A computational model of flavour deposition onto food surfaces

Coating of flavours adds value and variety to foods. Uneven deposition and flavour loss from product during handling often lead to poor appearance and reduced taste of the finished product. Understanding flavour adhesion will increase the efficiency of the process and potentially enable new formulations to be developed, such as reduced fat products with high fat flavour. A model for the kinetics of flavour deposition has been developed. The model assumes that deposition depends on the concentration of flavour particles and the number of free adhesion sites on the food surface, and that simultaneously removal takes place due to collisions between particles. The model predicts that the net deposition rate is a function of the stoichiometry, i.e., the amount of flavour initially used, and the rotation rate of the drum. Experiments on adhesion in a rotating drum suggest that the form of the model is correct but that the rotational behaviour is not as predicted. X-ray tomography has been developed to quantify adhesion directly. A key parameter is the adhesion between flavour particle and food: a discrete element model has been constructed to study adhesion events and estimate parameters for the whole model.