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13^th January
Joint meeting with BSP
Lecture: Exotic Foods – ‘A Taste of the High Life’

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! It was ordered by Council that members and honoured guests of the British societies of Flavourists and Perfumers should gather at the Novotel, Stevenage, in the county of Hertfordshire, on the 13^th day of January in the year of our Lord 2004, to sample the cuisine presented at the court of our gracious sovereign, King Henry VIII.

I was more than a little apprehensive about this year's BSF - BSP joint lecture; was it going to be dull history lesson? Would there be lots of dates to remember? Would there be a test at the end? No, no and no! This was a fascinating stuff, like no history lesson I'd ever attended, presented by J. Marc Meltonville, of the Royal Palace's Historic Kitchens Project. Much painstaking work has gone into recreating the dishes produced in the kitchens at Hampton Court Palace during the reign of Henry VIII. This includes not only the ingredients and recipes, but extends to the tools and utensils used in their preparation; even the clothing worn by kitchen staff. All are made to contemporary designs using Tudor methods and materials.

Catering for the King and his courtiers was a mammoth task, this was cooking on an industrial scale, and it was expensive. The food bill for the court could be £1000 per month at a time when the annual income for an average family was £10. The kitchens at Hampton Court occupied fifty-five rooms had nineteen departments and employed a small army of chefs, choppers, grinders and sievers.

The menus were ostentatious, intended to convey power, wealth and status, but they were also fun. Diners might be presented with oversized, edible playing cards edged with 24-carat gold leaf, dyed with saffron, sandalwood and cochineal. All washed down with spiced wine from goblets also made of sugar-plate. As Marc said at the outset, he and his fellow experimental archaeologists wanted to create living history not a static exhibition. This they have certainly done and with this wonderfully illustrated presentation, coupled with an undoubted enthusiasm for his subject, Marc brought the kitchens of Hampton Court to life for everyone at the Novotel.

19^th February
Lecture: Leadership Toolbox - First Things First!

The scene: It's Friday morning; a busy flavour executive is writing a piece for News & Views about last night's lecture 'Leadership Toolbox - First Things First!' given by Geoff Forrest and David Pybus of ALQemy Ltd., at the Novotel Milton Keynes. When in rushes Bob from marketing...

Bob: Boss, I need to see you about the copy for this ad. It's urgent!

Phone rings

Boss: (answers phone) Hi Sandra... no, but I'll see him this morning.
Bob: You haven't forgotten our meeting at 10 o'clock?

Computer beeps - you have new e-mail

Boss: No, but I've got to do my e-mails first, then call Harry and...
Bob: Watch out Boss, here comes Jo from HR!
Boss: (sighs) She wants to discuss car parking arrangements.
Bob: Must go, things to do. Don't forget about that advert, it's urgent!

Loud bang! Flash of light! Two mysterious figures appear in doorway!

First: Remember us?
Boss: You're David and Geoff from ALQemy; great lecture, really enjoyed it, but I'm snowed under, can't stop to talk.
Geoff: Time out! Don't you remember anything we said?
Boss: Let me think: first things first, important, urgent, quadrants...
Geoff: So what are you playing at? What quadrant are you in?
Boss: Four
Geoff: Doing things that aren't important, aren't urgent... where should you be?
Boss: Quadrant two... where there's vision, meaning, enlightenment, pro-activity...
David: So you did hear my wise words... what should you do?
Boss: Delegate, Prioritise, Set targets, Celebrate success ... play golf this afternoon!

We have to leave this familiar scene, but remember what the Wise Wizzard said 'Think of one thing you would do, that you're not doing now, that if you did it on a regular basis would make a tremendous positive difference to your life and... start doing it now!'

Lecture 24^th March 2004
Lecture: Multimodal Perception of Flavour

This was a lecture presentation by Dr Joanne Hort, lecturer in Sensory Science in the Nottingham Flavour Research Group, followed by a series of practical examples organised by the course students.

Historically, sensory attributes were regarded as independent of each other. For instance, sight sensation does not modulate ones sense of taste or odour and therefore the senses can be studied separately.
It can now be demonstrated that any sensation is multimodal where each sense contributes to the level of appreciation of any other sense. As flavourists we have long appreciated that the performance of any flavour is strongly dependent on the characteristics of the medium to which it is applied. This was superbly demonstrated by continuously feeding the mouth with a stream of a cola flavour in water and simultaneously varying the sweetness and acidity of the stream. When the flavour was in pure water it appeared to be weak and citrus like, whereas in the presence of sugar it became somewhat stronger and more cinnamon like. Finally when acid was added to the stream together with flavour and sugar it became a realistic cola flavour.

Joanne went on to demonstrate that hearing is influenced by sight (McGurk effect) and that sight can be influenced by brain concentration on some other event (gorilla video effect).
In the case of the perceived flavour of food, taste, aroma, mouthfeel, sight and hearing all play a part in the brain's integration of what is presented.

The effect of sight on flavour perception was amply demonstrated by the presentation of red and white wine. Most tasters were convinced that the wines were different and at least one experienced creative flavourist was quite adamant about it. All that had been done was to colour the white wine with red colour and pour it from a red wine labelled bottle.

The phenomenon of decreasing flavour perception with time was investigated using peppermint flavoured chewing gum. The concentration of sucrose in the mouth during chewing was measured together with the concentration of menthone presented to the nasal epithelium. It was shown that as the sucrose concentration decreased so did the apparent flavour perception in spite of the amount of menthone staying relatively constant.

The Flavour Research Group has identified three differing types of tasters. By dying the tongue with blue food colour they have shown a difference in tongue physiology between non-tasters, tasters and supertasters. The first group are generally not interested in food and catholic in there food choices. The latter group are extremely 'picky' about food and have strong likes and dislikes.

Finally they have looked at brain activity when eating food. They have found that when the sensory impressions are congruent there is much stronger brain activity than when they are incongruent. This tends to confirm the observation that foodstuffs where all the sensory attributes 'hang together' are much more successful in the market place than those where they appear to have conflicting characteristics.
I have tried to put together my impressions of a most instructive and interesting presentation that attempts to scientifically explain some observed sensory effects. I wish to put on record the thanks of the BSF to Joanne and her team for the wide ranging experimental part of the evening.

29^th April
Lecture: Consumer Issues in Food Allergy

A few "diehards" braved the vagaries of the M25 in the early evening to attend an informative and very interesting lecture, by Dr Susan Miles of the University of East Anglia, on food allergies and their impact on consumers. Dr Miles completed her PhD at Reading and undertook research, much of it related to food allergies, at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. She recently moved to the University of East Anglia.

Susan explained the distinction between a food allergy - the adverse reaction to food involving the immune system - and food intolerance, which is an adverse reaction to food that does not involve the immune system. They are often confused and correct diagnosis is important, especially in children and young adults. The adverse reaction occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly believes something harmless is harmful and it creates antibodies to counteract the "threat". Symptoms include tingling feeling, swelling of lips/mouth/throat, breathing problems, rashes, vomiting and in severe cases, loss of consciousness or death. Fortunately, death is very rare, but there are many ways in which they impact on quality of life.

This adverse impact on quality of life has raised the profile of food allergies as a consumer issue. The prevalence of food allergy is 1-2% in adults and around 8% in children under 3 years of age, although many children grow out of the allergy. Many common foods are sources of allergens, including cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. Therefore, consumers must be constantly vigilant when buying food items if someone in their family has allergies.

Susan then moved onto the subject of labelling, which generated a lively questions and discussion session as this has a significant impact on our industry. The EU Food Labelling Directive lists 12 sources of potential allergens that must be specified on labels of foods containing them. The definitions are vague - e.g. "wheat containing gluten or products thereof", without defining how far down the line you go with products derived from wheat. This leads to a proliferation of over-labelling on food products. "May contain" labelling (e.g. may contain nuts) is increasing significantly as manufacturers comply with the law - although potential allergens are not specifically added to the food, it may have come in contact with them at some stage. This over-use can lead to devaluation of the message and it may be disregarded.

One interesting fact is that 20-30% of the UK population perceive they have an allergy to at least one food, whereas the actual figure is 1-2%. Perhaps this explains why the major supermarket chains are increasing pressure on food suppliers to produce low allergen or allergen-free products. It really is a major consumer issue.

Many thanks to Susan for giving such a well informed lecture, even though it was to such a small audience.

Weblinks:
www.informall.eu.com A 3 year European project to provide allergen information
www.foodallergy.org

10^th - 28^th May
BSF Flavourist Training Course 2004
(Reading University)

The second British Society of Flavourists training course for flavourists was held in May 2004 at the University of Reading, School of Biosciences, in conjunction with the University. The course duration was three weeks and was attended by ten trainee flavourists from Europe and Asia.

The emphasis in the first seven days was on practically getting to know and recognise the utility of some eighty nature identical raw materials of importance in flavour creation. The delegates were expected to use the knowledge gained to create simple fruit flavourings and to demonstrate them in simple applications. In addition lectures were provided on flavour chemistry, analysis, delivery systems and practical flavour processing.

The emphasis in the remainder of week two was on natural raw materials including essential oils, oleoresins and other extracts of importance to the industry. Again the practical use of these materials in flavour creation, particularly in conjunction with nature identical raw materials, was emphasised. This week also included a visit to, and a presentation by a flavour company specialising in the cultivation and manufacture of English essential oils and extracts.

Lectures during the course were on subjects as diverse as flavour legislation, process flavour chemistry and sensory evaluation.

The delegates undertook pilot scale spray drying of two flavours that they had created.

Sensory and analytical evaluation of the results against the starting flavours demonstrated the effect of spray drying and the need to compensate for the changes that occur during the process.

Throughout the course, particularly in weeks two and three, the emphasis was on practical flavour creation and the evaluation by the group on the sensorial characteristics of the results. Guidance was provided during this time by experienced flavourists from the BSF.

Finally a written examination was taken by each candidate as part of their final assessment. All ten candidates passed with flying colours and were presented with their certificates by the Head of the School of Food Biosciences and BSF student membership by the BSF Chairman of the organising committee at a course dinner provided by the University.

We wish to thank the lecturers all of whom were either BSF members or staff in the university. We also express our gratitude to the companies who provided raw material samples and other teaching aids.

Next year's course is scheduled to start on Tuesday 3 May 2005 and can accommodate a maximum of ten candidates. If you are interested in taking part please contact Dr Richard King at Reading University (tel:+44(0)118 378 8711; Fax +44(0)118 931 0080; e-mail: R.D.King@reading.ac.uk) or Jack Knights, BSF Hon. Treasurer, (tel:+44(0)1604 412725; e-mail: jacknights@aol.com).

2^nd June
33^rd BSF Annual Symposium: Natural Extracts

Liquid and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide as extraction solvents for natural flavours
Dr. Ray Marriott (Chief Executive, Botanix Ltd.) and Mr. David Hurren (Commercial Engineering and Applications Manager, Messer UK Ltd.)

Acacia Gum a natural exudate for flavour and food applications
M. Francis Thevenet (Technical Director, Colloides Naturels - France)

The unexpected advantages of solvent-less spice extraction
Mr. Gary Hainrihar (Vice-President, Kalsec Inc. - USA)

Short-path Molecular Distillation for the manufacture of natural flavour extracts
Axel Fliedner (Engineer, Industrial Plants, UIC GmbH - Germany)

Natural Colour Extracts, past, present and future
Mr. Vince Martin (Head of Marketing, Sensient Colours Ltd.)

Botanical extracts, Flavour, Fragrance and Function
Dr. Ram Snir, Vice-President, Natural Extracts, Frutarom Ltd. (Israel)

4^th August
Summer visit to Frith Farm

About 30 members of the BSF took an afternoon off to visit Frith Farm. And what a wonderful afternoon it was; the sun shone brightly and all was at peace with the world; or so it seemed in rural Hampshire.

The visit was conducted by Jim Casson, the owner, and Mark Clinch, both BSF members, to see the facilities and working of their farm and processing unit.
We arrived at 2.30 and were greeted with soft drinks and given a summary of the programme for the afternoon. It consisted of a tour of the herb drying plant and the essential oil steam distillation facility. The dried herbs that are processed are coriander leaf, sage leaf, celery leaf, and parsley leaf (flat and curly). Also tarragon and lovage are being grown on a trial basis. In addition chamomile and lavender flowers and chamomile hay are dried. The above crops are sold as dried herbs and also used to produce essential oils in the four static steam distillation still that are on the site. In addition peppermint and spearmint are grown solely to produce the essential oils. These crops use more modern technology. They are cut and automatically loaded into tractor drawn mobile steam distillation units which when full are connected up to a stationary steam generator and condenser unit back at the main site.

We also saw some of the finished dried herbs and the essential oils that they produce. The second part of the visit consisted of the BSF party being loaded onto a trailer hauled by a farm tractor for a tour of the fields. We saw chamomile and peppermint growing by the acre (or should it be hectare) and were surprised at the extent of the fields.

At about 4.30 we all returned to the farmhouse to be greeted by Wendy Casson and her helpers for tea and home-made sandwiches and cakes which helped to while away the time necessary to try to miss the rush hour.

On behalf of the BSF I wish to express our gratitude to all the people at Frith Farm involved in the visit. It was a shame that Roger Browning who arranged the visit on our behalf was unable to take part due to illness.

22^nd September
Lecture: Savoury Bites

Having arrived early at the Novotel, Stevenage on Wednesday 21^st September for the 'Savoury Bites' lecture given by Stewart Clarke of Kerry Ingredients, I thought I would take advantage of the BSF's hospitality and have a cup of coffee before things kicked off. Getting to the refreshments proved difficult however, because a number of fellow members appeared to have beaten me to it. All were showing great interest in a table at the back of the room but, when I managed to get through the throng, I realised the attraction wasn't the hotel coffee. It was the display of snack products that Stewart had brought along; packets were being fingered and lips were being licked in anticipation of the tasting session at the end of the evening. In all there were some thirty varieties to try, ranging from traditional Ready Salted and Cheese & Onion products to the more exotic Barbeque Spare Ribs, Salsa and Guacamole flavours.

In his presentation Stewart gave a brief history of the crisp or should it be chip, since the product has its origins in New York, where in 1853 chef George Crum 'invented' the potato crisp to satisfy demands for extra thin chips from a diner in his restaurant. The product was introduced to England around 1900 by Frank Smith, but it wasn't until the 1940's that it really took off, mainly because potatoes were not subject to wartime rationing. Today there are 35 manufactures selling 8500 million packets every year, making us the largest consumers of potato crisps in Europe; on average we each munch our way through 5.5 kg of crisps per annum and to satisfy that demand the industry consumes 750,000 tonnes of potatoes each year.

The first flavoured product, Cheese & Onion, was launched in the 1960's since when ever more exotically flavoured products have been introduced; currently there are around 70 flavour varieties on the market, although Ready Salted remains the most popular, accounting for 50% of sales. Stewart discussed some of the issues facing the snack food industry, not least of which are the levels of salt used in products, there being an FSA requirement to reduce sodium levels by 40% before 2010. Other developments in the market include the use of bio-degradable packaging and the introduction of low fat and low carbohydrate products. Trends in snack flavours tend to follow those of new cuisines, with the average life span for a new flavour being approximately six months. In closing Stewart made an appeal to flavourists for some 'sparkling' new flavours to 'sex up' the savoury snacks market and lead the way in taste trends. So while you put your minds to work on that challenge I'm off to munch a pack of my favourite, Salt & Vinegar.

Thursday 2^nd December 2004
Christmas Lecture : The History & Ingredients of Gluwein

This Christmas lecture was truly seasonal, with Thomas Gebele of Destilla-Aromen (Germany) literally giving us a taste of traditional Christmas food and drink.

Thomas learned the art of distillation at Haarman & Reimer in the early 1990's and later moved into sales. He joined Destilla-Aromen 2½ years ago. He informed us about Destilla, which is a medium sized family-run business founded in 1969 in Nordlingen. In 2000, they built new production/warehouse facilities, offices and laboratories in order to grow their business in flavours and extracts.

Destilla use extraction and distillation as the main production techniques, with alcohol used as the typical extraction solvent. They also use natural liquid carbon dioxide for extractions, but this can be very expensive. Their range of products is used in a wide variety of foodstuffs and drinks.

A variety of extracts were distributed to the audience for tasting, including extract of cinnamon bark (from steam distillation), cloves and some fruit juices spiced with ginger, cinnamon etc. These are normally consumed hot.

Many foods and drinks consumed around Christmas time contain spices and are often mixed with natural extracts and distillates. Probably the most common is "Gluwein", which is a traditional Winter drink in many European countries. The UK equivalent is mulled wine, which is also spiced and normally served hot. Gluwein is commonly on sale at Christmas markets as well as being consumed at home. This tradition goes back many centuries and there are numerous recipes for gluwein. Some families make their own gluwein to a recipe for their particular taste, but more often it is bought ready-made. Typical alcoholic content is ~10%.

It is normally made from red wine with spices added, although there are a few products based on white wine. We were treated to tastings of 2 or 3 types of gluwein, which we all enjoyed.

We were also treated to some traditional German biscuits called "Lebkuchen". The origins of Lebkuchen go back to pre-Christian Europe where the Teutonic peoples prized honey cake, especially around the Winter solstice as protection against evil spirits. In the 13^th Century, this developed into a dry gingerbread cake to which spices were often added.

In all, we enjoyed the samples of gluwein and lebkuchen and went home full of Christmas spirit.