Aroma describes the complete perceptual interplay of taste and smell of food. An aroma results when smell and flavour active substances – flavourings – meet sensory organs in our mouth, nose, and throat.

It is possible to analytically establish sometimes up to 800 potential smell and flavour active substances in complex aromas in foods. The large majority of them are, however, only present in such small concentrations that we cannot perceive them with our sensory organs. They, therefore, make no contribution to the aroma. Ultimately, the perception of most aromas is determined by a few, usually a maximum of 30-50, substances. So far, approx. 5000 flavourings have been able to be identified in nature.

Natural flavourings are substances of natural origin that exhibit aromatic properties. They are acquired from vegetable or animal sources or from microbial fermentations. For example, natural vanilla flavouring can be made from both vanilla beans and other natural substances.

Natural flavourings are usually characterised by a more lifelike taste compared to nature-identical flavourings and are also more expensive because of the use of natural raw materials. The production of nature-identical flavourings takes place by means of chemical synthesis. The final products, e.g. vanillin, are absolutely chemically identical to natural flavourings. Artificial flavourings are solely created by chemical synthesis: aroma active substances that do not occur in nature. At present approx. 400 different artificial flavourings are known. In Germany, however, only 14 of these are approved and, apart from ethylvanillin, they have little meaning in the food industry.

Flavourings are used at RITTER SPORT for rounding off or for complementing flavours that are naturally present, e.g. fruit flavourings. Since the end of 2007 we have only used natural flavourings at RITTER SPORT.