Citrus grove project yields new lemon and lime flavours
The Swiss flavour company has an agreement with UCR to analyse the flavour profiles of the fruits in its collection. Established between 1910 and 1914, the grove was initially established to develop resistant strains and to be a repository of fruit genomes. It now includes some 1000 citrus varieties, many of which are not commercially available.
The ten new lemon and lime flavours were launched last week at a seminar in Frankfurt to coincide with the FIE trade show and follow the launch of an orange collection in 2008.
The new range is called TasteTrek Lemon and Lime Collection and includes India Lime, described as having “notes of blood orange, lemon and lime candy with hints of light kiwi”;Lo Porto, which is “an exotic lemon which also has a green-fruity floral profile with hints of jasmine and candy-banana”; and Femminello, “a light, fruity, astringent lemon with a hint of sweetness and kaffirlime qualities”.
Geoff Marshall-Hill, senior flavourist, global flavour creation technology, told FoodNavigator.com that the team at Givaudan has so far analysed and tested 150 different citrus varieties.
He described a fruit’s flavour as being “like an insecticide”. It can work to stop an insect attacking the fruit.
Alternatively, it can attract creatures to it, if there is some benefit to the fruit species in being consumed. He said that the flesh – containing seeds that need distribution – is generally the attractant and can have a distinctive aroma.
The Givaudan team visits the grove six or seven times a year and uses a tool called the tool called the Virtual Aroma Synthesiser to capture and analyse the aromas into natural and naturally-derived flavours. The flavours from the fruits vary throughout the year, at different stages of maturity, and depending on climatic conditions.
The flavourists do not take the fruits away, but to create the commercially-available flavours based on the findings the company works with juice processors to extract the oils from peel and other by-products of the juicing process. Its partner processors are in China, Argentina and Florida, and Givaudan uses “local contacts to source on a sustainable level the mist constant product on the marketplace,” Marshall-Hill said.
