CSA Technical Meeting Highlights

Special thanks to Stephanie Bloom, Ungerer & Co., for contribtuing presentation details.

The Chemical Sources Association's technical meeting was held recently at Valley Regency, Clifton, New Jersey. Fred Kritzer and Rich Winter of Symrise (Teteboro, NJ) presented a range of materials:

1. Natural vanillin: Symvanil. FEMA# 3107. Vanillin ex. ferulic acid (from rice) gained by fermentation. Natural occurrence: vanilla, milk, strawberry, tea. Description: intensive sweet and very tenacious creamy vanilla flavor. Technical data: Purity – 99% minimum. Appearance: white to pale beige crystalline powder. Symvanil is EU natural and can be used as natural vanillin in TTB natural flavors. It also gives fixative properties to fragrances.
2. Macrolide Supra: Pentadecan-15-olide, Cyclopentadecanolide. FEMA# 2840. Nature identical. Natural occurrence: Angelica root oil, oriental tobacco. Description: Musk, perfumistic, fruity, berrylike. Use in flavors: Musk- and pearlike, berries. Purity: 98.5% minimum. Macrolide Supra is used in fine fragrances and enhances berry notes in dark berry flavors as was tasted in blueberry hard candy.
3. Rose Oxide L: Tetrahydro-4-methyl-2-(2-methylprop-1-enyl) pyran. FEMA# 3236. Nature Identical. Natural occurrence: Apricot, black currant, grape, tea. Description: Sweet, floral, metallic, lycheelike. Purity: 98% minimum.
   Rose Oxide L is an intensive green floral, rosy note that acts as a booster in mango flavors as was tasted in a mango candy tablet.
4. Methylpropyl Oxathiane-2,4,1,3: cis-2-Methyl-4-propyl-1,3-oxathiane; trans-2-Methyl-4-propyl-1,3-oxathiane. FEMA# 3578. Nature Identical. Natural occurrence: passion fruit. Description: green, sulfurous, tropical fruity. Purity: 98% minimum.
   Methylpropyl Oxathiane is a zesty citrus character booster and can boost green tropical fruit notes as was tasted in passion fruit gummy candy. It can be used in flavors and fragrances with passion fruit, grapefruit, cassis, and mandarin-tangerine profiles.
5. Filbertone: Methylheptenone. FEMA# 3761. Nature identical. Natural occurrence: Roasted filberts (hazelnuts). Description: Nut, hazelnut, roasty, sweet, long lasting. Purity: 98% minimum.Filbertone has been used to enhance the top notes of men's fragrances. It works well in chocolate and candy as was tasted in gummy candy.

Phillipe Mottay of Brechbuhler presented during the second session, discussing gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), particularly the Sniffer 9000. This instrument is used in conjugation with the GC and allows people to smell the effluent that comes off the GC column. When the effluent is released, one can identify which chemical compounds possess the odor. The GC-O, said Mottay, combines scientific response and human perception to help professionals link chemical compounds to the emotional sense elicited by said compounds. It allows us to smell the personality of the flavors & fragrances and thus identify specific chemical compounds within them. The software presented with the GC-O included a program called Nose to Text. This program helps the user to interpret what they are smelling in a more technical manner through chemical isolation and identification.