Teterboro, NJ, May 21, 2008 — For food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturers who are looking to hide unpleasant off-tastes associated with functional and active ingredients, Symrise Flavors provides SymLife Mask®, a new series of flavor masking solutions that come under the Get Active category of Symrise’s Taste for Life® branding platform.

SymLife Mask flavors have been effective in overcoming bitter, burning, astringent, chalky, salty, metallic tastes and a host of other off-flavors and off-notes. They can be used for caffeine, aspirin, ibuprofen, dextromethorphan, green tea, calcium, solvents, proteins, soy, sweeteners, cacao, acidic and alkaline substances, and other problem ingredients. Most importantly, they can be made to be completely neutral in taste, or incorporated into flavors.

Emmanuel Laroche, Symrise’s Vice President Marketing Services & Sensory Consumer Science North America, stated, “Masking work is highly specific. There are many bitter receptors on the tongue, and no one material can mask everything. It’s necessary to find a different solution every time a customer comes to us for a customized masking solution.”
“IT’S A BALANCING ACT THAT COMES FROM EXPERIENCE”
A balancing act - that’s how Donna Rosa, Director, Business Development, explained the SymLife Mask phenomenon. Ms Rosa reported that the challenge is to enhance the desired flavor (such as cherry) while suppressing the unwanted notes.

“We perform a complex balancing act, leveraging our vast technological expertise and creative problem-solving skills to master virtually any and all masking challenges. Our work is always specific to the taste that is being masked and also to the application and all the ingredients that the product contains,” said Ms Rosa.

She added, “Symrise has four ways to mask bitter and other off-notes. The first is a palette of raw materials (some proprietary) that have specific masking characteristics against the bad flavors, but don’t interfere with the good ones. The second is to utilize materials that maximize the impact of the desired flavor. The third involves Symrise’s famous encapsulation technology to give flavor burst, duration and stability. The fourth is our Symsate® products that can lift the flavor immediately and provide sensory effects such as mouth watering for astringent materials.”

Ms Rosa gave an example of how Symrise manages to exploit masking technology while maximizing tasteful attributes. “When we provide mouth watering ingredients to counteract chalkiness, we also build a great flavor with high impact to get the flavor into the mouth before the off-notes can be registered.”

Mr. Laroche concluded, “SymLife Mask is the umbrella for our masking technology and flavors. It demonstrates that it takes a company that really knows flavors to fully understand how to mask them.”

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About Symrise
Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances, flavorings and raw materials and active ingredients for the perfume, cosmetics and food industry. Its sales of €1.23 million in 2006 place the company among the top four in the international flavors and fragrances market. Headquartered in Holzminden, Germany, Symrise maintains a total of more than 31 sites in Europe, Asia, the United States and South America.

With over 50 registered patents each year, Symrise is one of the most innovative manufacturers on the market. Used by manufacturers of perfumes, cosmetics and foods, our products are an inseparable part of daily life. At Symrise we combine an awareness of consumer trends with cutting-edge technologies, focusing on innovative fashion and lifestyle products that have additional practical value for the consumer. Symrise – Always inspiring more…
www.symrise.com

Contact: Emmanuel Laroche, Symrise, Tel.: 201-462-2389 Email: [email protected] or
Donna Rosa, Business Development, Symrise, Tel: 201-462-5637 Email: [email protected]