Why Doesn’t Banana Flavoring Taste Like Bananas?
Have you ever bitten into a banana Laffy Taffy and wondered why it tastes nothing like bananas? To figure out how this works, we need to peel back the history of American and their export system.
Science of the Flavor
The main ingredient of banana flavoring is isoamyl acetate. To create the synthetic flavor, chemists took other sensory resemblances such as other fruit flavors that would become one banana flavor. However, because this is a general fruit flavor that is made with fruits besides bananas it can be applied to multiple fruits. The banana flavor resembles a banana in the US but resembles a pear in the UK. Those pears weren’t common in the US at the time the banana flavoring was created to the connection to the fruit was not made by Americans.
If past Americans linked the flavoring to banana, why doesn’t current flavorings tastes like the actual fruit? This is because the types of bananas have changed throughout the years.
The Gros Michel Banana
If past Americans linked the flavoring to banana, why doesn’t current flavorings tastes like the actual fruit? This is because the types of bananas have changed throughout the years.
The beginning of banana in America starts with a coffee planter in Jamaica who exported the Gros Michel to the US. The Gros Michel was the top banana due to its durability and scale they can grow. The Americans at that time linked the Gros Michel to the banana flavoring. However, the Gros Michel could not last forever. The Banana disease devastated banana crops and led to a resistant banana called the Cavendish. The Cavendish are the banana that we eat today and do not taste like the Gros Michel. This is why banana flavoring does not taste like the fruit.
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Zare, Mahdieh, Mohammad-Taghi Golmakani, and Alireza Sardarian. "Green synthesis of banana flavor using different catalysts: a comparative study of different methods." Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews 13.2 (2020): 83-92.
Ariaii, Peimen, Mehran Mahmoudi, and Rabehe Izadi Amoli. "The production of fruity yoghurt with banana flavor." Food Science and Technology Department of Islamic Azad University 6 (2011): 368-370.
