A Wild Strawberry Aroma for Foods from A Fungus Growing on Fruit Waste
Published:18 Nov.2021 Source:American Chemical Society
The wild strawberry is even more highly prized than its store-bought cousin because of its intense aroma and uniquely sweet taste. However, they're hard to find in the wild, so some companies make synthetic versions of this flavor. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have come up with a naturally derived wild strawberry aroma by having an edible fungus make it from waste from black currant juice production.
Often found in forests, wild strawberries are smaller than cultivated varieties, but they're bursting with flavor. And between their rarity and size, it's expensive to get a natural wild strawberry flavor -- the combination of their distinct aroma and taste -- into foods. Interestingly, some species of fungi are adept at converting plant material into pleasant odor compounds, including vanillin, raspberry ketone and benzaldehyde, an almond-like odor.