The consumption ratio is the ratio between the quantity of a flavoring material consumed as an ingredient of basic and traditional foods, and the quantity of that same flavoring material consumed as a component of added flavorings by the same population over the same period. The first series of consmnption ratios of flavoring materials was published in 1983.
If the consumption ratio of a flavoring material is more than 1, this substance is consumed predominantly as an ingredient of traditional foods, and it can be called food predominant.
The purpose of the consumption ratio and food predominance concepts has been discussed in detail in a recent publication.
Since the usefulness of these concepts has been generally recognized, our goal is now to provide as many data as possible for the calculation of the consumption ratio for many more flavoring substances. For that purpose the International Organization of the Flavour Industry is providing financial support for the annual publication of quantitative literature data on the occurrence of flavoring materials in a dozen foods. The first report was published in 1983, the second in 1984.
