Exploring Tastes
The exploration of new taste sensations has always been in high demand throughout history. At Zee Flavors & Fragrances, the artistic challenge to captivate the world’s palate is what drives our passion to meet this demand. Our rich history in creating flavors for the food and beverage industries is where our passion comes to life. That flavor creation and passion for pleasing industry needs starts with our best-in-class flavorists.
Given loads of creative freedom, our flavorists develop flavors your consumers will happily welcome into their lives again and again. Whether it is a spicy, bold snack flavor that Millennials can’t stop eating or a rich, indulgent sweet flavor that will grace a new ice cream treat, our flavorists skillfully create flavors that give new meaning to handcrafted.
During the product development process, you will have direct access to our flavorists’ technical expertise – they speak your language, and are good listeners, which makes them great problem solvers. By taking the time to understand your needs, we develop flavor ingredients that are successful in a variety of formulations, and bring value with our unsurpassed level of customer service and response time.
A Little More Info On Our Flavorists And Our Processes
Meet Our Flavorists
Zee has 11 creative flavorists in North and South America, Canada, as well as 7 flavorists in the EMEA region, with more than 200 years cumulative experience. 6 of these flavors focus on savory/reaction flavor creation and the other 12 flavorist will work on sweet and beverage flavors. In the US, Zee also has 2 flavorists in training. 6 of our flavorist are certified members of the Society of Flavor chemists.
You may be wondering – how do you become a certified flavorist? Most candidates have an interest in science from biology to chemistry to food science or even culinary. The Society of Flavor Chemists requires candidates to complete a seven year apprentice program training with another certified flavorist to understand the > 4000 raw materials you can use to create flavors, apply flavors to different food stuff and determine the shelf life, understand interaction with other ingredients and there are many global regulations to learn. To confirm you validity of training, the applicant can apply to become an apprentice after 5 years in training and then re-apply to become certified after the seven years. The testing includes a section to identify aroma compounds, a written test and then completion with an interview with a panel of certified flavorists.
Zee’s flavorists work with many customers, from culinary applications like flavors for meats, sauces, dressings etc… to confections, bakery, ice creams, dairy products including creamers, yogurts… and beverages, like alcoholic spirits, beer & wine to RTD cocktails and syrups, this can also include non –alcoholic beverages like tea & coffee, juices, soda etc..
Our labs have many types of equipment to aid in development in our labs, pilot spray drying, freeze drying, parr reactors (US), ice cream makers, bakery ovens, a full culinary kitchen, these tools can be used in our working sessions with our customers upon request.
Reaction Flavor Chemistry