The invention describes products, uses thereof, compositions thereof, and methods to prepare products formed from Maillard reaction products from a sugar donor and/or sweet tea extracts, stevia extracts, swingle (mogroside) extracts, one or more sweet tea extract components, one or more steviol glycosides, one or more mogrosides, one or more glycosylated sweet tea glycosides, one or more glycosylated steviol glycosides or one or more glycosylated mogrosides and an amine donor/reactant.

An encapsulated flavor, comprising a core material, flavor material and a coating material, the core material comprising a finely-divided native starch, xanthan gum and konjac, the combined weight proportion of the xanthan gum and konjac present in the encapsulated flavour being from about 4% to about 16%, and the relative weight proportions of xanthan gum to konjac being from about 20:80 to about 80:20. The encapsulated flavors may be completely gelatin-free, while retaining the desirable qualities of gelatin.

The present invention relates to a modified MNEI protein comprising an amino acid sequence that has two or more amino acids deletions, insertions, replacements, or any combination thereof, from a reference MNEI protein, wherein the modified MNEI protein has at least one improved food-related property compared to the reference MNEI protein; and to uses thereof in the food industry.

The present invention relates to a modified protein comprising an amino acid sequence that has one or more amino acids replacements from a reference protein, wherein the modified protein has at least one improved food-related property compared to the reference protein and to uses thereof in the food industry.

The invention describes compositions comprising glycosylated mogroside(s) or glycosylated swingle extracts and methods of enhancing the mouthfeel, sweetness or flavor of consumable products.

Stevia compositions are prepared from steviol glycosides of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. The compositions are able to provide a superior taste profile and can be used as sweetness enhancers, flavor enhancers and sweeteners in foods, beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

A steviol glycoside composition comprises one or more steviol glycosides, one or more salts, and one or more non-steviol glycoside sweeteners. The steviol glycoside composition has improved solubility and sensory profiles and may be used as a sweetener or a flavoring agent.

The present invention concerns the use of 3-(3-Hydroxy-4-methoxy-phenyl)-1-(2,4,6-trihydroxyphenyl)propan-1-one for masking, reducing or suppressing an unpleasant taste impression, preferably bitter, sour and/or astringent taste impression of unpleasant-tasting substances or mixture of substances, preferably bitter-, sour-, and/or astringent-tasting substances or mixtures of substances, and in particular the bitter taste impression of bitter-tasting substances, and/or modulating the taste impressions selected from the group consisting of cooling, umami, fruity and spicy notes of cooling-, umami-, fruity- or spicy-tasting substances or mixture of substances, and simultaneously intensifying the sweet-taste impression of sweet-tasting substances or mixtures of substances or both sweet- and bitter-tasting tasting substances or mixture of substances.

Newly identified fungal sweet-taste modifying proteins, and the cDNA encoding said proteins are described. Specifically, Myd proteins active in sweet taste activation, and the cDNA encoding the same, are described, along with methods for isolating such cDNA and for isolating and expressing such proteins. Also disclosed is use of a sweetening composition which includes the proteins of the invention, and methods to provide improved flavor to a product for oral administration.

Compositions comprising a flavor/taste modifying agent and a sweetener are disclosed. The flavor/taste modifying agent is present at an amount sufficient to enhance a flavor and/or taste profile of the sweetener in the composition.