Improving Sensorial Qualities

Flavoring substances have a long history in food. Although they can improve the flavor of food, these flavorings have the disadvantages of being easily volatile, easily oxidized, sensitive to light and heat, and easily decomposed and lost during processing. CD-spices inclusion complexes can effectively slow down the volatility and oxidation of spices and better maintain the stability of spices, which is conducive to the improvement and maintenance of food flavor.

• For example, cinnamon leaf oil, fennel oil, and horseradish oil are easy to store after forming CD inclusion complexes, and the volatilization, oxidation, and decomposition rates are significantly reduced ^[1].

Color, as the first visual impact of food, often fundamentally determines its attractiveness. CDs can be applied to modulate food color by affecting chemical stability of coloring compounds. CD exhibits good complexation with coloring compounds such as carotene, flavonoids, and quinones and improves their chemical stability. In addition, CD can also provoke the inhibition of pro-browning polyphenol-oxidase reactions by complexing with chlorogenic acid, polyphenols, and cinnamic acid, so as to maintain the bright color of food.

• For example, three native CDs, α-, β-, and γ-CD, can usually be added to different juices to improve the color of the final product by reducing the occurrence of browning reactions ^[2].

The undesired taste of some foods may cause people to reject them. CD can selectively encapsulate substances with undesired tastes, thereby masking undesirable taste in food and helping to improve the sensory quality of food. This is because the formed CD inclusion complex avoids the direct contact between these undesired food ingredients and taste buds in the oral cavity ^{[2, 3]}.

• For example, adding an appropriate amount of β-CD in citrus juice and bitter melon juice can effectively reduce the sensitivity of the oral cavity to bitter taste. The amount of CD added varies for different types of juice. Notably, an excessive addition of CD may result in the re-precipitation of bitter components.