combined with other anti-bacterial methods in the field of food, and vanillin has different anti-bacterial effects on different strains of bacteria.

Moon and others proved that the antibacterial effect of vanillin is related to its concentration and pH value, higher concentration of vanillin and lower pH value are conducive to improve the antibacterial effect of vanillin, and the antibacterial effect of vanillin is different for different strains of bacteria, comparing with other strains of bacteria, the antibacterial effect of vanillin is better for Escherichia coli.

Vanillin has inhibitory effect on many kinds of yeasts, high concentration of vanillin is favorable to improve its inhibitory effect, but high concentration of vanillin can not kill yeast instantly.

Composite preservation realizes the synergistic effect between preservatives (or preservation methods), and it is a generally accepted method of preserving fruits and vegetables, and the antimicrobial effect between spices often has a synergistic effect and the dosage is smaller than that of single use, for example: for the prevention of contamination by Aspergillus niger, the effective amount of bactericidal agent of vanillin alone is 0.5% (mass fraction, the same hereinafter), and the mixture of 0.05% vanillin and 0.0025% cinnamaldehyde can play a bactericidal effect. cinnamaldehyde mixture can exert bactericidal effects.

Vanillin also plays an important role in assisting bacteriostasis and sterilization. At the present stage of the production process, heat sterilization is still the most common sterilization method in juice processing, and its processing methods are generally pasteurization and high temperature instantaneous sterilization.

The traditional sterilization methods often lead to the destruction of nutrients in juice, product browning and other problems.GastSlum et al. used low-frequency ultrasonication technology, temperature and vanillin as the main research factors to investigate the inactivation of bacterial strains, the results show that: the combination of low-frequency ultrasonication technology, temperature, and vanillin effectively increased the rate of inactivation of bacterial strains, and in the temperature range of 45-55 ℃, the emergence of Inoculataceae (Listeria monocytogenes). Listeria monocytogenes (Listeriainnocua) significantly reduce the results, and this sterilization still has great research value in industry.

2. Antioxidant
The mechanism of antioxidants with similar structure is different, vanillin mainly accelerates the scavenging of free radicals through the oxidation product vanillic acid, and the antioxidant effect of vanillin can significantly prolong the shelf life of oil-containing food and mask its rancid taste.

Vanillin’s isomer, o-vanillin (2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde), has been proved to have the effect of scavenging peroxynitroso anion, but it is not a very good scavenger of free radicals.

3. Stabilization of other ingredients in food
Original Lingfang et al. orally printed vanillin added to natural flavors, proved that on the basis of not changing the chemical composition of osmanthus essential oil, vanillin effectively retarded the volatilization of osmanthus essential oil, which not only improved the quality of food, but also promoted the application of osmanthus essential oil in the field of food.

It has been proved that the reaction products of vanillin can help stabilize other components in food: resveratrol is a natural functional component, in order to improve its stability and give full play to its functional role, the reticulated chitosan microspheres formed after the reaction between vanillin and chitosan can help control the release of resveratrol; the condensation products of vanillin and amine have the ability to complex with metal ions, which can effectively improve the stability of the substances it encapsulates. improve the stability of the substances it encapsulates.

The safety of vanillin and
Problems Worth Studying in Application

Vanillin is a natural plant component and is recognized as a safer food additive. Due to the small amount of its addition in food, so far there is no report about vanillin’s harmful effects on human body.

In China, there is no restriction on the addition of vanillin in other products except that vanillin should not be detected in foods for infants and young children from 0 to 6 months of age. The safety of vanillin is closely related to its usage characteristics.

Vanillin is a natural food additive with multiple functions, such as aroma enhancement, bacterial inhibition, antioxidant and stabilization of food components, and it can play multiple roles at low doses.

Srinivasan et al. proved that vanillin is also a kind of active substance beneficial to health, and vanillin can effectively reduce serum triglyceride and triglyceride levels bound to various lipoproteins in experimental rats after daily dietary intake, and the effective lipid-lowering amount of vanillin is in line with the amount of vanillin used as a small amount of food additives added to food. Thus, the multiple effects of vanillin at low doses and its health benefits are the basis for its safety of use.

However, the addition of vanillin may also cause bad effects on the preservation of fruits and vegetables, which is a major problem in the application of vanillin and worth studying.

According to Sangsuwan et al. the VC content of pineapple coated with vanillin film stored at l0°C decreased rapidly and was lower than that of the control group. Although vanillin treatment enhanced the yellow color of pineapple, it led to the loss of nutrients while increasing the attractiveness of fruit appearance.

In addition, because vanillin itself has a strong milk flavor and is unstable in the presence of heat, adding it to food will also affect the inherent aroma of food materials.

In the production, the amount of vanillin added should be strictly controlled according to the actual situation, and the production and processing technology and operation should be strictly standardized, so as to avoid adverse effects on the sensory quality of food.

As to how to effectively avoid the problems caused by vanillin’s own characteristics, in-depth research on its mechanism of action, processing technology and other aspects is needed.