What is the difference between a complex seasoning, a food flavor and a complex food additive?

If the ingredients are the key to a cuisine, then the seasoning is the soul of this cuisine, a single seasoning does not meet the requirements of the people’s pursuit of excitement. At present, the catering industry mostly use high quality, high quality compound seasoning, to produce a beautiful food. It can be said that there is no composite seasoning, can not be achieved in the Chinese food industry, the food industry, standardized processes, standardized production, industrial production and industrial development.
However, behind the prosperity and thriving seasoning market, there are some discordant beats, some play a role in flavoring food additives, such as food flavors, compound sweeteners/flavor enhancers and so on have held up the “composite seasoning” banner, to play “rubbish ball “ in the form of “mixing” in the compound seasoning market, and to the identity of food products sold in the market, thus greatly disrupting the normal order of the seasoning market, and is very likely to lead to the misuse of food additives, the abuse of the problem.
Definition of the three categories of products
1. Flavors for Food Edible flavors, which are blended from various edible spices and additives licensed for food consumption, so as to achieve the effect of making food more fragrant. Observing and referring to the aroma of natural food, the equivalent spices are utilized and carefully blended to create a natural flavor.
It is worth noting that the flavor can not be used directly as a commodity for consumption, there are many varieties of edible flavors, solid flavors, including microglossy flavors, etc., will be mixed with spices and encapsulants, through the emulsification, spray-drying process to make, with the characteristics of preventing oxidation and volatilization loss, mostly used in solid beverages, spices, etc., to increase the aroma; Liquid flavors are divided into three major categories of oil-soluble flavors, emulsified flavors and water-soluble flavors, of which Oil-soluble flavors are mostly used in daily life for edible oil products and confectionery, cookies, etc. Emulsified flavors are mostly used in soft drinks and cold drinks to enhance the flavor, coloring.
2. Composite food additives due to a single food additive can not meet the requirements of food production, and composite food additives are based on a variety of food additives and food ingredients based on the nature and function of the monomer, according to the appropriate proportion of the physical mixing of food additives to effectively complement each other, and more in line with the requirements of food production can be an effective way to ensure the safety of the product, to optimize, strengthen and improve the taste of the product. Composite food additives mainly include composite sweeteners, composite antioxidants, composite gelling agent, composite bulking agent and composite color protection agent and so on.
3. Compound seasoning in recent years, China’s seasoning industry has a greater development, and compound seasoning from two or more of the seasoning compound, with or without the addition of fats and oils, animal and plant food and other auxiliary materials to take a certain manufacturing process for processing, made of liquid, semi-solid or solid products. Common composite seasonings are sausage spices, tender meat powder, lunch meat spices, sauce pig’s feet spices, hot pot base, soy sauce beef spices, air-dried chicken spices and country bumpkin spices. This kind of composite seasoning effectively promote the rapid development of the catering industry, which led to the continuous growth of the spices market.
Compound seasonings, food flavors and compound food additives analysis and comparison
Composite seasonings, food flavors and composite food additives in the production and application process is complementary, in their respective production processes to each other as the original and auxiliary materials. Such as savory food flavors, composite food additives in the production process of hydrolyzed plant and animal proteins, yeast extracts, Merad flavor enhancers, etc. are more prevalent in recent years the production process of seasonings (thermal reaction technology, biotechnology, etc.) of the product. In the production of modern composite seasonings, but also appropriate to add food flavors, thickeners, water retention agents and other food additives.
It can be seen that these three types of products are more closely linked, this paper will analyze and compare the differences between the above three types of products from the perspective of identity and difference.
1. solid composite seasonings and composite food additives, the main function of composite seasonings is to flavor, give food, dishes, special flavor. Therefore, in the compound food additives, with the role of flavoring compound sweeteners, compound marinades and loose / tender meat powder and other solid powder products are most likely to be confused with solid compound seasoning. Therefore, it seems that a wide variety of composite food additives, in fact, mainly these products are difficult to distinguish from solid composite seasonings, the following will be based on the characteristics of these products to compare their similarities and differences.
(1) the same point: solid powder
(2) the difference ① from the function of composite seasonings generally only have the role of seasoning and color. Composite food additives in addition to this, but also can have other one or more functions.
② from the composition of the composition of the composite food additives mainly composed of food additives, while the composite seasoning is mainly composed of seasonings (salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc.), spices with appropriate food flavors or flavored nucleotides.
③ from the use of limited composite food additives should be used in accordance with the provisions of GB 2760 and GB 14880, while the composite seasoning is not related to the use of limited provisions.
2. Compound seasoning and food flavoring comparison of compound seasoning and food flavoring are in the food to play the role of seasoning and flavoring, and in each other’s production process and each other for the raw materials, auxiliary materials, in addition to food flavors in the pulp (paste) and solid (powder) type products and compound seasoning in the apparent properties of the product is more similar, it is the two types of products have a lot of similarity, so the classification between each other Boundaries have been relatively fuzzy, this paper will analyze and compare from the same point, the difference between the two aspects.
(1) The same point they mainly have a solid, semi-solid / paste (paste) class, liquid form of these three products.
(2) differences in the use of methods, food flavors for concentrated products, can not be directly consumed, the amount of its use by the self-limited requirements of the control, too much or too little will directly affect the flavor quality of the added products; and composite seasonings are divided into ready-to-eat and non-ready-to-eat, ready-to-eat products can be consumed directly as a condiment without dilution.
3. Compound seasoning, food flavors and composite food additives to distinguish between the method based on the above on the compound seasoning, food flavors and composite food additives similarities and differences in the analysis of comparative research (see table below), can be derived from the three types of products to distinguish between the methods: referred to as the “three-step method”, that is, a look at the functional use, the second look at the product formulation, the third look at the method of use, the second look at the product formula, the third look at the product formula, the third look at the method of use. Third, look at the method of use.

Examples, such as: compound sweeteners only flavoring effect, but the product relies entirely on sweeteners such as sweeteners, sodium saccharin or sucralose to present sweetness; loose/tender meat powder, poultry marinade, although containing salt, hydrolyzed proteins, spices and other common flavoring substances, but the product plays a major role in the composition of the papain enzyme, nitrites, compound phosphates, and other food additives, the products mentioned above should be classified in the Compound food additives.
In addition, there are a large number of seasonings flooding the market seasoned soup, poultry flavor seasoning powder and other products should also pay more attention to fully based on the above distinction method, to determine whether the food flavors or composite seasonings.