Meat flavour derives from the combinations of taste sensations as well as other sensations that are influenced by consumer food perception, such as colour, mouthfeel, juiciness, texture, and aroma.
Flavour may be regarded as consisting of taste and smell. However, eating or sensory quality is only one dimension of consumer perceived quality.
Cooked meat flavour is the result of chemical reactions that occur within and between the lipid and lean portions of meat during cooking.
The aroma flavour characteristics of cooked meats are derived from volatile flavour components which derive from thermally induced reactions occurring during heating via the four pathways including
(1) Maillard reaction of amino acid or peptides with reducing sugars,
(2) Lipid oxidation,
(3) interaction between Maillard reaction products with lipid oxidized products and
(4) vitamin degradation during cooking.
The Maillard reaction helps to explain carbonyl and amine reactions. Normally, meat cooked at a high temperature shows browning because when a free amino acid links with a carbonyl group forming glycosylamine, and when the latter is dehydrated and rearranged, it produces furanone derivatives, furfural, dicarbonyl compounds, and hydroxyketones. These compounds add flavor to meat.
Meat quality perception: Flavour
