Royal empires have been built, unexplored lands have been traversed great religious and philosophies have been forever changed by the spice trade. In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail to find seasoning.
The United States flavor industry has its roots in the United Kingdom and Europe. It was common to ship European flavors to New York City as early as 1797.
The flavor industry came together with perfume industry, subsequently moving from New York to New Jersey to gain more plant capacity.
Prior to 1850s Americans flavored their own foods and beverages using local and foreign sources of flavoring such as rum, fruit juice and spices.
By the mid-nineteenth century food and beverage products containing commercial flavors started to appear in the United States.
In 1860, the first book of artificial flavoring formulation was published anonymously in Philadelphia. This was followed in 1916 by manual for the essence industry by Walter, in which a large number of formulations for artificial flavorings were published.
Flavored ice cream was first produced commercially in 1841 in Baltimore. Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886. McCormick started selling flavor extracts directly to the consumer in 1900.
Food and Drug Act of 1906 introduced a regulation of materials to be used in the food and drug industries, and this law remained in force until 1938 when it was superseded by the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Since the end of World War II, a vast industry has risen in the United States to make processed food palatable.
Man-made flavor additives were used mainly baked goods, candies and sodas until the 1950s, when sales of processed food began to soar.
1960s and 1970s were the ‘Golden years’ of flavor research in the United States. Numerous academic and government institutions had strong flavor programs and money was readily available for flavor research.
By the mid – 1960, the American flavor industry was churning out compounds to supply the taste of Pop Tarts, Bac-Oc, Tab, Tang, Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and literally thousands of other new foods.
Flavor industry in United States
