Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard
The Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard is a sensory reference tool for professionals in the food and beverage industry to identify and evaluate the intensity of acetaldehyde, a naturally occurring compound in fermented products. Acetaldehyde imparts a distinctive aroma and flavour, often described as having a bruised apple flavour or green apple-like characteristics.
Understanding and controlling acetaldehyde levels are essential for maintaining the desired bruised apple flavour and overall quality in fermented beverages. Whether you are a cider maker, brewer, or involved in the production of any fermented beverage, the Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard is indispensable in ensuring consistency and excellence in your products.
We ship globally – shipping costs may apply depending on your region
Minimum Order: £275
What is Acetaldehyde Flavour?
Acetaldehyde flavour is a distinctive taste and aroma compound naturally produced during fermentation processes. This volatile organic compound creates a characteristic bruised apple flavour or green apple-like taste that professionals in the food and beverage industry must recognise and control.
The flavour intensity varies significantly based on concentration levels. At lower concentrations (2-5 mg/l), acetaldehyde presents as a fresh green apple aroma. However, as concentrations increase (10-15 mg/l), the flavour evolves into a more pronounced bruised apple character, and at excessive levels, it can develop an unpleasant, emulsion-paint-like quality.
What Causes Acetaldehyde Flavour?
Acetaldehyde flavour develops through several mechanisms during fermentation and storage processes, such as :
Incomplete fermentation : Stressed yeast produces higher acetaldehyde levels
Poor sanitation practices increase the risk of bacterial contamination
Inadequate storage conditions : Exposure to light, heat, or oxygen
Yeast stress : Nutrient deficiencies or temperature shock affect yeast metabolism
Packaging issues : Oxygen ingress during bottling or storage
Using the Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard for Sensory Training
The Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard serves as a certified sensory reference tool for professional training programs. This standardised solution enables consistent identification and intensity scaling across different tasters and facilities.
How to Recognise Acetaldehyde Flavour : Sensory Terms
Bruised apple : The most common and accurate descriptor
Green apple : Fresh, slightly tart apple character
Solvent-like : Chemical, sharp aroma quality
Emulsion paint : Harsh, artificial smell at high concentrations
What are the Professional Applications of the Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard?
The Acetaldehyde Flavour Standard serves multiple professional applications :
– Brewmasters and beer tasters use it to identify and assess acetaldehyde levels in their products, ensuring optimal fermentation control and detecting potential process deviations that could lead to off-flavours.
– Cider makers and fermentation specialists rely on it to maintain the desired balance of apple character, preventing the evolution from pleasant green apple notes to harsh, paint-like qualities that occur at excessive concentrations.
– Quality control professionals in the beverage industry utilise it to establish acceptance criteria, monitor batch consistency, and detect fermentation issues or storage problems before products reach consumers.
– Distillers and spirits producers employ it to evaluate fermentation quality, monitor acetaldehyde development during ageing processes, and make informed blending decisions for premium spirits.
– Sensory analysts and training coordinators use it for comprehensive flavour evaluation programs, ensuring consistent assessment capabilities across different facilities and supporting professional certification requirements in the fermented beverage industry.
Other Information
– Beer Flavour Wheel Number : 0150
– Typical concentration seen : 2-15 mg / l
– Industry Standards : Recommended as a sensory reference standard by the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) and the European Brewing Chemists (EBC)
FlavorActiV offers two formulations of acetaldehyde
– Acetal-based (standard training use)
– Pure acetaldehyde-based (for advanced sensory applications)
If you need guidance on selecting the appropriate acetaldehyde version for your sensory training, contact us to discuss your specific goals and receive expert recommendations tailored to your applications.
FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards
Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.
We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.
Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.
We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.
FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.
The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.
All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.
Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.
We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.
Industry leading packaging and shelf-life
FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.
We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…
Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.
Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.
Payment & Security
Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
Receive the latest news, offers and sensory updates by signing up to our newsletter
