Food industry professionals can now benefit from a free educational series that guides participants through the entire lifecycle of flavor development – all led by world-class flavor experts.

Leading food and beverage flavor manufacturer T. Hasegawa USA has announced its new comprehensive program, Taste Academy, an educational series designed to lead industry professionals through the journey of developing new food and beverage flavors – from the lab to a finished product.

The online series highlights each step of flavor development from research phases to molecular science and technology, sensory analysis, applications and more.  The program serves as a free educational tool for food and beverage industry professionals, to gain a better understanding of the process involved in conceptualizing and crafting novel flavors.

“While we have developed flavors for many of the world’s top brands for decades, our clients are often interested in advancing their own knowledge of the process,” says Doug Resh, director of commercial marketing at T. Hasegawa USA. “Participants in our Taste Academy program will gain a better understanding of the art and science of flavor creation – from the physiological role of taste buds and flavor molecules to new technologies used in crafting great-tasting foods and beverages.”

Taste Academy is led by T. Hasegawa’s R&D department, which includes flavor chemists and applications specialists with decades of experience developing food and beverage flavors. The program’s curriculum provides hands-on demonstrations and presentations that examines the intricacies of flavor through five key chapters:

• Understanding Flavor: Defining the role and characteristics that flavor poses in our food and the journey that flavor takes within our body.
• Flavors at a Molecular Level: Discovering the science behind the source – how nature produces flavors naturally, and how science can replicate and refine these flavors.
• Flavor Creation: A hands-on demonstration of how flavor chemists create new flavors, along with an overview of the techniques and processes used to craft flavors.

• Sensory Analysis: Providing insights into the methods used to analyze flavor creation. From intricate physiological flavor mapping to tracking brain activity.
• R&D Department Overview: Highlighting how T. Hasegawa’s R&D team is structured and the role of these experts in making life taste better through flavor innovation.

"Understanding the basic principles of flavor science is critical to producing better tasting food and beverage products,” Resh says. “We hope that Taste Academy will prove to be a resource for food and beverage manufacturers and CPG brands looking to level-up their product development.” 

Taste Academy is free to enroll. Visitors to the site can also gain access to T. Hasegawa’s extensive library of flavor trends and expert insights – along with an overview of the company’s flavor offerings and innovative technologies.